To the Editor:A lot of articles about the "womyn" stickers that were put up around campus two weeks ago made their way into The Dartmouth's pages last week. I would like to respond to the opinions expressed by Dan Richman and Rachel Rochat. While Richman and Rochat write from different perspectives, they agree in many ways. It is on the ways in which they overlap that I would like to focus.
Rochat writes that she supports the women's movement (that is, the movement with an 'e'). She calls the women's movement a success because, she says, it allows her to play varsity ice hockey and ride her motorcycle without being harassed. I am thankful that we have made the steps that we have and I am glad that Rochat feels safe and comfortable on this campus. But I cannot understand why she attacks the women who do not, the women who feel that we still have a long way to go, the women who refuse to be part of Richman's silent majority, where silence indicates that everything is okay. The women who put up those stickers wanted to tell this campus that everything is not okay. And as the debate heated up over the stickers it became markedly clear that they were right.
Richman never states that he supports a feminist movement. He believes in the rule of the complacently silent majority, of which he is a member of long standing. He cannot possibly understand these women's rage and bitterness, so instead he discounts it entirely. Why should he try to understand it? For Richman, admitting that these women have a legitimate point would shatter his world where everyone is happy, white men are in power, and the others just shut up and pretend not to see.
He has a disciple in Rochat. She blatantly ignores the larger picture. She makes a big mistake in supposing that her small victories translate into gender equality and, in that way, she is an even bigger threat to the women's movement than Richman.
If we accept their argument that the stickers constitute "vandalism" then we must conclude that what the women did was wrong. We do not need Richman and Rochat to tell us that and furthermore, that is certainly not the point. They also believe that "vandalism" does nothing to promote women's rights or the movement but only succeeds in alienating potential allies from the cause. In this way, they are both wrong; in fact, they prove themselves wrong. The women who put up those stickers got exactly what they wanted: people are talking about it. Richman and Rochat are writing about it in the pages of The Dartmouth. People on this campus are wondering why spelling 'womyn' with a 'y' makes them so angry. People are talking about the most effective way to run a movement. Women are reflecting on what they have gained and what they desire. And men are thinking about why these women make them so scared.
I am proud of the women who put up those stickers. Proud of them for knowing that sometimes only the extreme brings about change. Proud of them for saying that silence is unacceptable, that being able to ride a motorcycle is not enough, that the fight is a long way from over. They are the women at the front, battling the enemy head on.