From: Kristine Johnson Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Backlash at Penn State (fwd) Date: 19 Jul 1993 14:01:06 -0400 Organization: Trivializers R Us Lines: 78 Approved: pw@panix.com Message-ID: <199307152059.AA09003@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> [Moderator's note: exceedingly long headers trimmed. The originator of this message can be found at the bottom of the text -- pw] The women at Penn State need your support. Yesterday, criminal charges were filed by PSU against two women students for their alleged participation in a protest against sexism at this university. Let me give you some background. For two years a newspaper, called The Lionhearted has attacked the Women's Studies Program, the student women's group, Womyn's Concerns, women columnists - anyone who speaks up for women on campus. This paper is financed and supported, quite publicly and proudly, by a PSU trustee member - Ben Novak. The Lionhearted calls their sexist attack a "two year expose" of "incompetent teachers, politicized curricula and de factor censorship of student thought in the women's studies program." The Lionhearted's tactics have been lesbian-baiting and, more recently, attacking those women who speak out against violence against women on campus. The paper has attacked individual women's studies instructors, and called for the elimination of the women's studies budget and program at PSU. They have secretly tape recorded my class, then published a distorted and editorialized transcript in their paper. They have printed excerpts from (and condemned): Suzanne Pharr's Homophobia- A Weapon of Sexism, Barbara Macdonald's Look Me In the Eye- Old Women, Aging and Ageism, and Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle. Numerous times they have reprinted, and ridiculed, copies of class hand outs, including guidelines for discussion adapted from those of Lynn Weber Canon. (I could go on and on!!) For two years the women at PSU have asked for a response and support from the administration. None has come. (The president has even granted a two-part interview to The Lionhearted.) Also, when students went to personally ask for support, president Joab Thomas said he couldn't speak out against a trustee member. Therefore, the silence has been deafening. The women's community has responded by throwing away The Lionhearted. (The paper is left in racks on campus and is free.) This spring the viciousness of the men's (and they are all men) attack became even worse. A woman wrote a column in support of the annual Take Back the Night March. The Lionhearted reprinted it (after being denied permission) and wrote an attack against the columnist, the Take Back the Night March, and women activists in general. Most disturbing of all, they took the picture of the woman columnist and placed it on a pornographic cartoon of a woman in bed. The caption read: Feminist At Work. This defamation sparked another round of throwing away the newspaper . The local community newspaper responded by offering to reprint for free all of the "stolen" copies of The Lionhearted. The women's community held a protest rally. Police were there and used tactics, such as photographing demonstrators, to intimidate the women. The police also started calling women and threatening them with charges for taking The Lionhearted. A local journalist group offered a reward of $250 for anyone who would provide evidence against any women who took The Lionhearted. Yesterday, the PSU police filed charges of theft, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy against two women students. The women at PSU need your support. Write to President Joab Thomas, 201 Old Main, University Park, PA 16802 or fax to 814-863-8583. Also, you can write to the other board of trustee members care of the Trustee's Office, 205 Old Main, University Park, PA 16802 or fax 814-863-4631. Please send copies to me: Donna Hughes, 13 Sparks Bldg., University Park, PA 16802 or fax 814-692-5514. Thank you for whatever support you can give. -- Post articles to soc.feminism, or send email to feminism@ncar.ucar.edu. Questions and comments should be sent to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu. This news group is moderated by several people, so please use the mail aliases. Your article should be posted within several days. Rejections notified by email.