Nina Maja Bergmar '11's "Peace, Love and Respect" (Sept. 29) is an exercise in self-righteous writing, succeeding only at browbeating and berating its audience into anything but agreement with the premises of the piece.
Far be it from me to deny that sexism remains a problem at Dartmouth -- it is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. But sexism and bigotry are incredibly complicated issues that can hardly ever be solved with simplistic solutions like those espoused by Bergmar. A more diverse social scene that allows people to choose where they interact is infinitely more preferable to Bergmar's suggestion that we subject every Dartmouth student to the same kind of brainwashing we were treated to about alcohol use.
Bergmar correctly notes that our social spaces are dominated by a fraternity-oriented culture, something I don't always find very appealing. I don't even plan on rushing. But as an economics or game theory class might tell you, when the fraternity system has a monopoly on the social scene, it is a given that the social culture will be incredibly biased in favor of the frat boys.
The solution is to create competing social spaces, and I think expanding the sorority system presents the best option. The College moratorium on the formation of local sororities prevents the expansion of female-controlled social spaces, simply because most national sororities are dry. Having been to a couple of local sorority parties myself, I enjoyed them as much as any fraternity party, and I think a more vibrant and diverse Greek system would go a long way toward balancing out sexist tendencies in our social interactions.
The fact is, human beings respond to incentives. Frat boys want to have sex with girls. Right now, girls have to go to frat boys' basements if they want to have a drink, dance a little and play pong. If they had an alternative where they weren't treated like pieces of meat -- assuming that is a major concern for them right now -- they would flee the frat basements. Frat boys would either have to meet women in neutral and female-dominated social spaces or entice the girls to return to the frats by adjusting their own attitudes to be more in line with what women want.
A frat boy will not care if you make him sit through a thousand women and gender studies classes, just as binge drinking remains a problem in spite of our mandatory alcohol education classes. Cut off the frat boy's supply of willing women by giving them other social options, and he will be more than willing to change his attitude towards them.
Bergmar seems positively naive in her belief that mandatory classes on gender studies will somehow magically change sexist bigots into reformed feminists. (Let's ignore the insinuation that her definition of gender discrimination encompasses jokes like "That's what she said." I guess all of us fans of "The Office" are just chauvinist pigs.) She suggests that classes on sexist stereotypes and holding discussions between people of different genders will somehow force people to change their minds. You can't hold a discussion at gunpoint; you can't expect people to have an open mind if you are forcing them to listen. Surely Bergmar remembers that one of the hottest topics on the '11 Facebook group was how to circumvent the need to actually pay attention to AlcoholEdu. If binge drinking persists in spite of repeated lectures and repeated mandatory classes, so will sexism.
I don't think my proposal of promoting diversity in the Greek system and competition amongst different kinds of social spaces will be a panacea for the age-old problem of sexism and discrimination. But I do think it will be more effective -- and more respectful of our rights as maturing adults to decide on our own beliefs and to choose our social scene -- than will Bergmar's naive suggestion that we simply force everyone into what can only be described as brainwashing.The Dartmouth community deserves better.
