Week in ReviewLand Down Under Dartmouth's newest organization, the Cultural Survival Club, may be interested to hear of the fine aboriginal art works coming out of Australia. Two so-called Aborigine artists have been proven to be frauds. Early last month, the acclaimed Aboriginal painter Eddie Burrup turned out to be an 82-year-old Irish woman. Also the Aborigine woman Wanda Kollmatrie, author of the Dobbie Award winning Aboriginal book My Own Sweet Time, has turned out to be a white man in his fifties living in Sydney. It seems, however, that even on the other side of the world people are suffering form the same problems. The author Leon Carmen recently said that he felt forced to write under a false pen name because white males are discriminated against in favor of women and minorities.
As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week, 'sex educator' Joseph Weinberg spoke Monday at Collis Common Ground on 'Telling men's secrets: Taking responsibility for rape.' Slouching in a wooden chair on a raised platform, Weinberg began by discussing his experiences in high school, especially those in the boys' locker room. There he found a sexist mentality responsible for much of the violence committed against women today. He then proceeded on a rather lengthy jaunt through a sexual experience he had recently with a female 'sex educator' of his acquaintance. By the time he was finished, most of the already Spartan audience had left. More 'Awareness' activities were held all last week, including the now annual 'Take Back the Night' march.
Law professor Madeline Morris, a consultant on sexual harassment to Secretary of the Army Togo West, avers in the Duke Law Journal, 'There is much to be gained and little to be lost by changing this aspect of military culture from a masculinist vision of unalloyed aggressively to an ungendered vision combining aggressivity with compassion... Surely, if armed force is ever to be deployed, then idealism and moral conviction are preferable motives to macho posturing.' Though the military has lower rape and murder rates than civilians, Morris still claims that the army suffers from 'hypermasculinity.' Fortunately, this can be cured by making the army more like 'communist Party cells' and 'Alcoholics Anonymous.' She also recommended more conditioner and camouflage that doesn't 'clash so much.'
Professor Michael Dorris was found dead last Sunday in a hotel in Concord, an apparent suicide. This was at least the second time he had tried to kill himself. He was described by College President James. O. Freedman as 'beloved by a generation of Dartmouth students, whose lives were touched with his humanity and idealism.' Dorris was accused of molesting children in Minnesota. The founder and former director of Native American Studies at the College, Dorris was also the first single male ever to adopt a child in the United States. He adopted three children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, one of whom was killed in a car crash. The other two are now homeless.
Three years after a water meter reader saw a strange man huddled in a basement and called the police, Muriel Smith is being charged with abusing her husband. Leroy Smith had spent at least three years living in the 6-by-8 foot basement beneath the house. Leroy, who is most-likely insane, was forced to use the bathroom of the convenience store a half mile away and had to clap twice and ring a bell in hopes that his wife would bring him food.
The Student Assembly will hold a poll on the fate of Dartmouth Dining Services from Tuesday through Thursday on the World Wide Web. Students will vote on whether DDS should close down, severely cut back its services, or maintain current levels of service by increasing the minimum Declining Balance Account (DBA). The referendum comes after two weeks of protesting by students outraged at DDS Director Pete Napolitano's plan for a minimum non-refundable $800 per term DBA. The plan was proposed after it had been revealed that DDS had lost over $600,000 in the last fiscal year. DDS refuses to open its books for public scrutiny. The Student Assembly claims that the administration — specifically Treasurer Lyn Hutton — and DDS will accept the results of the survey and follow the will of the students.
Nike recently announced that it would change the name of its women's athletic shoe, the Incubus. The reason? The carefully test-marketed moniker refers to a demon in medieval folklore that invaded women's bedrooms and ravished sleeping maidens. The Portland-based sports giant has yet to choose a new, presumably more sexually-empowering appellation.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has just granted the California Indian Basketweavers Association $60,500 in tax payers' money 'To support the seventh and eighth statewide gatherings of Indian Basketweavers in 1997 and 1998 and the first Western Regional Basketweavers Gathering in the fall of 1998.' This recent decision by the NEA follows the trend of controversial proposals that the NEA has funded, such as the infamous 'Piss Christ' — a crucifix submerged in an aquarium filled with the artist's urine. Two years ago the NEA gave a San Diego 'artist' $10,000 in grant money which he handed out to illegal immigrants in what he considered a profound piece of art which transcended even the masterpieces of the Sistine Chapel.
'For me, teaching is a form of political activism.'
On last Wednesday evening at Collis center Student Assembly presidential candidates Scott Jacobs '99, Frode Eilertsen '99, and Unai Montes-Irueste '98 debated. Montes-Irueste, who withdrew from last year's campaign for tearing down opponents' posters, is campaigning this year as a write-in candidate. He came out in favor of increased funding for multicultural groups, such as the Women's Resource Center, and spent much of his speech trying to name each This produced a rare moment of humor when Montes-Irueste ended his lengthy laundry list and Eilertsen leaned over and whispered, 'You forgot Native Americans.' Montes-Irueste, who described himself as 'a mighty oak', declared that the way to include all blocs of the Dartmouth community was to give each of them its own space and funding. Jacobs echoed everything Montes-Irueste had said, but less articulately. He described himself alternately as a seeker and as 'one of those trees in the forest whose branches touch all the other trees in the forest.' Metaphor, interestingly enough, was not listed in his campaign literature as a personal strong point. The only real debate between the candidates was on 'Queer Housing.' A member of the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance inquired as the candidates position on the gay's proposal to turn the fourth floor of North Mass into gay affinity housing. Jacobs and Montes-Irueste strongly favored the proposal, with only Eilertsen saying that he did not support it.
With over 60% of the almost 1,500 votes cast, Frode Eilertsen '99 easily beat out Scott Jacobs '99, Unai Montes-Irueste '98, and Kathy Kim'00 for Student Assembly president. Nahoko Kawakyu '99 was elected vice-president by a margin of eight votes over Dave Altman '99. Kawakyu is the first candidate to run a successful write-in campaign.
John Mickley '40 has agreed to donate $100,000 for the construction of a new weight room reserved only for athletes. Currently only the Kresge weight room serves all of Dartmouth, leaving non-athletes with very limited hours. The equipment in Kresge will be upgraded when the expansion is complete.
Poet and pop-icon Allen Ginsberg died last week. Ginsberg was notorious for his extravagant lifestyle and outrageous beliefs. Branded as 'anti-establishment,' Ginsberg protested against everything including Vietnam, the CIA, and Ronald Reagan. Ginsberg was also an avid homosexual and defender of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). In a 1994 interview with the Rocky Mountain News Ginsberg defended NAMBLA: 'I would say that anyone above puberty is OK. As long as it's consentual and nobody complains. But usually it's the cops that rape the kids by brainwashing them and intimidating them so they'll turn against their older friends.' His death did not go unnoticed at Dartmouth. At a small memorial, Professor Tom Luxon recited Ginsberg's 'Elegy for Neal Cassady'— a poem for his dead male lover.
The following letter appeared in the April 18, 1997 edition of The New York Times. Indians' Team Logo Gives No Racial Offense To the Editor: As an American of mixed Indian and European parentage, I disagree with Mark A. Lawrence's characterization of the name 'Indians' for Cleveland's baseball team, and 'Braves' for Atlanta's, as 'disgraceful' ( letter, April 16). I see these names not as insulting to Native Americans, but as a kind of honor. I find it likely that these two teams chose to associate themselves with Indians because of good connotations, not bad. I remember discussing this very issue with my grandmother, who was Kahnawake (a type of Mohawk), when Dartmouth College proposed changing the name of its football team from the Indians. 'What name should they take?' I wondered. 'Do they win a lot?' she asked. 'Why, yes,' I replied. 'Well then,' she said, 'the Mohawks, obviously.' RICHARD K. GORDON
Beatrix Potter's children's books are beloved worldwide for their charming and endearing stories which featured such memorable characters as Peter Rabbit and Squirrel Nutkin. Thus it came as a great shock to many when it was recently discovered that the inspirations for her children's stories were the animals she dissected and mutilated for scientific papers. An aspiring biologist, her biology papers included detailed anatomical drawings of the dissected animal corpses.
The Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance has been sending out e-mail messages to 'the individuals who identify as 'male' at Dartmouth.' The invitation to the latest bisexual meeting warns the lucky recipient to 'Come or I will hurt you — whichever you prefer.' Of course, the invitation does not compare to some of the ones written in the reserve corridor rest rooms.
Black women have begun to plan their response to the Million Man March that took place two years ago in Washington, D.C. Organizers of the Million Man March had requested that no women attend. According to their World Wide Web site, the march will take place this October 25th on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the heart of Philadelphia. |
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