Fifteen years ago female students at Duke documented the experience of walking past benches where groups of men rated them with numbers scribbled on paper. This legend became reality one day last April as I witnessed fraternity members practicing the archaic process.
That same night President Nan Keohane announced the gender initiative. "The general feeling now is that 'We've solved the problem,' and people's eyes glaze over when you start talking about it," she told the Women's Administrative Network.
Keohane was describing the perceived death of feminism. At a progressive university like Duke, we trust that women are given equal opportunities as men, both inside and outside of the classroom. Discussion of gender politics is precluded under the supposition that the playing field for success has already been equalized.
However, the woman being rated for her appearance is not on equal ground with the man scoring her. No matter how high the number, the sum of her worth has been lowered. Feminism is not dead, nor is the need for it. Not here, not anywhere.
In some parts of Duke, feminism has taken center stage. Last February, The Vagina Monologues ran for two nights to nearly sold-out audiences. The play encouraged men and women to utter the taboo v-word, and the V-Day campaign raised awareness and financial support for violence against women.
One month later, The Perks of Disordered Eating, written and produced by Duke students, broke the silence on the epidemic of eating disorders on campus. The necessity for dialogue on this issue was evinced by the swarms of students begging for tickets to the two-night, sold-out performance.
And feminism on this campus does not just pertain to women. It involves men and has been championed by them. Two of the 10 members of the gender initiative task force are male, as is the first speaker for the initiative, Chris Kilmartin, author of The Masculine Self. A male student spearheaded the demands for increased security last semester after a series of violent incidents against women, and a male student co-wrote and co-produced The Perks of Disordered Eating.
Sadly, feminism is dead only where it is needed most.
For men who believe they have the right to make women feel objectified and belittled as they walk to class, feminism is a joke. For women who take that kind of treatment because they feel powerless to stop it, feminism is a myth.
Keohane's admission of Duke's failure to promote gender equity is a rebirth for the f-word. Keohane assumed the presidency at Duke after serving in the same post at the all-female Wellesley College. Arguable out of fear of being pigeonholed as a woman with a gender agenda, the feminist president let issues of gender go largely unrecognized for the past 10 years.
Under her leadership, changes were never implemented following an extensive study on gender by two groups in the early 1990s. Now with the confidence of her past success, Keohane is risking being unpolitical, and maybe even unpopular, to call attention to the previously unspeakable.
After a recent attempted sexual assault, the protection campus security provides female students is rightly becoming a pressing issue. But creating an environment where women feel safe is not just about increasing security. It is about promoting an atmosphere of respect for women on this campus. The administration, under the leadership of Keohane, is beginning to recognize that. The work, however, begins with us.
The gender initiative is a challenge to explore how gender characterizes us-the expectations gender puts on us and the way in which it dictates our behavior. It calls for us to both think and talk about how gender affects our experience at Duke.
The 12 women who founded the Women's Center are of the generation of women who documented the experience of being rated. In 1999, eleven of these women returned to Duke for the 10th Anniversary of the Women's Center. When they walked into the center, they burst into tears. They couldn't believe that their vision of creating a safe space for women on campus had materialized.
These women fought to make our university better. It is our constant obligation to make them, and others who have struggled to improve our institution, proud of what it is today.
Julie Smith is a Trinity senior. Her column appears every third Wednesday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.