Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Feminism

Published on October 4, 2004 By Gideon MacLeish In Current Events

More than 1/3 of traditionally all female Wells college's students are currently camped out in the lobby of the school's administration building, or on the lawn outside. At issue is the board of trustees' decision to admit men to the college next year.

Feeling that males will dominate the class, and that "coeducation silences women", the protestors say they will protest until the board reverses their decision.

In my opinion, this is the 21st century equivalent of Martin Luther King walking up to George Wallace and DEMANDING "separate but equal" education for African-American students. The statement that these women are making is that women are intellectually inferior, and that admitting males to the campus will only prove it.

Pardon me, but isn't that the OPPOSITE of what the feminist movement set out to portray? Haven't they demanded for, and rightfully received, admission to all male colleges (I've got news for women; men act quite differently in the presence of women as well, so the arguments used to preserve all female colleges could equally be applied to all male colleges).

Have these women considered the implications of leaving a single sex campus for a boardroom that consists of both genders, or do they intend to continue their discriminatory practices beyond academia and into the corporate world? Have they considered the harm they are doing to the very laws they are trying to preserve in potentially setting court precedents upholding the right to a single sex academic environment?

Frankly, I think these women are showing poor judgement and creating potential conflict out of an issue that was bound to be brought up in litigation sooner or later anyway.

signing off,

Gideon MacLeish

Comments (Page 1)

on Oct 05, 2004

Oh man. Fairness is a two way street. They demended access to ex-all male schools and now they want to deny men access to all-female schools?

Angloesque

on Oct 05, 2004

Um, I'm going to take issue with this one, partly for fun and mostly because I'm serious.

1. Not wanting men in their school doesn't necessarily mean they want women in men's private school. That's a logical fallacy. I'd hazard a guess that if you belong to a single-sex educational institution, you respect others' rights to belong to one as well.
2. There are single-sex colleges and prep schools that are alive and well, and as long as they're private institutions, they're entitled to stay that way.
3. These women are protesting a heritage that is ending. They have every right to disagree with a board's decision--hell, I think I was in a college sit-in at one point.

Now, to their posters. First I would bet that there are a bunch more posters than the two Gideon's posted and I read about in the AP article--these two are particularly flamboyant and, of course, catch the media's eye. Second, "coeducation silences women" is unture--but moving from an all-female to a coeducational college does change the dynamics. Wells is pretty well known for putting out intelligent women--that's the heritage. Now that's going to change and it'll become just another prestigious private college. Not bad, but a change. Third, the whole "Males will dominate the class" or whatever that argument is, that's just stupid, so I agree there. Fourth, their method of protestation is a tried and true way of getting attention--which is what they're going for.

Finally, I entirely disagree that "the statement that these women are making is that women are intellectually inferior, and that admitting males to the campus will only prove it." Here's what the Wells College president has to say about womens' colleges: Basically, out of the sixty to seventy womens' colleges in the U.S., they
* Report greater satisfaction than their coed counterparts with college in a variety of measures - academically, developmentally, and personally.
* Have more career success; they are happier, tend to hold higher positions, and earn more money.
* Develop measurably higher levels of self-esteem than women at coeducational colleges. Indeed, after two years in a coed school, many women have lower levels of self-esteem than when they entered
* Participate more fully in and out of class.

So by admitting men, the women are facing a decline in these issues, which is, ultimately, that their chances of success go down by going co-ed (this conclusion drawn from what they're told in and about the college). That's what they're protesting, and what they have every right to protest.

-A.

Abe Cubbage

on Oct 05, 2004

I'd hazard a guess that if you belong to a single-sex educational institution, you respect others' rights to belong to one as well.

And that's a "human condition fallacy"--assuming that humans are logical. If they were (logical) we wouldn't have the saying "that's like the kettle calling the pot black".

* Develop measurably higher levels of self-esteem than women at coeducational colleges. Indeed, after two years in a coed school, many women have lower levels of self-esteem than when they entered* Participate more fully in and out of class.

These two points support the idea that women are inferior to men and need a seperate school to hide that fact.

oneofus

on Oct 05, 2004

These two points support the idea that women are inferior to men and need a seperate school to hide that fact.

Well, no, it just show they are different. Like, You wouldn't put lambs and wolfs in the same cage if you want both to grow and develop. And youu cannot say lambs are "inferior". As an average, a wolf could kill a lamb without much problems, but does that makes a lamb inferior? Is Stepehen Hawkings 'inferior' to Mike Tyson?

So, I agree with Angloesque. I also like my toilet to be "men only", I like to eat in a restaurant where they don't let various riff-raff in, and my state doesn't like refugees and politic asilants. We are all chauvinists and hypocrists if you look at it that way. But we all have the right to choose. And as far as we are not hurting anybody (are there males clamoring to be let in theri college?), we are not doing anything wrong.

Champas Socialist

on Oct 05, 2004

I am a feminist but I disagree with the position of the feminists you speak of (assuming you are not misrepresenting them).

Champas Socialist

on Oct 05, 2004

Looking at the responses though Gideon, you are misrepresenting them and they may have a point.

Gideon MacLeish

on Oct 05, 2004

Champ,

Frankly, no they don't have a point. NOT ONE Women's group has stood up and defended the "tradition" of all male universities.

Abe Cubbage

on Oct 05, 2004

Well, no, it just show they are different.

Good point.

citahellion

on Oct 05, 2004

So since women report better results from attending all-female schools, what studies have been done on men who attend all-male schools?

Dr Guy

on Oct 05, 2004

1. Not wanting men in their school doesn't necessarily mean they want women in men's private school. That's a logical fallacy. I'd hazard a guess that if you belong to a single-sex educational institution, you respect others' rights to belong to one as well.

They should have thought of that (or their mothers as the case may be) before the forced the Citadel and VMI into coeducation. I guess the feminist just did not think their actions through to their logical conclusion.

Dr Guy

on Oct 05, 2004

Well, no, it just show they are different. Like, You wouldn't put lambs and wolfs in the same cage if you want both to grow and develop. And youu cannot say lambs are "inferior".

Actually, they are. In the Darwinian sense. But you are comapring apples and oranges. Women are homosapiens, and men are homosapiens. try comparing female lions to male lions, or the same sex of the same species.

Your analogy only propigates the myth that women are inferior. We are not talking the olympics here, but a classroom setting.

For the record, I support single sex instutions. However, I support both Male and Female ones. So Champ, the femist are failing just as they failed during the Clinton administration. The sad fact is, they are no longer a valid advocacy group. They are merely a democrat puppet.

on Oct 05, 2004

But you are comapring apples and oranges. Women are homosapiens, and men are homosapiens.

Indeed. You just can't compare 2 of different species to 2 of same species. The analog is flawed.

I don't support or not support uni-sex colleges or anything. It don't matter to me at all.

Abe Cubbage

on Oct 06, 2004

Angeloesque's anology is flawed, but her point is not. Men and women are different in many significant ways.

on Oct 06, 2004

Sure there is some differences, but so what?

Respect is a two way street. so does fairness.

How long will your friend be friend if that person accepts your gifts but don't give you any at all "because guy don't like giving gifts"?

Those feminist ladies men to allow women to formerly all men only places, now they want to REFUSE men entry into ladies only areas? (No, I'm not talking about restroom)

shadesofgrey

on Oct 06, 2004

forced the Citadel and VMI into coeducation

I am ducking as I write this as I can already see things flying at my head; but there is a significant difference between the two cases.

For starters, both VMI and the Citadel are public institutions, funded by tax dollars. Moreover, they are military institutions with no female equivalent--and when they did create the female version it wasn't as prestious or reknown as the original. In fact, the Supreme Court ruling declared that the female version of VMI's "student body, faculty, course offerings, and facilities hardly match VMI's." Both the Citadel and VMI were in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment: No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Private institutions, such as Wells, are not in violation of this because they are not receiving "State" money.

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