I enjoy opening the newspaper to the letters and opinions section to hear the opinions of members of the community, whether it's the world community in The Washington Post or the campus community in The Signal (stay far, far away from Maureen Dowd in the NY Times). I am a conservative, but most of my friends are liberals - we have healthy discussions and usually end up agreeing to disagree. However, the latest round of letters was on the border between asinine and annoying.
First, Mr. Esposito did not fail to understand the point of the monologues. It would be more appropriate to say that Eve Ensler and the "vagina warriors" (whatever that even means) fail to understand the idea behind offensive speech. There is a reason racial slurs are offensive, and a reason words related to human genitalia are offensive. I guess we're supposed to buy wholesale into this claim that the inappropriateness of discussing vaginas equates to sexism and oppression of women. It's almost as absurd as the "lesbian continuum". Come on. A large majority of this campus community fails to understand that the reason we don't use offensive speech is because it offends people! I support the warriors' right to present the Vagina Monologues, but there is a reason high school boys laugh when they draw penises on desks as well. There's no robbery of a feminist heritage in restraining ourselves from discussing sexual matters in public.
Then there's Gary Woodward. Ph.D., author, professor, and chair of the communication studies department. His academic resume is impressive, but that's all the more reason to ask why he takes pleasure in sparring with an undergraduate in a college newspaper? I'll admit I enjoy watching liberals get red-faced as much as anyone, but Dr. Woodward would have us ignore the positive effects of democracy, and the fact that people do not feel the need to resort to violence when they feel they can accomplish their goals without violence. The millions of Iraqi citizens, pious Muslims and otherwise, who voted in the recent election sent a clear message that the Islamo-fascist way of dictators past is not acceptable.
And Matthews Park's letter was humorous in that crude offensive way. I know newspapers enjoy offending conservatives, but I didn't know The Signal was in the business of printing letters that are wantonly uninformed.
SL Whitesell II
