To the Editor:
When I first saw the pornography published in Uncommon Threads, I knew something was amiss. Then when our protests were ignored and eventually our e-mails left unanswered by the outgoing administration, I began to wonder what was going on at good old Dartmouth College. A simple "We're sorry -- it was wrong, the person in charge will be reprimanded," and I might have gone away -- but the defense of this material and the ridiculous guidelines developed by College Committee on Student Organizations regarding student publications only fueled my interest.
Who were these people who could commit, if not a crime, then a vulgar offense against the community and get away with it? The Women's Studies Department arrived on campus after I left -- but my interest was piqued -- after all, I'm a woman, too. So I dove into their website, checked out their course offerings, their syllabi, the books they were reading, even their discussion groups. What I found was really not an academic discipline but a one-sided promotion of radical feminist policy. Under the guise of intellectualism and "tolerance,"one group of women's views are presented, while another group of women's views are not only ignored, but derided.
If this is a true academic discipline (which I question) and not just a political/cultural platform, then where are the books by Christina Hoff-Sommers, Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge? Why not include Robert Bork's excellent book, "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" which examines another point of feminist view -- that of the equity feminist. If they see fit to sponsor the visit of a porno artist like Holly Hughes, surely they should sponsor visits of other prominent women, like Jeane Kirkpatrick.
As a woman (and a gender, too), I ask the administration to remedy this situation. If this is a true academic department in which the pursuit of knowledge of women is the end, then, if we must have "Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies," we must also offer "Heterosexual Sex 101" or "Family Values."
