For a campus that has been traditionally seen as male-dominated, Dartmouth's ranking as an anti-male school was surprisingly accepted without much uproar.
Yesterday's panel discussion at Sigma Nu on "Is Dartmouth Anti-Male?" attended by about 30 students -- overwhelmingly Greek house members -- was intended as a response to a recent article in Men's Health magazine. The article cited Dartmouth as one of the ten most anti-male schools in the country.
The event -- arranged as a presentation by panelists to be followed by a general discussion -- seemed to not answer the question "Is Dartmouth anti-male?," but instead favored a debate about the Greek system and gender relations according to many who attended the forum.
"I was sure I would hear something about male-dominated majors, women's studies programs, WISP, social relations, dating, homosexuality ... instead we seemed to avoid the issue by reverting to our comfortable tiff over Greek life," said Jana Schaich Borg '02.
The panel presentations began to examine the implications and faults of the article, which ran: "Dartmouth used to be a bastion of bright, rugged beer drinking guys ... today it's the kind of place where someone feels free to scrawl 'frats rape' in chalk on a sidewalk."
Frank Yoshida '02 -- summer president of Sigma Nu fraternity and a member of the panel -- noted "we often forget about how Dartmouth is changing ... the disappearance of beer guzzling frat men isn't necessarily male-bashing."
The overwhelming problem the panelists cited in the article dealt with the criteria used by the magazine -- among them were the strength of the women's studies program, the sexual harassment policy on campus, the number of male sports that have been cut due to Title IX and the schools' position on fraternities.
"The article upheld the traditional male point of view. It decided what it thought white, straight, upper class males want. A lot of it is what they 'consider' to be male. It never addressed race or gender issues," said panelist Grace Leslie '02, head of the Women's Council.
"Why does this have to be a zero-sum game? The article was belittling to men. I would have been just as offended reading it as a guy," she added.
A concern that was raised numerous times during the forum was the article's insistence on strong women's programs as necessarily detrimental to men.
"Why does being anti-male mean being pro-female?" said Leslie. "Why is what's male or female defined in term of the other sex?"
The panelists also focused heavily on the criterion concerning the severity of punishment for sexual crimes. The Men's Health survey noted that one guideline used for rating a school as anti-male was "No silly rules. No speech codes. No sex codes that redefine rape so that all men are guilty."
"The very fact that rape is even mentioned makes the article itself anti-male," said Rebecca Molinoff '02, a member of the Women's Council. "People act according to a standard of respect for everyone. This criteria should offend people equally, it should offend both males and females."
"The term 'rape' is continually being redefined. To close off the discussion and the definition is wrong," Molinoff said.
Another anti-male yardstick according to the article was "Great academics. Strong programs, especially in the fields of keen interest to men -- math and hard sciences, computer engineering."
"Why is it so horrible or strange that men might be interested in taking a Women's Studies class? Why is tradition the only real option for male-friendliness?" said panelist Heather Wyckoff '02, who is secretary of parliamentary debate at Dartmouth.
The discussion following the panelists' presentation shifted focus. Rather then emphasizing the faults of the article, the conversation centered on the role of the Initiative in the anti-male feelings on campus, and on gender relations and the Greek system at the College.
Many men in the audience mentioned that they felt the Initiative and the move to decreasing the influence of fraternities on campus was an attack on men at the school, responding with an overwhelming "Yes!" when asked if being anti-Greek necessarily meant being anti-male.
"The more traditional image -- 'boys being boys' -- is one of the main things being attacked," said Yoshida.
Issues not involved in the Greek debate, such as ones initially cited by the panelists, were overlooked in favor of issues surrounding male social dominance on campus.
"I felt like the discussion today skirted the issue people were there to discuss. Instead of exploring student thoughts and reactions towards gender relations on this campus, the discourse glued itself to the common debate about our Greek System," Schaich Borg said.
"I was disappointed that I didn't hear more about whether or not students feel that Dartmouth is actually single-sex dominated and I was angry that neither the girls or the guys in the room would bring up any other inequalities or stereotypes that propagate on our campus," Schaich Borg added.
