Smith Misrepresents Perspective’s Women’s Issue

To the editors:

Perspective thinks the Dartboard by Luke Smith ’04 response to the recent Perspective Women’s Issue demonstrates exactly the unjustified generalizations and lack of nuanced debate which make such an issue necessary (“Perspective’s Girl Talk,” April 16). In addition to holding Perspective responsible for emasculating men (and, a fortiori, the popularity of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”), Smith misrepresents Perspective and misconstrues and trivializes the idea of gender equality.

First, Smith criticizes Perspective for arguing that “due to the deeply personal nature of sexual assault,” the Ad Board should not require corroborating evidence before “investigating rape charges”(emphasis Perspective’s). Smith writes: “Harvard, in other words, oppresses women by not instantly transforming its Administrative Board into a kangaroo court with a diminished burden of proof.” It’s difficult to recognize Perspective’s argument that requiring “independent corroborating evidence” before even investigating an assault places an unfair burden on victims.

Next, Smith criticizes Professor of Physics Melissa Franklin and Julia H. Fawcett ’04 for perpetuating “the fallacy that women can’t succeed in a competitive environment.” Rather than “harp on differences between men and women,” Perspective should realize that “the common humanity both genders share is a real basis for equality” and that “an entire issue devoted to one gender has consequences.” Perspective thinks Smith misses the point. Gender equality, and any sort of equality for that matter, is not about assuming away human differences and adopting the stance that we respect equality as long as we are blind to diversity. Such a merely formal equality fails to remedy the deep-seated unfairness of an institutional structure which gives some people a greater opportunity than others to advance their most fundamental interests. We must recognize that the rules and organizations we create have a profound and pervasive influence on people’s aims, aspirations, and self-respect. Who would argue that there is equality in a society which disproportionately discourages people of a particular race or gender from pursuing their aims and realizing their potential? Equality means respecting diversity by allowing different people to develop and exercise their distinctive skills. We group people together not to stereotype, but to identify inequalities amidst the great variety of talents and goals.

It is not “exclusionary” to call for all-female spaces (like the campus women’s centers at every other Ivy League college) which encourage a form of interaction that is not otherwise available, particularly considering the prominence of all-male final clubs in campus social life. Likewise, we need not stereotype all women as the same to see a problem in the fact that women in the sciences who are as gifted and motivated as their male peers are much more likely to become discouraged and abandon their ambitions. As Professor Howard Georgi told The Crimson last June, “In the sciences, it’s so obvious there’s a problem that recognizing there’s a problem is not the issue.”  The issue is figuring out how the environment is unfair to women and then proposing solutions—this is precisely what “The Women’s Issue” tries to do.

JASON T. ABALUCK ’06

April 18, 2004

The writer is president of Perspective.