This morning, IvyGate reported on the past writings of Anthony Esolen, a professor of English at Providence College who will present “The Person as a Gift” this Monday as part of Undergraduates for a Better Yale’s True Love Week. In 2006, Esolen penned what he calls “Ten Arguments for Sanity,” which, upon reading, may prove a questionable title for this vitriolic and often outrageous work. IvyGate does a good job of breaking down Professor Esolen’s ten rationalizations for opposing gay marriage, but I’d like to include a few of my favorite points here:
Accepting homosexuality means the end of platonic friendships between males.
- “Now the condonement of homosexuality prevents [men] from publicly preferring the company of their own sex…Confess, reader: if you come upon two teenage boys in a pond skinny-dipping, it is the first thing you will think, and you will think it despite the obvious fact that before bathing suits were invented it was the only way two boys could ever be found swimming.”
- “Since, given the many years we expect our children to be in school and then college, most will not marry until long after puberty, why on earth would we want to hurry the onset of the troubles? Would we of all people not want instead that our children should not even think seriously about the opposite sex until well into their teenage years, at the earliest? But if homosexual “marriage” is accepted, there can be no such wise deferral. We will be visiting a crisis of identity upon every child in our society. That in fact is the intention of many homosexual activists, whose revenge upon the children who were once cruel or indifferent to them is to afflict other children with doubts, to make them endure the questions that they themselves endured. All this is done under the guise of charity for the homosexual teenager; but the true charity would refrain from plunging children into the trouble in the first place, and would instead offer what another commentator has called an ‘unambiguous expectation of heterosexuality.’”
- “On what grounds could we deny a marriage license to an adult brother and sister?…Why stop here? What about people whose desires cannot be fulfilled unless they perform sexual actions in public? Or with animals? Or with precocious children? Or with the dead — so long as the dead can be shown to have consented?”
Bias and prejudice are good for gay people!
- “If people understand that some folks are unfortunately attracted to members of their own sex, and if, while they neither seek to reveal it nor feel compelled to punish it, they make it known as a matter of cultural custom that they do not approve of it, then the homosexual is provided with a sane and merciful curb on his behavior.That explains why homosexuals seem to plunge further and further into the bizarre and self-destructive, precisely in those places where bigotry against them is slight or nonexistent.”
- “If male homosexuality has its source in painful events in childhood, then it is to be expected that male homosexuals will be preoccupied with childhood; many of them will be attracted to boys, just as they were when they were boys and the natural attraction was frustrated or cruelly rejected.”
Professor Eleson’s “Ten Arguments” are specious, biased, and offensive. They run contrary to UBYC’s stated mission of “promoting…respect for others.” And frankly, someone so clearly hateful as Professor Eleson has no place in a week ostensibly dedicated to true love.
Get excited Yale! Sex Week is actually happening, so much so that there is an actual website, an actual schedule, and an actual counter-event! Check out the spiffy site for all there is to know about the events from February 4th- 14th. The event descriptions are for the most part very detailed, to the extent that a few clicks can take you into very not safe for seminar territory. But start perusing, and make sure to take note of the kick-off event this Friday night. The event, called “Sex Geek Chic!” starts with “45 minutes of dirty storytelling with Bawdy Storytelling’s four greatest performers, including founder Dixie De La Tour and XXX Haiku World Champion, Tatyana Brown.” Then the Dukes Men will perform. Just some very logical, ordinary stuff. Only at Yale, you know?
No, I'm actually not.
As our campus hurtles toward the event that launched a thousand op-eds, mailboxes were hit last night with yet another volley in the war of attrition that has developed around Sex Week: an email alerting us to “Undergraduates for a Better Yale College presents…True Love Week,” which will run parallel to Sex Week. For those of us who hadn’t previously realized that sex and true love are antithetical, it may come as a bit of a surprise that UBYC is choosing to promote this event as an “alternative” to Sex Week, rather than as a series of talks (albeit of perhaps a differing viewpoint) that could dovetail quite nicely with–instead of existing in opposition to–Sex Week’s focus on “sexuality, intimacy, and relationships“ and its already stated view that “sexual culture is not homogenous.” Some of these events sound quite interesting: “chastity,” “relationship intelligence,” and post-marital sex are certainly all important parts of sexual culture and deserve to be addressed during Sex Week. It just seems like a shame that UBYC is choosing to extract themselves and their viewpoints from a meaningful conversation that’s already taking place.
"Dude, you think it'd be manlier if I didn't smile? How about half-way like *this*? K cool.
Those in favor of breaking down absurd gender norms, beware! Harvey “C-minus” Mansfield will be visiting campus tomorrow for a Pierson College Master’s Tea. A professor of government at Harvard, the conservate politician (and self-proclaimed authority on everything man) will give a speech on “The Nature of Manliness.” Spoiler alert: when suddenly asked to define manliness, Mansfield briefly defined the term as “confidence in a situation of risk. A manly man has to know what he is doing.” Given his overwhelming/obvious brilliance, you can expect this tea to be packed. The tea is scheduled for 4pm at the Pierson Master’s House; regardless of your political inclinations, this won’t be a Master’s tea to miss. If you’re planning attending, just be sure to first ask yourself: can you really handle all that manliness in one room? Lastly, I’ve attached a few of his other quotes in hopes that you get a more complete picture of his sheer brilliance.
“To resist rape a woman needs more than martial arts and more than the police; she needs a certain ladylike modesty enabling her to take offense at unwanted encroachment.” (Manliness, p. 144)
“[W]omen, innately, have less capacity than men at the highest levels of science. I think it’s probably true. It’s common sense if you just look at who the top scientists are.” (“Of Manliness and Men,” NYT 3-12-2006)
some claim yale men have trouble with this
There’s a new blog on the internets full of advice for guys lacking in the dating/sex/romance skills. It’s called By Yale Women for Yale Men (or the Yale Man’s Guide), and it’s by “a group of Yale women who think that Yale men just don’t understand [them].” The first post was on January 22nd, and now there are already about two dozen comprehensive entries on topics ranging from texting dynamics to “Why it’s not okay to hook up with her best friend.” And the best news for (straight) guys: it’s all written from the girls’ point of view. It’s a little concerning to hear that Yale guys are so bad at this stuff that people felt compelled to make a blog about it (especially a blog that takes the time to list over twenty movies suitable for the specific purpose of helping you move out of the friend zone, and especially after Maria Yagoda’s YDN article on the subject). But apparently that’s what’s up.
Ever feel like the helping hand of big government is missing in your life? Do you feel lost in the whirlwind of activity around you, without a popularly elected student official to improve your Yale experience? Do you demand a greater level of government transparency in return for your tuition dollars? Fear not, woebegone Yalies, YCC has risen to the challenge of answering your silent, despairing pleas with consistent briefs of what their efforts for social uplift have done to transform your everyday life.
Yale.edu/whathasyccdone/ lets you know what it has done after you told it what you wanted done. Think of it as a virtual pat on the back. You can rest assured that your thirst for information will be quenched, your tribulations trampled, your misgivings maimed and your qualms quelled. Even a cursory survey of the website will leave you without a doubt that the YCC has had profound impacts on Yale’s everyday culture. A sampling of its more salient accomplishments includes: working closely with university administrators to expand Yale’s cereal options (I for one, can’t stand eating the same cereal twice in a fortnight), revamping campus advertising for upcoming, and clearly under-publicized Master’s Teas in the YCC Weekly (…a newsletter?), and developing the SIS operating system that emails you each time a grade is posted. However, amid my frantic, rapturous thoughts of how my life would now be, I saw a flaw: how would I stay informed on-the-go? Would my daily doses of YCC self-congratulatory updates be limited to the times that I could surf the web on my cumbersome Macbook? It seemed almost too good to be true. But alas! The YCC once again has the remedy: a mobile app! That’s right, the YCC site is available anytime, anywhere. So, next time you’re feeling belittled by the harsh, unforgiving Yale life style, remember that YCC is there to look out for you, and your cinnamon toast crunch. NB: This app is far more suitable than Angry Birds for on-commode entertainment.
– Logan Gregoire-Wright
"A trip through Strawberry Fields"....on acid
After reading the website for producer Scott Friedman, I’m convinced that this event will be nothing short of ridiculously cool. Today, at 7:00pm in the Stiles Master’s house, Friedman will host a 60-minute presentation on “A Trip Through Strawberry Fields.” No word on whether this is a literal acid trip or not, or if this is even an actual Stiles Master’s Tea. Regardless, the reviews for Friedman’s work have all been glowing and this event is both free and open to all students (and only students). If you have a free sixty minutes, check it out; there’s nothing to get hung about. Strawberry Fields forever, guys.
It's always pretty cool when a Yalie's work goes straight from the YDN to the legit blogosphere.
Straight female: “Uh…duh. Since when has this been news?”
Straight male: “What!!!??!?!?!?!? My mind is blown!”
Gay female: “Thank god I don’t have to deal with this shit.”
Gay male: “Honey, what Yale guys are you talking about?”
A huge New York Times article just broke that uncovered the actual situation surrounding Patrick Witt’s much publicized choice between The Game and the Rhodes scholarship. Apparently the Rhodes withdrew Witt’s candidacy offer after learning of sexual harassment accusations against him by an undergraduate woman at Yale. According to the article, Witt is no longer enrolled and has not graduated. More to come, but this is yet another bad story for Yale football, and it’s bringing Yale’s handling of sexual misconduct into the public eye yet again.
Image from Yale University Athletics
A new behind the scenes video from the set of the upcoming Judd Apatow HBO series “Girls” has hit the web, and Yale’s own Allison Williams ’10 is right there. The series follows three young women in New York City, and it’s the brainchild of Lena Dunham (of “Tiny Furniture” fame). It’s supposed to be Dunham’s way of filling the culture void on the young female experience today. In the video, Williams sums up the three main characters with “Yes, we’re smart, I guess we’ve read a lot of books, but we still don’t know when to stop texting boys.”
The tiniest pic of the craziest TA.
Apparently getting into Nemerov’s art history class was only the first part of a bizarre journey for the students lucky enough to get Margherita Viggiano as a TA. IvyGate just posted her entire correspondence with Edward Barnaby, the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, in which Barnaby fires Viggiano and she fires back with the longest angriest emails we’ve read in a long time. Nemerov is also CC’d on all the emails. Apparently Viggiano posted all of the messages on her blog for a short period of time (not short enough for Ivy Gate not to save them, in PDF no less).
The emails are generally pretty crazy, with Viggiano accusing Barnaby of everything from discrimination against her Catholicism to blind obedience to Nemerov and his sworn “allegiance” Phi Beta Kappa. She writes in one (of MANY) emails that ”The truth is that Nemerov, who states on his CV his membership and allegiance with the Phi Beta Kappa of Haun Saussy, wanted to take away my job before tomorrow’s section. And you just carried out his orders.”
Oh man. This is a little bit cringe-worthy, kind of like seeing teachers fighting in the faculty lounge at your middle school. Only add in that one of your teachers thinks your school is a satanic cult. (Viggiano is not joking around about this.) Read and get a glimpse into the TA underworld.
The plus means "plus all your information"
Hey everyone! Google’s got a new privacy policy, and it affects you. Basically it allows Google to share your information across all its services. Don’t want that to happen? Well guess what–
Deal with it. You have no choice.
Hurrah internet!
Photo courtesy of Flickr user AJC1.
...but there's a "table" in "vegetable"
I became a vegetarian over winter break (post-Eating Animals). I’m taking it one day at a time, and Friday makes a month. The reason I mention this is that I’m a major fan of sandwiches. I used to plot my college existence within a coordinate system of Wenzels (Alpha Delta), chicken parm subs (A1), and buffalo chicken wraps (The Trolley Stop (Calhoun Buttery)). But now, those options are gone. It’s rough. I miss chicken tremendously.
If you’re in my predicament, here are a few vegetarian sandwiches to get you through the day. I’m new to this, so this is a pathetically incomplete list, and suggestions for other (non-Clare’s) veg options would be greatly appreciated.
- Eggplant parm (A1) - Eggplant Wenzel (Alpha Delta) - Tempesto (Booktrader) - Two eggs with lettuce, onion, tomato and herb mayonnaise on a bagel (ABP) - Grilled cheese / PB + J from dining hallsPhoto courtesy of Flickr user muammerokumus.
