To the Editor:
In his Random Thoughts editorial entitled "Are You Nuts?" [The Dartmouth 8/17] Roy Lee '00 urges the Dartmouth community to condemn the president because of his "bad taste in women." He suggests that, if a man who "can have anybody he wants" dates a woman deemed "chunky and ugly," then he is "stupid" and undeserving of respect.
Rather than use up too many precious column inches parsing Lee's various insulting and callous assertions, let me point out three things. One, women are not objects to be "had," picked over like fruits and vegetables, or displayed as trophies. Two, attitudes like Lee's about body shapes, sizes and features are exactly the kind of small-minded (and culturally-biased and hurtful) nonsense that underwrites the denigration of women, our widespread self-esteem struggles, and the very real and dangerous compulsory thinness that causes eating disorders. Three, it's not good for (straight) men, either, to buy into these notions, since it precludes their building relationships with women based on something other than fleshly accordance with an ideal, like, say, mutual interests.
I'd suggest that what's "hideous" is not this young woman's appearance but our culture's investment in valuing some bodies and not others. What's "stupid" is our tendency to cherish some features and not celebrate the wonderful variety of the human form. Indeed, we should be critical of adulterous or deceitful behavior on anyone's part, but, please, let's use a bit of critical and caring thinking as we do so.
