News Guest Writer
A topic of recent hot debate in newspapers and the media has been the suspected rape case involving several lacrosse players from Duke University. Regardless of the players’ innocence or guilt, the case is loaded with issues of class and race and—as reflected in the sex-ed debates at Choate Rosemary Hall—gender and masculinity.
At the recent annual Sex Talk for fifth form boys given by Dr. Gardner, one of the more visited topics was that of the morality of the Duke rape case and the connection between sexual offenses and athletes at academic institutions. Most students at the meeting felt that critics had unfairly assumed the players were guilty. Even more of those present offered offensive and sexist justifications for the presumed crime. What I expected to be a valuable debate turned out to be an indication that there is a gross lack of respect for women and an overbearing sense of aggressive machismo amongst boys at Choate.
That evening I was appalled by the lack of respect of my peers. Some of the boys rationalized that, as an exotic dancer, the woman involved was deserving--or in some way responsible for her own rape. A woman’s decision to be an exotic dancer is rarely a product of her personal promiscuity, and more a result of debt or poverty. Women do not choose to sell themselves—they are forced to. Saying that a stripper is “just a big slut” is an ignorant explanation for an act of inexcuseable violence. Some of the boys defending the athletes argued that, “If the victim is in that business, she’s looking for trouble.” Though these comments may have been made half-jokingly, they still indicate the existence of sexism at our school. What was even more disturbing to me was the amount of nonchalance they exhibited in making such hurtful generalizations.
The Duke Lacrosse rape case has brought to light an ugly disrespect and chauvinism present in not only athletics, but in our own school.
