All of us puzzling over the great male flame for
Donald Trump have some news from Harvard that we need to consider. The college, according to an
announcement by President Drew Faust, is going to punish students who join a
single-sex club. According
to the Economist (5-14-16) she has the old all-male clubs in her sights.
Is this the gasoline?
Suppose you long ago recognized the misogyny in clubs
like the Porcellian, suppose you're ashamed that Harvard did not admit women
until 1977, suppose you're embarrassed still by the figures showing how many
women report "non-consensual sexual contact" with club members. You're sorry. And then you read that any student who joins your club will
"not be allowed to lead official campus groups or captain sports
teams" or "be eligible for some
scholarships."
I'm thinking of the old boy who fears being called
an old boy, or being associated with old boys, and who, though recognizing
patriarchy's injustice to women, and genuinely regretting the misogyny, still has a little old boy, or middle
boy, or shit any kind of boy in him.
How much can he let women do to him? All right, you got me down, and I said uncle, but God damn
it do you have keep beating my head on the pavement?
That's the street educated, the scrapper, the Norman
Mailer. The pipe-smoker is saying,
"What about freedom of association?
What about 'safe spaces' women want set aside for themselves? What about black student centers, and
those rooms where minorities could be 'culturally comfortable'? What about the principles advanced in
arguing for these things? What
about the logic that requires consistency between principles and practice?
That's a guess at what's in the minds of males at
each end of the spectrum, and it could be wrong. If it is, though, what is
behind these astonishing vote totals for an obvious incompetent?
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