Male Castration = Good; Guns = Bad

Academia shows how tolerant it is of opposing viewpoints (read: NOT LIBERAL) yet again, this time at Colorado College. For liberals, when you spout idiotic drivel that falls in line with liberal orthodoxy, it's OK. Anyone offended is supposed to just smile and take it. Lip service is given to "diversity" and "tolerance", but those values only go skin deep with libs. Diverse skin color and gender = good, diverse opinions = bad. And nowhere is this kind of attitude more prevalent than on college campuses.

Feminists especially love this kind of special treatment. They can say anything they want about men; they can slander them, smear them, and paint them all with a very nasty brush just for the "crime" of being men. Valentine's Day is cancelled in favor of "Victory over Violence" Day to somehow fight domestic abuse. Love between a man and a woman is bad; women must stick to the sisterhood! Consensual sex is likened to rape; flirting to sexual harassment. Man-hating has become synonymous with feminism, and the most radical of these harpies usually reside on college campuses. Men, meanwhile, are supposed to just grin and bear it. One joke about women is deemed sexual harassment and can get a male student kicked off campus. Double standard? Nope, it's just "fighting for women's rights".

FIRE brings us the newest example of how feminists can say whatever they want about men with no repercussions whatsoever, no matter how offensive, and men can't say anything that might be deemed slightly offensive whatsoever without seeing retaliation.

Two students at Colorado College were found guilty of violating the school's conduct code regarding "violence" after they distributed a satirical flyer mocking a publication of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. As part of their punishment, student Chris Robinson and a second student have been required to hold a campus forum discussing issues brought up by their satirical publication. The students have turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

"One flyer that mentions ‘male castration' is not violence, but a flyer that makes fun of it by mentioning ‘chainsaws' is prohibited? Both should be protected, but the double standard and lack of respect for freedom of speech in this case is simply staggering," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "Colorado College is brazenly violating its own promise of freedom of expression, as well as both fairness and common sense. Colorado College should reject both double standards and censorship."

In early 2008, Colorado College's "Feminist and Gender Studies Interns" distributed a flyer called "The Monthly Rag." The flyer included a reference to "male castration," an announcement about a lecture on "feminist porn" by a "world-famous prostitute and porn star," an explanation of "packing" (pretending to have a phallus), and a quotation from The Bitch Manifesto.

As a parody of "The Monthly Rag," Robinson and a second student, who wishes to remain nameless, distributed a flyer in February called "The Monthly Bag" under the pseudonym "The Coalition of Some Dudes." The flyer included references to "chainsaw etiquette," the shooting range of a sniper rifle, a quotation regarding a sexual position from the website menshealth.com, and a quotation about "female violence and abuse" of men from the website batteredmen.com.

Shortly thereafter, Colorado College President Richard F. Celeste sent out a campus-wide email about "The Monthly Bag," stating that "The flyers include threatening and demeaning content, which is categorically unacceptable in this community... Anonymous acts meant to demean and intimidate others are not [welcome]." The e-mail asked the authors of "The Monthly Bag" to come forward. When they did less than an hour later, they were charged with violating the college's values of respect and integrity.

FIRE wrote to Celeste on March 21, 2008, pointing out that any punishment would contradict Colorado College's own policies and advertised commitments to free expression. The school's Diversity & Anti-Discrimination Policy states that "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden. No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful that it may not be expressed." Celeste, a former governor of Ohio, is abroad, and other administrators receiving the letter have not responded.

Two weeks after their hearing before the student conduct committee, Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Mike Edmonds finally wrote to the "Coalition of Some Dudes" students on March 25, stating that they had been found guilty of "violating the student code of conduct policy on violence" and that as a punishment, they would be required to hold a forum to "discuss issues and questions raised" by "The Monthly Bag." Although Edmonds acknowledged that the intent of the publication was to satirize "The Monthly Rag," he wrote that "in the climate in which we find ourselves today, violence—or implied violence—of any kind cannot be tolerated on a college campus." Apparently, according to Edmonds, "the juxtaposition of weaponry and sexuality" in an anonymous parody made students subjectively feel threatened by chainsaws or rifles.

"Not only has Colorado College wrongly punished students for expression that any reasonable person would easily recognize as parody that threatens no one, but according to Edmonds's standard, countless movies, songs, and other artistic endeavors that ‘juxtapose weaponry and sexuality' are inappropriate for the adult students of Colorado College," Adam Kissel, Director of FIRE's Individual Rights Defense Program, said. "Colorado College must live up to its own promises of free expression and allow its students to engage in robust debate and satire—even when some members of the campus community may feel offended."

Just so you know, the "violent" speech was this:

Did You Know...??
The Barrett .50 Caliber sniper rifle has an effective range of 2000 meters?

Yes. I can see how this is much more violent than talking about male castration. Male castration = good; Guns = Bad. Porn = good; Sex tips = bad.

To see the "offensive" flier, click here. You can see the much more offensive "Monthly Rag" flier here.

Two things especially jumped out at me, based on FIRE's findings. One of the worst parts of this is that the male students are being punished because of how some students interpreted the flier!

In response to several complaints about the flyer, [REDACTED] and Robinson received notice on March 3 that the flyer "was allegedly interpreted by members of the campus community as an attempt to target certain campus populations with the intention of devaluing, intimidating, or even threatening harm."

Ginger Morgan, an Associate Dean, sent a letter to the Feminist and Gender Studies Student List giving them tips on how to fight the male students and saying she would willingly speak on behalf of "The Monthly Rag". How is that objective and non-biased?

It's just incredible to me that there aren't more people speaking out against outrages like this. Why do so many women let these harpies pretend that they speak for us? They don't speak for me, they don't speak for a single woman I know, and they don't speak for most American women. And why do men let themselves be slandered without speaking out against it? How is it that parents of students attending these schools don't do something? It's your money paying for this!

And do feminists honestly not see how harmful their man-hating attitude is? Men. Are. Not. The. Enemy.

The thing is, the liberal orthodoxy revolves around having different rules for different people, and that's the law of the land in academia. There's lots of talk of tolerance and debate and diversity, but if any accidentally manifests itself, it gets squashed immediately. Free speech is touted as mandatory, but only when it's speech that fits into the liberal mandate. Otherwise, they scream and screech about how "offensive" and "harmful" it is.

And you know what? A lot of the blame goes on us for just meekly accepting it. We've become so afraid of offending overly sensitive people that we won't speak out, we won't offer bold opinions. We won't tell crazy man-hating feminists to go shove it where the sun don't shine, because we're so afraid of being labeled as intolerant or a bigot. And that should stop. We should take a cue from FIRE and be willing to stand up for our free speech. It isn't a right for liberals only; it's for everyone.

As for women? There's no shame in loving men. Or guns. We should be standing up for the men in our lives more, too -- our husbands or boyfriends, our fathers, brothers, and sons. Staying quiet does just as much harm as the crap that the man-haters spew.

Hat Tip: Ace