Last Friday morning, I opened my BlitzMail account and engaged in the common Dartmouth ritual of checking Weekend Update. Eager to find out what events had been planned for the holiday weekend, I scrolled down the message, noting speeches, sporting events and parties. What I did not expect, however, was the offensive nature of the Update's joke.
The joke, recounting a sexual exchange between a prostitute and a koala bear, defines the koala as an animal that "eats bush and leaves. " With its implied double-entendre, the punch line effectively reduces the woman to the sum of her body parts. And, in doing so, the joke is representative not only of an individual case of inappropriate humor, but, more importantly, of a disconcerting trend as to what kind of language and behavior is considered acceptable on this campus.
Though I am certain that I was not the only one concerned by the Weekend Update joke, my instincts also tell me that to many, its language was unalarming, familiar and even funny. It is the sort of talk that has gone on among some Dartmouth men for decades -- at Wednesday meetings, in dorm rooms and, occasionally, over dinner in Food Court. It is a part of our campus dialect of Dartspeak that has infiltrated our culture and, in some ways, defined our community.
Clearly, the appearance of the Weekend Update joke is not an isolated example of this kind of speech. Rather, it is symptomatic of our apparent collective willingness to tolerate the degradation of women. It is the public and printed crystallization of the ghosts of sexism which have haunted this College for 25 years. And, though these specters seem to have dissipated with time and the energies of students and administrators alike, it is often difficult not to question progress when these old ghosts seem to lurk among us, in sexual jokes and innuendoes. It is also hard not to wonder if Dartmouth has somehow changed our standards since matriculation.
What if such a joke had appeared in our hometown newspapers, just below the local basketball schedule or an announcement of the high school play? How would each of our hometown communities have reacted?
The way we, as students, respond to such humor is indicative of our attitudes and social norms, what we deem acceptable and what we feel obligated to speak out against. It has often been said that society allows infinite aggressions under the guise of humor. Perhaps, in this academic year, when concerns have been raised as to the College's relative responsiveness to sexual assault cases, it is time to examine the tacit agreements that underlie our acceptance of the jokes we find funny, time to reassess our community norms.
Though the old adage goes, "actions speak louder than words," one must not forget that words themselves have the power to speak with force and authority. Student publications, whether printed or distributed via BlitzMail, have the potential to influence thousands of undergraduate students. And, while I by no means advocate censorship or the preservation of so-called "p.c." sensibilities without thought or discussion, I do think that this influence is one to be handled with caution and sensitivity. Reducing women to their body parts can lead to the kind of desensitization and dehumanization that makes sexual assault appear socially acceptable.
Over the past 12 months, this campus has faced a number of challenges, as the discussion of stereotypes and objectification has cut across lines of race, gender and sexual orientation as well as organizational affiliations. Still, it is clear that some changes are slow in coming. The appearance of a sexist and demeaning joke in last week's Update serves only to underscore this point.
In the end, it is both unfair and ineffective to place blame on one individual or one joke. As members of the Dartmouth community, each of us is ultimately responsible for defining him or herself and for speaking out against violations, verbal or otherwise, of the principles which hold us together.
