I am writing this in response to the incident between Theta Delta Chi and Kappa Kappa Gamma last week and the article in last Friday's issue of The Dartmouth ("Kappas accuse Theta Delt of harassment," Aug. 3).
I am troubled by what occurred on Wednesday night and I am upset by what I read on Friday. First, Kappas were harassed by Theta Delt, this is not debatable. The fact that the article in The Dartmouth was entitled "Kappas accuse Theta Delt of harassment" is incorrect. By titling the article like this, blame is placed on these sisters for something they should have never experienced. These women are not sluts, bitches, or whores; they are far from that. Each and every one of them deserves to be respected and has the right to feel safe on this campus. And from what I have heard and what I can imagine, many of these women did not feel safe on Wednesday night.
Hearing and reading about this incident has prompted me to ask a number of questions. Why did these brothers think it was acceptable to scream and throw things at these women? As far as I can see, no adequate explanation for their actions has been given. The fact that "the guys were all hyped-up and very testosterone-filled" is not an excuse. When did behavior like this become legitimate? I must ask, why were some of you too drunk to behave? And why when intoxicated do incidents like this one become excusable? Furthermore, for the brothers who were not actually yelling obscenities and who were not bursting with testosterone and weren't drunk, you all are at fault too. Why was this not stopped before it got so out of control? Not to single you out, Ben Beisswenger, but you claim you were in your room when this was going on, well why did not you stop your brothers from acting so inappropriately? You have done a great job identifying the problem of the "Dartmouth Man," and you claim you are "trying to fix" your frat's history, well why did not you do anything to stop your brothers?
We are wrong in thinking "the incident is over and it has been handled." This was not an isolated incident; harassment and assault happen to individuals regularly on this campus. If nothing is done to reconstruct the idea of the "Dartmouth Man," then this debauchery will continue. If we simply glaze over the fact that women on this campus were verbally assaulted then this behavior inevitably becomes acceptable.
I genuinely hope that the sisters of Kappa stick to their pledge to not "step foot in Theta Delt for the rest of the term." In fact, I hope other students, both men and women, and not just these sisters, decide to do this as well. We need to take action against these brothers, and since the "have a cupcake" type events have been deemed "stupid" by these men who would do a thing like harass their peers, we need to try something more effective, and I think Kappa's idea is a great one. However, it will be completely worthless if it is not upheld!
We all need to question what goes on in these fraternities. It is troubling to think that the "Dartmouth Man" cannot figure out how to act like a good person. And since men arrive at Dartmouth "unsure of how to act or speak to women", we really need to do something to make sure these vulnerable men are not bombarded with the hyper-masculine, testosterone-filled male ideal. Maybe the men who struggle with this should try some other social practices besides drinking themselves into oblivion and then disrespecting their peers. Hopefully this will spark someone's attention and we can start talking about the problems that surround us when we go out, drink and then make these mistakes.
