Editor, the Gauntlet,
I'm a member of a visible minority and a lady. That makes me ripe for persecution, right? Well, that's exactly what happened this week.
As I walked through Mac Hall with my classmates, a supporter of the women's centre asked me to sign a letter/petition to support a women's centre. I declined because I didn't care either way and tried to walk away. The supporter started verbally harassing me, invoking my race and what she incorrectly thought was my religion. My friends convinced me to let this go, and I did.
It happened to me again later the same day when I again declined to support their centre but I didn't have my friends there and the women's centre supporters called me a misogynist and all sorts of things implying I was a man. That was the most threatened I have been in my three years at this school.
If they were trying to make me feel intimidated, it worked. I didn't care about a women's centre before, but now I do. Being a lady and a minority, I wouldn't feel comfortable if these supporters become the ones to run the centre. They need to learn something about treating people like people, even if they don't support a women's centre!
It's sad that it's easier to tell religious people that "no means no!" and actually have them go away than some women who supposedly champion women's rights.
Comments
I fully support a proper women's center run by anyone except the people currently pushing for one here at the UofC. I want these people to learn how to respect both women and men but I don't have high hopes for seeing that happening. When I was in Ontario, I noticed that most of activists and women's centers holding them were busier raising and "symbolically" demolishing barriers to success than dealing with any real gender issues. Fortunately, I didn't have to pay for it through fees.
On the question of gender and pay equity: My staff members and I succeed and are rewarded on our own merits, regardless of gender, race, religion or much of anything else. Conversely, I've seen that incompetence also transcends those lines. The simple fact of having a women's centre on campus does not change this.
To the petitioner who seemed offended that I didn't sign: I'm sorry if my satisfaction with the intellectual richness I enjoy at this university offended you, but harassing at me instead of discussing the issue with me will most definitely NOT convert me to your cause. If you ask around, you'll find that most of us at the U of C ignore distinctions based on gender, simply because talent, training and ability are more important. I disagree with the attitude that every man is out to stick it to women, and I'm sorry if you view the world through such simple, pejorative lenses. But I guess that's not unusual, in light of how you treated the student who wrote this letter.