Feminism calls for personal experience

Perhaps Alicia Queen, sophomore from Marietta, should herself attempt to “[r]ecall the last time [she] didn’t divorce [her] abuser because it would economically ruin [her] and [her] children, most likely causing [her] to need welfare.”

Instead, she could possibly provide us with a list of fat male CEOs of the top 100 American and European corporations. Or peruse a men’s magazine that does not remind every American male that he should be taller, fitter, more successful, more promiscuous and that he is rightfully rejected by women and society until he is.

After that, perhaps Ms. Queen would like to recount for us the last promotion that passed her up in favor of a man for improper reasons.

Then, she could tell us how a corporate structure that denied her advancement for the sole reason that she may one day have a baby managed to escape without at least having to settle a massive lawsuit. In fact, some of the premier employment discrimination attorneys in the country can be found right in Atlanta.

Ms. Queen is right insofar as she contends that full equality between men and women has not yet been achieved and that the slowness of change leaves an unconscionable number of women abandoned and ruined.

However, to claim that she has somehow been “oppressed” somewhere between her Marietta-Athens commute is simply a joke.

Worse, when Ms. Queen claims “oppression” based on the introductory material she learned in WMST 2010, it becomes much more likely that self-proclaimed “feminists,” as well as the women they claim to support, will be seen as “too passive or emotion-driven” even by those sympathetic to their cause.

DANIEL FELZ
Grad Student, Augusta
Law

VSU president disregards rights

The story of T. Hayden Barnes at Valdosta State University definitely made me pause. Reading the letter by Mr. Harris in Tuesday’s paper made me pause even further.

The president of VSU could not have thought Barnes was an immediate threat to either himself or the other students on campus if his expulsion letter was “slipped under his door.” That reeks of the president protecting himself.

From what I understand, the president also had been planning his retirement, so naming a parking deck a “memorial” is just a slight jab at humor.

It does not matter whether VSU needs more parking when it comes to Constitutional concerns. It is appalling that VSU, the Board of Regents and Harris believe that our basic civil liberties are less important than a college president’s pride and the need for more parking.

RUSI PATEL
Alumna, Dunwoody
Law