Lampoon Cartoon Sexism

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Picture a cartoon: there is a burly man and a wide-eyed, voluptuous women in bed. The man asks, "Honey, remember the FIRST time we had SEX?" She gazes up at him and replies, "Mmmhmm..." "Why didn't you press charges?" he wonders.

In my opinion, that's not funny. This cartoon is from page 41 of the latest issue of The Harvard Lampoon, our humor magazine. "Humor" is not license to mock suffering. This cartoon is not only tasteless and offensive, but it reflects an overwhelming amount of insensitivity to an issue which touches everyone at our school. It says that it is fine for a man to force a woman to have sex against her will, because "no means yes" and rape is something a woman really gets off on. If this woman slept with this man after he apparently raped her, then that would have to mean that she did not mind being forced to have sex with him. The cartoon's message is a dangerous one: men may help themselves to anyone at anytime. Rape is not a serious matter, but is an inconvenience to men in situations where women are uncooperative.

To joke is at least to passively condone. Even if these jokes are just vestiges of past attitudes--which I wish they were--still, to make them, and especially to publish them, is to reinforce the bigotry they express. I am not accusing anyone of being a rapist. However, I am shocked not only that anyone would create such a cartoon or think it was funny, but even more, that through the entire editorial process, not one person on the staff of The Lampoon was aware enough of what this cartoon stated to object to it. This lack of awareness says a lot about how people easily make light of that which does not affect them.

I like to think of Harvard as a progressive place full of thoughtful people. Wake up, Lampoon. If you're this blind and arrogant, then you shouldn't publish. Sarah Milius '92