The Feminist Wire: Part 2

Gadson

Aliyah

As a current conversation from the feminist perspective, I believe that the

University handled the situation incorrectly. I also believe that the negative,
harmful, and disrespectful responses were unnecessary and out of line. Although it
is great that we have resources such as the Feminist Wire who can defend women
like Caroline Luby for speaking their minds, I feel as though no one was right in this
situation.
A lot of times women, feminists in particular, are bashed for making
something out of nothing. I feel as though this is one of those situations. Although
Caroline Luby was drawing a parallel between the mascot and recent events at
UConn, it came across that she felt as though the University, specifically President
Susan Herbst, was enabling the behavior of some of the male students. In my
personal opinion, her assumption that the tougher mascot was more masculine is
contradictory to her feminine beliefs. It is not fair to say that just because the
mascot appears tougher it is more masculine. Her own behavior exhibits toughness,
does that mean that she is more masculine?
As I stated earlier, I feel as though she was trying to draw a parallel or make
use of extended metaphor; however, not everyone would view her message that
way. Although I cannot speak on her original intent, a lot of people could argue that
she went off on tangent out of anger, frustration, and spite. I do feel as though
people forget that she has the right to free speech just like they do when they bash
her. The holes in her argument were brought up in some of the articles; however,
like I stated earlier, I feel as though the situation was taken out of context and
became out of hand. It is great though that the events post open-letter led to
awareness of issues that women in particular were facing on this campus as well as
rape culture and rape on college campuses in general.
I do not feel as though the Professors who backed Luby were treated fairly at
all, but I do see how it could lead to a disconnect between staff at their university.
What we post online can be very effective and also very detrimental. It all depends
on who reads it, whose attention it catches, and how it is composed. You never
know when what you say will have a huge impact.