Whitworth University is no stranger to controversy. One could even argue that it’s part of the school’s mission. Conflict is the natural by-product of diversity. The trick isn’t to avoid conflict, but rather to channel it into productive debate.
That, in a nutshell, is one of the primary goals of Core 350: encouraging debate in order to create synthesized solutions to real-world problems. It’s a great concept, and a fantastic capstone to a Whitworth education. It’s an opportunity to put feet to the wide variety of ideas we’ve been presented with during our time here. And while 350 isn’t a perfect program (and the Core team would be the first to admit that), it is a good effort that will continue to get better as the team works out the bugs.
One of those bugs took center stage last Tuesday. For the last few semesters, the theatre department has worked with the Core team to produce an interactive skit that seeks to simulate a realistic situation for students to respond to. Check out the news story for more of the details.
Historically, the skit has centered around the issue of racism. This semester, however, the theatre squad putting on the program decided to do it on sexism. All well and good so far.
The controversy erupts from the way the program was received by the Core 350 audience. Students weren’t sure how to react to the scenario–the situation centered around a male at a workplace telling sexist jokes and making offensive remarks to a newly hired woman. After talking to several students, I got the feeling it wasn’t all that different from a situation one might expect to see on an episode of “The Office.” And unfortunately for those that put the skit together, “The Office” is funny.
So people laughed. Or some people did, at least. And when it came time for students to volunteer to intervene in the skit to change its outcome, most of those that volunteered didn’t treat the scenario with a lot of seriousness.
While some felt that this was done deliberately to affirm sexism or to treat the scenario like a joke, I suspect it wasn’t quite this malicious. It definitely wasn’t in at least one case–senior Michael Wittwer, one of the students who volunteered and appeared to support the sexist character, is deeply apologetic about his actions.
“I tried to be funny when I shouldn’t have,” he said. “I made a mistake.”
I feel for him. Several students expressed the feeling that they hadn’t been prepared for the subject. But even if the Core team had addressed sexism before the skit, the truth is that sexism is difficult to even solidly define, much less combat effectively.
Sexism is difficult to tackle, largely because our culture hasn’t come to any conclusions on what it is, exactly. Conservative Christians have one idea; militant feminists have entirely another. And there are a plethora of positions both more and less extreme than either of those.
Bring up the subject with another student, and chances are high that while you’ll find some things to agree on (i.e., treating women like sexual objects is definitely in the “do-not” category), there will be a great many other things that will be harder to agree on.
Issues of biological differences, psychological differences, nature vs. nurture, gender roles, Biblical manhood and womanhood, equal opportunity, and a myriad other facets quickly arise during any discussion of the topic.
So the uproar that resulted from the Core 350 exercise really shouldn’t be as surprising or offensive as it is eye-opening. Sexism, however you define it, is a real issue in our world. The exercise served as a hard-to-ignore indication that Whitworth students aren’t sure how to deal with it.
We shouldn’t be shocked by this; I would argue we shouldn’t even waste too much time being upset about it. Rather, we should address it. Core 350 in particular must spend more time on the subject; classes in general should spend less time talking about sexism as a concept and more time talking about how to address it practically. Students should be encouraged to not only detect and define sexist situations, but to solve them.
Our culture has wrestled with sexism since its inception, and while great strides have been made, there is still much disagreement on the proper way to define and deal with sexist situations. Whitworth students should be shining exceptions to this trend.
While there will likely always be disagreements on the finer points of the issue, I sincerely hope we can get to a point where the audience no longer sits and laughs while sexism plays out before its eyes. We’re better than that. Whitworth is better than that.
Let’s rise to the occasion.
Jarvis is a junior majoring in journalism. Comments can be sent to jerod.jarvis@whitworthian.com.
OPINION: A need revealed
Core 350 theatre exercise reveals a need for better education in dealing with sexism appropriately
Published: Monday, May 3, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, May 4, 2010 17:05
4 comments
Persecute the heretic, not the class clown.