Double Standard

Officials at Colorado College have busily been applying a double standard to free speech. They have "tried" two male students in what amounts to a kangaroo court for daring to publish a satire of a flier put out by the feminist and gender studies group on campus.

A satirical response to a feminist publication at Colorado College has landed the college and two of its students in the middle of a fierce debate over freedom of speech.

Chris Robinson and another student at the Colorado Springs institution decided to print "The Monthly Bag" after seeing copies of a feminist and gender studies newsletter, "The Monthly Rag," in restrooms around campus.

The edition of "The Monthly Rag" that prompted action included an announcement for a talk on feminist pornography, information on gender-bending practices, and a tidbit about a myth involving male castration. According to Robinson, it was representative of what appears every month.

In response, Robinson and a friend created their flier, which provided tips on chainsaw etiquette, detailed a sexual position from Men's Health magazine and provided trivia about a sniper rifle — what Robinson called information for the stereotypical macho man.Staff members removed The Bag within hours of receiving complaints that the publication was threatening.

"It was a serious concern that this thing was posted anonymously and included in bold print the performance characteristics of a sniper rifle," president Richard Celeste said. "I had to take that as a threat."

The authors appeared before a conduct committee in March and were found guilty of violating the campus conduct code. In lieu of punishment, they were ordered to host a public forum on the issues raised in the incident.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education or FIRE has been aggressive in defending the two young men. You can see the actual double standard courtesy of FIRE. Here's the Monthly Rag and here is the satirical Monthly Bag. Frankly, the Monthly Bag is considerably less offensive than the Denver Post's story makes it sound - and that wasn't all that offensive. The "threat" Celeste said he perceived is a bald statement of fact commonly available on the interwebby. Celeste must quake with terror when he reads Wikipedia.

The claim that the satire is somehow different than the original is ludicrous. Both of the pieces should enjoy equal protection under the colleges published student handbook, which states:

Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the quest for truth, the development of students, and the general well-being of society. In the pursuit of these ends, all members of the college community have such basic rights as freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of personal beliefs, and freedom from personal force and violence, threats of violence and personal abuse.

Of course, the college then continues with a statement that says they can override those rights if they feel like it. There's always fine print.

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  By Andrew X, Sunday, 13 April , 2008 @ 8:46 am

  Just to tie it all together…..
  Somehow this quote from Mickey Kaus (via Instapundit) RE: the learned Senator Obama, seems appropriate here as well:
  "I used to think working class voters had conservative values because they were bitter about their economic circumstances–welfare and immigrants were "scapegoats," part of the false consciousness that would disappear when everyone was guaranteed a good job at good wages."
  "Then I left college. …"
   

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  By Evil HR Lady, Sunday, 13 April , 2008 @ 9:05 am

  Funny thing is, I saw the two fliers before I read the articles about it, so I didn’t know which one was the "satirical" one that caused all the problems.  I had them reversed.  Oopsie!

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  By Quilly Mammoth, Sunday, 13 April , 2008 @ 9:07 am

  I wonder if this comment will appear if use IE?

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  By martian, Sunday, 13 April , 2008 @ 1:33 pm

  To paraphrase Animal Farm, "all students are equal, but some students are more equal than others."

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