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Do Not Over-Scrutinize

Sexist.

The mere word swells with controversy. It beats of guilt, bleeds passionate and lustful disgust. That’s where we come in, the public. Before we yell out the accusation in a blood-curdling cry, why don’t we weigh the consequences?

Johanna Womer Benjamin needs to consider what she’s writing before she fires it off in her Jan. 30 letter (“Watch What You Write”). She slams Danny Baram for “throwing around an insult … that was the [result] of male thick-headedness.” Talk about throwing around blatant sexism. Come on Johanna, what about female “thick-headedness?”

In Danny’s column, he was innocently pointing out the great intellectual diversity we are so privileged to have here at Boston University. Yes, he did happen to cite a female as an example of a less than gifted BU student. And yes, he did coincidentally use a male as the other extreme. But was Danny Baram being sexist in any way?

I think not, with emphasis on the “think,” because that’s just what you have to do in order to avoid misinterpreting the facts and arguments that Danny so kindly laid forth. We could ask Danny directly, but seeing as how he was recently labeled as Boston University’s resident sexist male, he might be waiting out the inevitable storm of hellfire in some back alley dumpster.

Johanna was attempting to criticize Danny for supposedly failing to recognize that females are just as bright as any male. On her point of equality, I could not agree more. Perhaps she should, however, have considered leaving out such witty cracks as, “Um, hello … Earth to Danny. Who’s ‘the stupid one’ here?” My letter may not be bolstered with the same degree of enlightenment, but I think it’s more on track.

Now, I may have misunderstood the underlying theme of Johanna’s letter. I perceived though, through my man vision, that she was scorning Danny for not only being sexist, but for possessing the audacity and shear idiocy to do so on a campus where the gender ratio isn’t in his favor (or is it?).

Johanna was also insightful enough to inform us that “blatantly insulting females is rude.” Truly prophetic. What about males? Is it socially acceptable to insult them? How about penguins? We could drive the ball all day on that one, or should I steer clear of alluding to that overly masculine symbol of pigskin?

My point is this; don’t overly scrutinize what simply isn’t there. My mother, who happens to be a woman, told me that while at college I would see a lot of things — some good, some bad. She may have been making one last effort at keeping me from being a crack addict and receiving the gift that just keeps giving, but I think she would agree with me when I say feminism is ultimately a good thing. Feminists have fought for equality, and they still do. It is when we become overzealous in our thoughts and get caught up in the means that we lose sight of the ends. Feminism and equality — great. Discriminating under the auspice of such noble causes — not so great.

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