October 4, 2006

Columbia U. in Catfight Over Word of Many Meanings

Civil-rights and free-speech groups are assailing Columbia University’s decision to suspend its men’s ice-hockey team, a club sport, because its members used what the Columbia Spectator decorously called “off-color recruitment fliers” in order to attract attention this fall. The fliers, which goaded students to join the team with the words “Don’t be a pussy,” were apparently the latest in a series of violations of athletics-department rules, the newspaper reported.

But to the New York Civil Rights Coalition and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the episode was not a case of sophomoric crudity but of stifled speech. In letters to Columbia’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, the groups said that the expression was merely a play on the university mascot, the Lion, and that, in any event, “what is so offensive about the word ‘pussy’ today?,” as the civil-rights coalition put it. For its part, the foundation urged Mr. Bollinger to overturn an “absurd overreaction” to a minor incident and, in ringing words, “not to abandon the principles of fairness, openness, and free expression.”

Comments

1. This is nonsense. Columbia has every right to mold the character of its students, and such crudity may well be beneath the standards of decorum this particular institution wishes to set for itself. There is no free speech issue because nobody has compelled anyone to attend Columbia. If one chooses to attend Columbia, one tacitly accepts its rules and its authority.

   — T. Noth    Oct 4, 08:58 AM    #

2. yet vagina monologues is celebrated throughout higher education… go figure.

   — K.T.    Oct 4, 09:07 AM    #

3. Some ideological factions on campus take special delight in anything that gives them the chance to affect being offended because it allows them to throw their weight around and bully everyone else. The Columbia hockey flier incident is typical of such things. Columbia has shown that it lacks brains and guts, as well as a sense of proportion, and can easily be cowed by self-righteous posturing, to the detriment of free speech.

   — Norman Levitt    Oct 4, 09:51 AM    #

4. The difference between the Vagina Monologues and this incident is pretty clear to me—the former celebrates women’s bodies, the latter uses women’s bodies as a way to deride others.

   The use of language like this is sexist as well as homophobic and I applaud Columbia for making that clear to its students.

   — J.L.    Oct 4, 12:44 PM    #

5. I guess these actions pass as “intellectual discourse” in the current political environment.

   — JT    Oct 4, 02:03 PM    #

6. The difference between the Vagina Monologues and this incident is pretty clear to me—the former celebrates women’s bodies, the latter uses women’s bodies as a way to deride others.

   I would disagree on the content of Vagina Monologues but… oh well. I see both of them as repulsive.

   And, I’m gay and don’t see how the comments are remotely homophobic and if they were, why it would matter – they are only words. Sticks and stones…

   — K.T.    Oct 4, 02:51 PM    #

7. “If one chooses to attend Columbia, one tacitly accepts its rules and its authority.”

   T. Noth is absolutely correct, however Columbia should then not present itself as a defender of free expression, because it is not. A quote from the Provost’s office states “We believe in the right of all members of the community to express their views on any issue, no matter how controversial, without fear of reprisal.” Apparently, they do not given this episode.

   Private institutions have every right to censor the speech of faculty and students, but they should then be honest that they do not adhere to the vaules of free speech. Perhaps, some truth in advertising for higher ed would be in order.

   — K.T.    Oct 4, 02:57 PM    #

8. >The difference between the Vagina Monologues and this incident is pretty clear to me—the former celebrates women’s bodies, the latter uses women’s bodies as a way to deride others.

   Maybe I’m too young (ha!), but when I hear someone call someone else a pussy, I don’t think about a female body part. Just as when I hear someone call someone an ass, I don’t think of a donkey or even an image of some flabby, old white guy’s backside. Both terms have their own dictionary definitions: “a weak, cowardly, or effeminate man” and “a foolish or stupid person” (Oxford). And that’s the context in which I hear them most….

   — r.w.    Oct 5, 12:14 PM    #

9. Just what I always suspected…Columbia is a bunch of pussies.

   — Snake    Oct 5, 01:23 PM    #

10. Me thinks this is a perfect time for another rich kid protest. America never tires of that.

    — Ice Hole    Oct 12, 11:17 AM    #

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