Alexandra,
I understand that the actions of some have caused you and those you know great pain. Regarding your Wespeak, I agree with you on two points, and I disagree with you on two.
First, I agree with you that in general, in America at large, the average male is a penis-driven, sports-obsessed, emotionless, thick-skulled ape, whose only goal is to prove his superiority to other such apes. This truth, while often discussed at Wes in more formal terms using words like “hierarchy” and “binary,” is, I believe, fairly well accepted.
Secondly, I agree with you that, unfortunately, there are many such types at Wesleyan. I personally live below many of them; they pee off the balcony on us and then write Wespeaks about how they’re proud of it. Sometimes they throw water balloons at us. I’m not trying to say that all males are either entirely beneficent or entirely jockholes—of course there is a continuum, and the point of this Wespeak is to combat generalizations, not make more of them. However, there are, naturally, some men who are bigger assholes than others.
My first point of contention with your Wespeak is that you ignore this continuum and generalize all males into the jockhole extreme. While such a sweeping generalization would not be true of any environment, I personally believe it is even less true of the Wesleyan bubble. I believed when applying here, and still believe, that people here are on the whole nicer than most anywhere else. I decided to come to a school like Wesleyan to get away from the type of people I described above. For this reason, it is troubling for me, and I assume for many males, to come under attack for their transgressions. I don’t mean to paint myself as some kind of angel; I do not claim any personal moral authority whatsoever. However, from among my male friends and acquaintances I could list numerous counterexamples to your generalizations.
My second disagreement with your Wespeak is the assertion that this is a uniquely male phenomenon. Both here and in the world at large, there could certainly be compiled examples of manipulative, emotionally destructive, and callous women. Certainly they exist; equally certainly, they are a small minority.
In short, I sincerely empathize with the shit that you and your friends have been put through. However, I would urge you not to let the actions of a handful of dipshit guys destroy the faith that I still hold and that I hope you can regain in this place and the people who live here. Too often there is a heavy focus on pointing out Wesleyan’s deficiencies. I argue that, while of course there are exceptions, and these exceptions can often be significant issues, overall this place is pretty much all right.
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