Jesus, even Borat could figure this one out.
Opinion editor of the campus newspaper at Central Connecticut State University wrote a real classy piece this past Wednesday titled “Rape Only Hurts if You Fight it.” According to the moronic author:
In actuality, rape’s advantages can very much be seen today. Take ugly women, for example. If it weren’t for rape, how would they ever know the joy of intercourse with a man who isn’t drunk? In a society as plastic-conscious as our own, are we really to believe that some man would ever sleep with a girl resembling a wildebeest if he didn’t have a few schnapps in him? Of course he wouldn’t- at least no self-respecting man would - but there in lies the beauty of rape. No self-respecting man would rape in the first place, so ugly women are guaranteed a romp with not only a sober man, but a bad boy too; and we all know ho much ladies like the bad boy.
The Thursday after this piece was published, students protested outside the student center calling for resignations of the Petroski, the author, and Mark Rowan, the editor of the paper. According to a local activist, students were also demanding public apologies from Petroski, Rowan, and the director of Student Affairs who oversees the paper, Sue Sweeney. The students also wanted a refund of all women’s student activities fees that provides funding for the paper.
Jack Miller, university president, has planned on convening a (slap-on-the-wrist) panel of student and faculty to discuss the issue but according to local coverage, no other actions have been taken. You can direct all thoughts on that to Student Activities Director Sue Sweeney (sweeney@ccsu.edu) or the faculty supervisor of the paper, Vivian Martin (martinv@ccsu.edu) or to the paper itself - ccsurecorder@gmail.com.
Feministe also covers this here.
Update:
Petroski semi-apologizes
From a column at the Hartford Courant, Rowan still doesn’t get it:
It’s amazing how everyone has the language down when they find themselves in a sticky situation. They know they’re supposed to apologize, they even know how - usually as quickly as possible.
But they really have no idea what they’re sorry about.
That became clear when Rowan wondered if maybe the piece would have been better received if it ran in the paper’s April Fools’ Day edition. At least then, he said, people would have realized it wasn’t serious.
And Mark, rape isn’t just “taboo.” It’s not just unfunny — it’s also a terrifying reality for 1 in 5 women on college campuses.
9 Comments
February 12, 2007 at 9:11 pm
There was a town hall meeting at CCSU today (2/12) to allow for students and some faculty to express grievances with the article. The student apologized for the fact that we didn’t get it — yeah, it is true. He and Mark Rowan have not yet to see the light — their actions are wrong and they need to pay for them. However, what is worse to me is that the faculty and staff advisors have not stepped to the plate — where was Sue Sweeney but in a corner laughing and yukking it up with John Petroski after the session — which was their FIRST meeting? Vivian Martin and Sue Sweeney said nothing — nothing — they will let these students, who they are charged with advising, fall on their swords? To be sure, Rowan and Petroski should fall on their swords. But the advisors should be there too.
We need outcry please! Their names are Sue Sweeney (sweeney@ccsu.edu) and Vivian Martin (martinv@ccsu.edu). Help us help the students here — make these people show some responsibility for their ill advising — how are students to learn if professors do not teach and advisors do not advise? What are the lessons here, professors?
It is a real shame to be affiliated with CCSU in any way. Let’s help the students who are seeking responsibility.
February 13, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[...] CCSU “Rape Is Magical” Issue Jump to Comments I blogged a few days ago on the ridiculous and offensive article regarding rape as a “magical [...]
February 22, 2007 at 1:27 pm
So what is everyone’s grievance witht his article? Is it only the “Ugly woman” part that you highlighted? So if he said something more about men, besides the prison rape, would that have made it better? Maybe if he just directed the whole article towards men there wouldn’t be this outcry. Who knows. I don’t think that getting raped or people who are raped as a source of comedy but if you want to make fun of the act then that should be your own freedom of speech. I mean look at Rodney King. I am pretty sure that he didn’t enjoy getting his butt whooped by cops but comedians came out with a ton of jokes about it that everyone laughed at and accepted. Should the NAACP have come out and demonstrated against all the comedians because they made a joke? Do you think Rodney King liked getting beat by cops? To the people that have been raped and found offense to this I would suggest that you seek more professional help. Obviously you still have deep emotional rifts that you will need to work through in order to function again if an article by somebody who is rather insignificant affects you this much.
The person with the sign “We deserve to feel safe on our campus”. This article will not start some Rape-Anarchy on campus. If someone wants to rape you they will try to. They won’t wait for some article to come out joking about it. Or wake up one morning, read the rape article, and just say “Man, I feel like raping someone now”.
Lastly, the only problem I have with this is he should have said it was satire. Also, a person shouldn’t apologize if they don’t mean it. We live in a country with freedom of speech and we shouldn’t have to live in fear of expressing our opinions and humor. If he said that he was going to rape someone or had a call to arms for people to start raping that would not be freedom of speech. Case in point, you can’t yell fire in a movie theatre and claim freedom of speech, but you can joke around about a fire. Hell you can joke 911, people may not find it funny but its your freedom to do so.
February 22, 2007 at 1:35 pm
***Correction*** Last paragraph
Lastly, the only problem I have with this is he should have said it was satire. Also, a person shouldn’t apologize if they don’t mean it or be bullied into apologizing. We live in a country with freedom of speech and we shouldn’t have to live in fear of expressing our opinions and humor. If he said that he was going to rape someone or had a call to arms for people to start raping that would not be freedom of speech. Case in point, you can’t yell fire in a movie theatre when there is no fire and claim freedom of speech, but you can joke around about a fire. Hell you can joke about the 9-11 incident, people may not find it funny but its your freedom to do so.
I also like the way they tried to fix the problem, lets fire the guy and put a woman on the opinion piece (by the way this is sarcasm). That will make it better. Maybe instead of trying to divide the sexes or appeal to one side, they should put a man and a woman to do the opinion piece together. The world still doesn’t have a decent fix to any of its problems besides trying to sweep them under the rug
February 22, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Well, Pablo, first of all, I think we can both agree that as satire, this piece was pretty lame. Who thinks rape is funny? Do you?
I can guarantee you that women do not think rape is funny. I think that writing like this (”satire”
promotes a culture of acceptability around the concept of rape - that it’s kind of funny (especially if it’s an ugly girl getting raped!), definitely something you can talk about with your dudes, and commit behind closed doors. That is woman-hating, my friend.
Yes, we do live in a culture with the right to free speech. But I would be the first to protest KKK hate speech, or republican banter for that matter. Even if we have the right to say what we want, it doesn’t protect us from the consequences of being insensitive and sexist. So frankly, if you want to write some dumb shit about rape and think it’s funny, you SHOULD live in fear, because there are going to be a lot of people who are rightly pissed off that they can’t live their day to day lives (much less work through their past) without being in fear of a general rape-culture.
As far as this specific case, yes I do think that the editor and writer should be fired because the funds for their positions and their paper are coming from the very women they are helping to victimize. Their “freedom of speech” should not come at the expense of the women on campus.
February 23, 2007 at 1:49 pm
There are more comedy type movies than I can count about men who “drop the soap” and almost get raped(Half Baked) or are raped (School for Scoundrels) Where is the outcry that this promotes a culture of acceptability of the concept of rape being funny. What everyone seems to be ignoring is the fact that because this author mentioned “Women” in his satire there was a backlash from mostly everyone. If he never mentioned women and focused on men there wouldn’t have been the same public outcry. Everyone who keeps mentioning this article always points out the women points, but there is one about prison that no one points out. So don’t say that women don’t think rape is funny, they just don’t think rape against women are.
Who are we to tell people what they should and shouldn’t think. If you think its not funny and want to protest thats ok, but don’t try to change people’s mindset just because you don’t like it. They should “live in fear” because they have a different opinion? Why? Are you saing that he should fear not having friends or are you making a call for action to do something to him? I think we should all be fearful the day that we have to watch our backs because we made a comment that someone doesn’t like.
The way things are going, 1984 isn’t too far around the corner
March 21, 2007 at 12:05 pm
It is not funny at all some women get hurt so bad that they can not have any children. why? do men do things like that. what? do they get out of doing that. Some men kill women after they rap them because they think that they can get away with if, but they never do unless the women don’t tell. So what i want to say to yall women out there is to be safe and start keeping a weapon with you so that you can protect your self.
April 10, 2007 at 6:42 pm
i think a better title would have been “it isn’t rape if you shout ’surprise!’ the author really missed a trick there….
January 16, 2008 at 3:36 am
Men are disgusting animals; whom should have been left behind on account of their evolutionary failure. Are you that; stupid guys? Do you need everything written out for you on paper for it to make sense??? Go back to your cave men friends and enjoy being what you are. An inconvenience to society! You fucking asshole.
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