Notes on a Scandal Part 2

But the discussion that I had last night was going back to "deserving it."


Now, being friends with three Duke University feminists during this scandal, I got some pretty good discussions in. One of them was a Pro-Choice Activist, and the other two worked at the Duke Women's center. I note here that these three people were lower middle class (not rich) (however, two were minorities ((however both of those minorities took lots and lots of Advanced Placement exams and scored 5's or perfects on them) (important and unimportant points of analysis, surely)).

Facadesaside: We talked about what it meant, and what it meant for the school, and what it meant for them as students and their identities. I never thought about what it meant for my identity. There were a couple of times that I felt like I had to reassure them that Duke University is a good school.

Before the evidence proved the Lacrosse players innocent, there was a reaction on campus where a group of Due University professors petitioned the student body. This letter said that the students were partly to blame by facilittating a party culture.

There was then a counter-backlash from conservative students, and one charismatic student lead the charges; asking for those professors to apologize or to be fired. And So On.

I can't remember if the professors had a counter-backlash toward the counter-backlash; except to say it would be a shame if some professors were fired because of this.

(This smacks of a debate I have been considering lately; I can't remember if I've already posted this or not, but the debate is Allan Bloom's scathing attack on students in America being too subjective. This subjectivity comes at the expense of being objective and caring for older classical works. Charles Taylor in his response, The Ethics of Authenticity said that there is an ethical way to go about finding your individuality without losing emphasis on objectivity. All of us just shrug and say, okay. I submitted an article trying to apply this to Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs, but I'm not sure that it's going to run).


Between the pornography and parties,he some feminists call what we're living in a "rape culture."

That is, students and men end up looking at pornography so much, some feminists believe that it is a small step from devaluing women to raping them.


Add that as our second facade: the ambiguity of the intersection between culture (re: the contingencies of the scenario that lead to the rape) and the actual events themselves (re: the actual rape).

Where do we draw the line and how can we tell the difference?


Part three, for continuation later:
I also attended a feminist group at North Carolina Central University. The leader of the group said that a woman should be able to stand naked in the middle of the streets and not get raped.

There's another post here that I'll have to post later today.