Another look at BC Blackout
Published: Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Updated: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 18:01
On the evening of Mar. 28, Boston College survivors of rape will be speaking out about their experiences at Take Back the Night as part of C.A.R.E. (Concerned About Rape Education) week. At the same time, hundreds of BC students will be partying and pouring money into a blog that says some women "kind of deserve to be raped."
At BC, we learn the importance of advocating for social justice, and we learn that money talks—we pay extra for fair trade coffee and splurge on Haley House cookies in the dining halls. People with meal plans are regularly encouraged to donate to service trips or food drives. The bookstore hikes its prices even higher for BC-branded merchandise that is not made by children for pennies per hour.
If we are to be men and women for others—or men and women with socially conscious wallets, at least—then BC students should be ashamed of themselves for shelling out up to $200 for tickets to the BC Barstool Blackout event at the House of Blues, run by the popular and misogynistic blog Barstool Sports. Close to 1,600 people have responded affirmatively to the event on Facebook.
Barstool Sports consistently objectifies and degrades women with regular features like "Guess That Ass" and "Smokeshow of the Day," in which readers are supposed to identify women by zoomed-in pictures of their derrieres and ogle attractive coeds in push-up bras.
The event overlap between Take Back the Night and the BC Barstool Blackout is especially disturbing in the context of some of the callous remarks made by Barstool bloggers:
"[E]ven though I never condone rape, if you're a size 6 and you're wearing skinny jeans you kind of deserve to be raped right? I mean skinny jeans don't look good on size 0 and 2 chicks, nevermind size 6s. So it's almost like this guy had no choice but to teach her a lesson," "El Presidente," the head editor of the blog, wrote.
In December, "El Presidente" wrote, "Just to make friends with the feminists, I'd like to reiterate that we don't condone rape of any kind at our Blackout Parties in mid January. However if a chick passes out, that's a grey area."
Violent rhetoric such as this normalizes gender violence and creates a culture of rape, the ramifications of which women and men have to deal with every day. While Barstool readers may argue that these comments are made in the name of humor or satire, reinforcing a rape culture contributes to the victimization of men and women. We have survivors of rape and sexual assault on our campus. At parties, in Mods, off campus, and in our residence halls, rape and sexual assault constitute a painful reality for many of us at BC.
Here at BC, we are supposed to be men and women for others. Although the First Amendment grants creeps like "El Presidente" the right to say that women deserve to be raped as a form of fashion advice, BC students should know better than to finance it.
2 comments
Anonymous
Very well said! As an alum, I'm glad to see there's a movement towards doing what is right and not supporting an organization that toes the line of ethics. Have a blacklight party in the mods--it'll be cheaper, more fun and you won't be supporting the "grey area" of rape. Matt Gelman
BC 2010
BC 2010
Anonymous
I will be the first to advocate for Barstool in saying that what they say is often misogynistic, callous, and disgusting, but for the purpose of humor and satire. I consider myself a feminist, in that I believe that men and women should enjoy equity and treat each other with mutual respect. I am not a man-hater and I do not believe that all men, even Stool's El President, are bad. In fact, I think not being so quick to jump on Barstool as an example of a woman-hating world is actually helpful.. we're going to win equity through mutual understanding, not through name-calling and finger-pointing. Yes, hyper-femininity and hyper-masculinity perpetuate the hook-up and rape scripts on college campuses, but we are the ones that feed into them. If you don't want to be seen as a sex object, don't go to parties dressed like one. (Not saying that anyone ever deserves to be raped, ever, but we can't keep putting out this image of us females as subservient, sex toys.) Now, Barstool would function as an entity even if it didn't have its parties. A domain name is as cheap as $2.99, so if you think that going to Barstool events is in any way perpetuating its ability to spread all their anti-female rhetoric, you're just wrong. I'll go ahead and say this: I consider myself to be a victim of date rape. I was forced to have sex with a guy I was seeing. And yes, I am attending Barstool Blackout. Because Take Back the Night has become what it shouldn't be--a reminder that women are just fragile and consistently the underdog. By having WRC's and establishments like that we remind ourselves that we aren't equal. It's 2012, it's not 1985. It's about time we said enough is enough, those injustices don't exist. We have to go out and fight for them ourselves through mutual understanding by both sexes, not through exclusion. It is our job to stop them by doing, not by having parades and talks by professors. You change by doing, by being the girl to get the top level job. I'm going to Blackout because it's fun. Not because of who is running it. You can disagree with me, but this is my stance. I won't be skantily clad, nor will I be drunk enough to be taken advantage of. But I will be there and I will be having fun. Barstool, and things like it, are evidence of a culture of men who don't understand what it is to be men. Barstool is evidence of a phase of college life that makes boys believe being a "bro" is cool. That is not right, in any way shape or form, but the way to stop it is to show that especially college age men and women can learn a better coexistence. You can't change anything by pointing fingers. You can't combat hyper-masculinity with hyper-feminity. The solution to male aggression is not female aggression. I don't believe in crucifying Barstool in the name of my feminist agenda--the only way it's ever going to fade out is if society's view point changes. And that's through talking, calmly. That's through showing guys how to treat women by demanding more from them. That's through rewarding "nice" guys and not dating the asshole we all want to date. Yelling about Barstool only turns those who read it away, and where will that get us? No where. You want to change their game? play by their rules, fight them on their terms. Sociologists agree--we had a speaker here last year who spoke about this very idea--women need to employ men to help with their cause, not cast them out. I agree that it's a little disgusting, the juxtaposition of the two events, but don't put people attending Blackout into the silo of not caring about CARE week, or feminist issues. They're not the enemy.
Local Online Marketing by LocalVox
is a member of the 
