A Sexist RUS

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I would like to publicly thank the Radcliffe Union of Students for their wonderful idea of having a women-only dining hall in Holmes on Monday night. This gave me the much-needed opportunity to spit and swear and tell bawdy jokes with "the guys" over in Comstock dining hall without having to worry about offending those "pretty young things" over in Holmes.

One thing irked me, though. Wasn't RUS being just as sexist with its women-only dining hall as I was with my preposterous jokes? After all, it had excluded half of humanity from its presence simply on the basis of biological traits. Something's wrong here.

I don't deny the womens' right to do this, much as I was inconvenienced by being thrown out of my dining hall. But I think it's quite unhealthy for both sexes. Before I go on, let me say that I am an avid feminist. I've marched for ERA, fought for abortion rights, cursed Phyllis Schafly in my sleep, and waved Title IX in the faces of numerous administrators. But why should the sexes be treated so differently? To wipe out these unfair and degrading differences in treatment, it's important that all people, male and female, work together and discuss the problems of sexism openly. To exclude males, as RUS did with this women-only dining hall, is a severe blow to this process.

Why did these women isolate themselves? One reason offered is that they want to discuss women's issues. Have they ever thought that men may also want to discuss women's issues, and furthermore have a valuable perspective? Another reason is that they want to strengthen a common identity. Have they ever thought that a common identity should be based upon shared beliefs, instead of shared biological traits?

No, I don't want females to be assimilated into a "male world." I want to help build a new world--one in which all people relate to each other as humans, instead of as representatives of their sexes. But I feel RUS is trying to thwart this aim. By encouraging the separation of the sexes, it only perpetuates misunderstanding between the sexes and detracts from the process of true human liberation for everyone. And they insult me by making me an enemy in their implied "war of the sexes." Doug Kruse '81