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LETTERS TO THE E llllh

"Grinnell Strengthens
* Preiudice"

To the Ellitor:

As an enlightened, progres-
sive institution of higher learn.
ing, Grinnoll doesn’t make it.

canrpns is the home of chal—

enge; the tunction at a college

is to challenge people; to make
them question their preccne
ceived opinions. A college must
make itself unbearably ii 'tat-
ing until the student under.
stands what'other people think
and knows wiry he thinks what
he does. Grinnell, however, is
an extremely poor breed' g
ground for questioning. .
hell is the home of the a priori
assumption. _

in the field of politics this
phenomenom is manifested as
follows: “Are you going to par.
ticipate in the Vietnam mora-
torium’" This question does not
mean, Are you opposed to the
war in Vietnam?” it means,
“Are you going to.express pub-
licly your (automatically as.
sumed) opposition to the war
in Vietnam?“ Well, boys and
girls, everyone in the United
States (believe it or not!) is not
opposed to the war in Vietnam.
Even more surprisingly, all perv
sons who do not actively oppose
the war are not neo-nazis, nor
even unwitting puppets of the
maniacs of the militaiyindus.
trial complex. Some of them are
human beings who have minds
and who think, even as you pur-
port to do. v

On a more “intellectual"
plane, the singular narrow.
rnindedness at the Grinnell men—
tallty is clearly seen in the fol-
lowing (extremely common) rc-

mark: "Oh, I believe in God,
but i don’t like o'rganized reli—
gion. It exploits peasants.” The
important things involved in
this statement are, again, un~
expressed. What it means is
this: “i know virtually nothing
about religion because I’m in.
tellectuaUy lazy; but I know
that you won't challenge me be-
cause you are too,,5o if we just
nod sagely to each other we
may give the appearance of be.
lng progressive, enlightened hu-
manists who are repulsed by
some horrible depravity in an
institution which we both know
well,”

Before the cries of “fascist
pig" and “filthy racist," replete
with the tedious, dogmatic cant
of “lib ~alism," obliterate all
communication, you can see for
your-self if anything I’ve said is
sensible. The next time you’re
in the library, look for a copy
of National lieview. Or if you’re
in the bookstore, look for God
and Man at Yale, But don’t look
too hard; you won’t tind it any.
way, and someone with a little
black book may be writing down

our name under the heading,
‘Suspected of reading unortho-
llox material." Or, even worse,
at the next GSM meeting you
may be accused of refusing to
aid and abet your own mental
degeneration.

Grinnell is a place where pre-
judice is strengthened rather
than rooted out. The self»pro-
claimed maxim of our genera.

Statement of Ownership

tlon, best expressed by Whit.
man, is “Resist much, obey lit—
tle.” We don‘t resist very much.
We inst obey different leaders.
in a final act of heresy, allow
me to quote the Bible:

“How can i describe this gen»

el'ation? They are liko the

children sitting in the mar.

ket~plnce and shouting to each

other,

"We piped for you and you

would not dance,
We wept and warled, and
you would not mourn"
Matthew xi, 16-17
And the big bad world is only
momentarily distracted ,by the
piping and weeping and wailing
of the children in Iowa.
Christopher Decker '72

Abolish Homecoming Queen

To the Editbr: .

A Homecoming Queen perpe-
tuates the image of a woman as
a “Barbie” doll who is only ex-
pected to be good-looking. Few
people have bothered to look
Seriously at what results from
such concepts as the Homecom-
ing Queen. This institution is
a tradition, but few realize it is
n Ll‘aditlon of exploiting Womeni

Having a Homecoming Queen
does the following things:

(1) It places a woman on n
pedestal, which pretends to
glorify her, but actually do-
grades her into an object, not a
person,

(2) It establishes an image of
what every girl “ought to be"
or how she “ought to look.”

(3) It reinforces the idea that
Women should look beautiful,
according to society’s standards.
and that’s what is most impure
tant for her.

(4) It encourages Women to
concentrate on aspects of fig-
ure. face, hair, and clothes in-
stead of the more important
human qualities:

(5) It ”honors” Caucasian
girls rather than non-Caucasian
girls, since .the latter usually
don't fit the society's standard
of beauty.

(6) It reinforces the ego of
the Women who do fit society’s
slerotype of beauty and harms
the ego of women who don’t.

(7) Homecoming Queens
elected as they were last year
by an all male group ’nforca
the idea of male superiority and
reinforces the idea that women
should gain their recognition by
appealing to men.

(8) Men are almost never put
into this kind of position. It is
considered ridiculous for them
to do so, But Every woman
should want to be a Queen.
judged only on her physical at-
traction; that's what she has
been trained to want.

(9) It encourages women to
compete against each other for
male approval; instead of try-
ing to be intelligent, active, con-
cerned people they fly to out
do each other in looking good.

(10) The idea oi a Homecom-
ing Queen says that Grinnell
College sanctions the atti—
tudes expressed above and that
the college is also using the ie~
male body to sell a product, in

Management and Circulation

Grinnell College Scarlet nnd Black, 1202 Park Street
' Grinnell, Powcshiek, Iowa, 50112

Published every Friday of

the school year by the Com-

mittee on Student Publications, Grinnell College, Grinnull,

Iowa 50112.
Editor: Mic

hacl J. Brandon

Associate Editor Tom Thomas
Business Manager: Lynn C, Adams
Avg. No. Copies

Each lssuc During
Preceding 12 Months

Total No. copies printed
Campus distribution
Mail Subscriptions

Total Pd. Circulation
Free Distribution

Total Distribution
Office Use and Left-over-
Total »

single Issue
Nearest Filing

2000
1300

428
1728
none
1728

272
2000

21728
1300
359
1659
125
1784
M4
2000

SCAR ET ND BEACK

this case Grinnell College to
the Alumni.

Women’s Liberation is I
group of people who are intelu
ested in redefining the Iemals
role. As a part of that group,
I would like to see Grinncll
College expand the possibilities
for women rather than limit:
them. The institution of Home'-
coming Queens should be end-
ed because it continues to focus
attention on women in a supere
ficial way, encouraging them to
be concerned about being
"sexy" or “pretty" in a physical
way, instead of being full, com~
plete people.

Sally Radium "Ill

opium to 5&3 Report

To the Editor:
In the Sept. 13 issue of the 83:13,
on pg. 10, “Commencement Dis-
ruptions Reviewed,” the article
states that the white nrmbands
were mm to protest: the Viet-
nam War and Tan“! degreei
(Curtiss W. Tarr. now Assistant
Secretary to the US. Air Force,
was awarded an honorary Doc-
tor of Humane Letters degree
by Gi-innell—Ed.) Your state
nlent is false. Students and
faculty who were given ""14
bands were told that the arm-
bands were a protest of this
Vietnam War only. It hi wrong
to say that “one third of the
265 students and numeroud
facility members” protested
Tarr's degree.
Eleanore Splegel ’89

(Several graduates at last
Ipring's "commencement ..cere-
tnony told an sdrn reporter that

they were wearing armbands to
protest both the War and Tarr’s

degree. The 8&3 regrets any

inconvenience caused by the re-
port to Miss Spiegel and others
who were protesting only Hie
War—Ed.) '

Student Gives Drug Proposal

To the Editor:

1 think it is to the benefit of
few that the Grinnell society
threatens to follow the lead of
many cities and perhaps the
country as a whole in becoming
a self»eliminating battleground
of cops (the administration).
robbers and dropouts (the
facultylr We need not force
these roles upon each other. Err
forts are being made within
each group to resist these divi.
clans—these efforts could be
unified without a sacrifice in
autonomy tor anyone, but rath-
er with the increase in freedom
and power that accompanies the
evolution from independence to
interdependence.

As with the American society,
dmg use at Grinnell has become
the preeminent symptom of a
deeper conflict, and as such is

otentially the most fertile area
in which to begin a resolution
of that conflict. The following
suggestions should be considered
as a star-ting point in formulat—
ing a workable and non-faction-
al policy toward drugs and drug
use at Grinneli:

(1) organize the students al-
ready helping other students
who suffer adverse drug reac~
tions or need information about
drugs into a network so that

 

mansion You where'To GO-

Oaiob'er W. W939,

any student could Contact some.
one in this network at any hour
of the day. ‘

(2) Establish a student diss
oussion committee to which
those students now called be
fore the hearing board would be
reteri-ed first. This committee
would attempt to work solutions
to individual problems or violaa
tions of a school wide policy
(see below) without any disci.
plinary action. Only in the eyenl
of flagrant or repeated viola»
tions would this committee then
refer to the hearing board.

(3) Formulate a student
policy on drug use to be pre
tented as a referendum, This
statement should be drafted by
the Student. Government Associ-
ltion, since it is ideally the
most representative body of stu—
dents on campus, but with the
native participation 0! non-
members, sinee in reality it may
not be particularly represents.
five. The policy statement
lbould include the conditions
under which the student body
as a whole would sfincuon one-
student reporting the actions of
another to the nondisciplinary
student discussion committee
(e.g., for the sale of drugs to
townspeople; since this commit-
tee would have no powers nor
any special inclinations toward
"disciplining" a student, but

The Scarlet 81 Black

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Grinnell. Iowa

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Associate E itor , Tom Thomas
husluess Manager . Lynn Adonis
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