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.
BC 2010