Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was recently the scene of a
forum on misogyny
titled “Transforming our campus and strengthening our community.” The
discussion, hosted in part by the Canadian university’s Gender and Women’s
Studies Program, and featuring a panel of professors and local “gender justice”
activists, gave rise to solutions that are as sexist and racist as the problems
they claim to be addressing.
What seems to have sparked the forum’s focus on misogyny is a scandal
involving the Dalhousie dentistry school, whose Class of DDS 2015 Facebook page
(which seems to have been taken down) reportedly featured sexually explicit
posts from some male students, such as voting on which woman they'd like to
have “hate sex” with and jokes about using chloroform on women. While this was
highly inappropriate to say the least, the forum participants seemed oblivious to
how inappropriate it would be to respond by punishing all male students at
Dalhousie by essentially sending them to the back of the bus.
Jacqueline Warwick, professor of musicology and former coordinator of
Dalhousie’s Gender and Women’s Studies Programs, offered up the not-so-subtle suggestion,
for example, that teachers combat misogyny in the classroom by refusing to call
on the male students first, thus encouraging more participation from the females.
In other words, Warwick’s solution to misogyny is misandry.
“I do think, in general, there are a lot of studies that indicate women,
girls are socialized not to speak first,” Warwick said. “And so to make a
conscious rule, a deliberate rule that is explicit, that ‘no, men are not
allowed to speak first,’ is certainly a strong way of addressing that issue,
but one that will at least get people thinking about it,” she mused. “That’s
already some progress, I believe.”
This is anything but progress, of course, but she is correct that it will
get people thinking about it. What reasonable people will think is that treating
men like second-class citizens in the classroom is discrimination and bigotry, and
that it will exacerbate the widening gap between female academic achievement and
male academic failure. But because it is directed at the perceived white male
patriarchy, progressive academics firmly believe that this is acceptable gender
justice in action, and a step closer to their dream of a utopia through totalitarian
social engineering.
Jude Ashburn, who identifies as a “non-binary trans person” and is an
outreach coordinator at a local gender and sexual resource center, said after
the discussion that she (?) thinks black students should also be given similar priority
in the classroom. “When I do activist circles or workshops, I often say, ‘OK,
if you’re white and you look like me and you raise your hand, I’m not going to
pick on you before someone of color,’” said Ashburn after the discussion. “So I do give little disclaimers, like
people of color will have priority, or if you’re a person with a disability,
you’re pushed to the front… I mean, you know, bros fall back,” she added with a
laugh.
The fact that she can be so open and honest about her blatant racial discrimination
speaks volumes about the agenda of such “gender justice” activists and the
irrational atmosphere of political correctness that dominates universities
today.
According to her, Dalhousie and other universities need to deal with the
issue of misogyny on campus “within a trauma-informed, feminist, survivor-centered
collaborative approach,” whatever that means. I suspect it means that Ashburn
and her ilk believe that justice consists in keeping women in a state of
perpetual victimhood, and delivering gender payback against all men.
Another of Ashburn’s preferred methods of reducing campus misogyny is to
encourage students to abandon their “white privilege” (why associate whiteness
with misogyny? Men of color aren’t misogynistic as well?). “[W]hite people need
to start unlearning their privilege and challenging ourselves,” she said,
adding that “anyone who holds privilege in this culture needs to seriously
begin the work of giving up that privilege and learning how to live without
it.”
Jacqueline Warwick seemed to agree but added, “That’ll be a difficult one
for people to accept” – as it should be, because that suggestion, like the collectivist
notion of white privilege itself – is racist, divisive, and punitive. But it’s
an ingenious progressive weapon for inducing guilt in self-hating whites and
for creating more social and racial conflict.
In response to a question that calling on women first in the classroom
might engender discrimination against men, Judy Haiven, a management professor
at Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, responded casually that “I suppose
at some point that could happen,” but apparently it’s a small price to pay for
gender equality. “There has to be some type of affirmative action so that women,
I hope, start to take more of an active role in the classroom.”
Ashburn said that this approach is difficult and upsetting to some people
because they have to give up some “privilege.” She also said during the panel
that she feels “burned out” when “What about the men?” is asked in “every
conversation” about misogyny. Speaking of which, unsurprisingly, there were no
male participants on the panel. Because why should anyone care about men being
included in that conversation or in any proposed solutions?
In addition to the panel’s recommendations of preferential treatment for female
and black students, some Dalhousie faculty members and students themselves recently
proposed a mandatory “equity course” to
explain to students “the root causes of gender-based violence and oppression.” This
isn’t education, but indoctrination.
This sort of gender-obsessed totalitarianism is so blatantly
discriminatory that it may be hard to take seriously, but it is increasingly
becoming the norm in the politically correct setting of today’s universities,
both here and in Canada, where young minds are propagandized to see everything reflected
in the funhouse mirror of gender, race, and class. If Dalhousie University
really wants to end gender discrimination, perhaps its first step should be to
rid itself of gender justice activists.
(This article originally appeared here on FrontPage Mag, 1/26/15)
