Disillusioned at Duke
 

Incident doesn't bode well for 'best and brightest'

By Megan Bode
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Duke University.

It used to be that whenever I breathed the name of this school, I did so in reverence. All I could picture were intelligent students hungry for knowledge, buildings with Gothic-style architecture, renowned professors and an amazing athletics program.

As a high school student, it was my dream to gain acceptance and receive my college education at Duke, in Durham, N.C. When I told anyone of this, he or she would laugh and pat me on the back, explaining that I would have to work hard to get there, that such a fine institution took only the best and I would need to prove myself. I knew this, and I wanted desperately to be a part of it. Most days, I still think of my college the same way as I did in high school. I'll be walking to class and pass the chapel, our landmark, standing tall over the campus, visible from almost anywhere in the city, and I get chills up my spine, thinking: How did I get this lucky?

I really do love this school. I love the fact that my classes make me work hard and professors make me reach deep. I love that kids spend two months in a tent for basketball tickets, and that after a big win we burn benches in a bonfire on the quad. I love arguing with kids my age about politics or foreign affairs.


But sometimes I don't feel quite the same about it anymore, disillusioned by stories and occurrences that cause me to question exactly what it is that Duke stands for. In January, for example, an off-campus party broken up by the police became a highly publicized national news story. The reason? Several women had been found in the basement, covered in baby oil and wearing string bikinis, wrestling in a tiny pool in front of a crowded room of frat boys.

Although many people would fail to find this shocking, would simply write it off as a bunch of college kids letting loose and having fun, I can't understand this logic. It's one thing to hang out at a frat party, to have a few beers and talk with friends. It is entirely another for these women "Duke students" to make a spectacle of themselves for the purpose of entertaining their male counterparts.

After talking with friends and classmates about the incident, I couldn't believe some of the arguments to the contrary. I was told how incredible it was that girls had finally reached the point where they were free to do whatever they pleased, to have as much fun as the boys. A lot of kids thought that the story was hilarious, good publicity for Duke as a bit of a party school as well as an academically rigorous institution.

Maybe I'm a little old-fashioned in my beliefs, but I feel the girls have taken a step back thanks to this "freedom," have placed themselves once more in a position of inferiority and near-subservience to their male classmates.

How do these women attend class on Monday with the same boys that cheered them on in such a contest Friday night? How can they expect to be treated as equals when three days prior they were content to be treated as objects? At a place where the kids are supposed to be the best and the brightest, I'm stunned that things like this happen. And it's not just this one incident -- there are many more, very similar, less-publicized events, that are understood and even accepted by society.

If this is the best and the brightest of today, then I'm a little concerned for the world of tomorrow.

Re: Disillusioned at Duke
 

I would make a serious push for this exact train of thought to be considered the major flaw in neofeminist thinking.

This woman then proceeded to burn her bra, cut the head on her hair, and grow the hair under her arms.

-Rudey

She's apparently anti-fun... and probably a Democrat.

Re: Disillusioned at Duke
 

I agree with this.

I think that feminism is the greatest thing to ever happen to men.

I get what I want, and girls think they are doing what the guys do....

Some people are just too sensitive (imo) but then again, I am in the female minority cuz I dont see anything wrong with this. If i had the body, and was unattached, i would be flaunting it like I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If these girls were doing it for feminism's sake, they'd be just as likely to bust out with the half-naked dancing in the company of women, or alone in their rooms, as they were at frat parties. Maybe that's what's going on, but I doubt it. ;)

I don't particularly think this means that these girls are particularly anti-feminist either, though. Doing stupid things to get attention from the opposite sex isn't limited to one gender . . . I mean, who's passing out the free beer hoping that it'll help them get them laid?

Ya like to dance at all the hip hop spots
And ya cruise to the crews like connect da dots
Not just urban she likes the pop
Cuz she was livin la vida loca

She had dumps like a truck truck truck
Thighs like what what what
Baby move your butt butt butt
Uh
I think to sing it again
She had dumps like a truck truck truck
Thighs like what what what
All night long
Let me see that thong

http://www.whale-tail.com/what-we-dont-want.jpg

Ooh that dress so small for you
looks like you put on another pound or two
see you shakin' that thing like your all that,
take look at yourself cuz your all fat
you like to eat at the ice cream shops
cruise to the mall for some dip 'n dots
not too much food cuz your jeans'll pop
I really hate it when you bend over

she had a big 'ol butt, butt, butt
thighs like a truck, truck, truck
baby hide your gut, gut, gut
I think I see her again

she had a big 'ol butt, butt, butt
thighs like a truck, truck, truck
like King Kong
please don't wear your thong

Let's discuss the columnist's viewpoint, since she's the one that brought this conversation to light.

I will go on record saying that as long as comments to the extent of 'how can you sit in class next to the men that treated you like objects?' exist, feminism is a failure.

Here's a taste of my argument, in case I'm being a touch obtuse: True feminist doctine preaches equality for women, not separatist actions. There is no uniquely female culture - the entire concept is anti-feminist.

I pretty much agree with you -- however, I don't think the columnist would consider herself a feminist. I got the impression that she wanted to play morality police and was invoking a pseudo-feminist viewpoint because she thought that her audience would respond to that better than "Put your damn clothes on, you hoes."

If she DOES consider herself a feminist, she needs to do a little more reading on what it's actually about. Personally, I think that trying to restrict other women's behavior while playing into the whole "sexual = objectified" thing is basically incompatible with feminism, but that's just me.