Sommers also said that she found it interesting that the numbers on harassment were so close, considering that there are fewer men than women on many college campuses. “For many women on campus, their problems are not ones of harassment,” she said. “It’s that they can’t get a date.”
I really love that paragraph. So many things going on at once!
First, the invocation of the "women are taking over college campuses" fear, while totally ignoring the distribution of male and female students between community colleges (higher percentage of females) and elite institutions (no huge disparities) and between different types of programs (females predominate in nursing, but not in engineering, for example).
Next, the trivializing of actual sexual harassment experienced by actual women: Not such a big deal - their main problem is getting a date!
And lastly, she finds it interesting that the numbers on harassment are "so close". Why, because over 60% of students experiencing harassment is not an issue as long as it's equal opportunity harassment? Why, because there is no meaning to be drawn from the huge disparity in homophobic harassment experienced by males versus females? Why, because the fact that LGBT students are more likely to be harassed, more often, than heterosexual students is a non-issue? (I haven't found anyone discussing the LGBT figures in their press stories.)
Here's a conversation I imagine:
Female physics student at UMD:
I am upset by the photos on Dr. Kim's website. It makes me feel less comfortable with him in class, and it makes me feel uncomfortable when I am in the department office - is this how professors are thinking of me?
Christina Hoff Sommers:
I hear ya, honey. It's tough getting laid when there are so few men around.
FPS:
But there are more men than women by far in physics. And it's not about me wanting to get laid, it's about how this website upsets me.
CHS:
You think it's about the website. But it's really about you wanting to get laid. Maybe if you didn't insist on going against nature by studying physics, you'd get laid more often.
Ms. Sommers is also terribly concerned about the "lack of civility" on campuses. You know, what with women staging performances of The Vagina Monologues and all. She is distressed because the AAUW has nothing to say about "this new style of raunchy feminism". Indeed, this is distressing. All this attention to students being groped and taunted, and nary a word for the poor souls who willingly bought tickets to go see a stage play! It is good to see that some people can keep their priorities straight.
In addition, Ms. Sommers is disturbed by all the attention paid to the fact that female students are more likely to be emotionally distressed by the experience of sexual harassment. She weeps for the poor men, who are maybe just not disclosing how they feel. I suppose, if men were able to disclose how they feel, and we found out that they are just as likely to be distressed by sexual harassment, then we could conclude that all things are equal and there's nothing to worry about here. Or, we could pay all our attention to the men, and ignore the women, because after all, they are taking over the college campuses and are busy trying to get laid.
It is a rough job, indeed, dominating the scientific and engineering professions, forcing the poor outnumbered men to date us and satisfy our wild sexual urgings, all the while planning our raunchy feminist plays that we will force the weak men, exhausted from servicing us, to attend. But somebody's gotta do it. I salute you, O Women Who Outnumber Men on College Campuses, for the clever way in which you carry out this agenda, all the while deflecting attention by issuing reports about fake issues. You are so awesome.
