On January 20th, the Dalhousie Student Union Equity and Accessibility Office, NSPIRG, and South House held a meeting on sexism, misogyny, and rape culture.
Approximately 40 students and community members were in attendance. Students made up the majority of attendees because they felt safe discussing the issues in the university environment, one attendee speculated. Anticipating difficult and emotionally overwhelming discussion, mediators from South House and NSPIRG promised privacy and created a safe space in a room of the SUB that attendees could go to if they needed to take a break.
Although attendees appeared to have little to say about the topic at the beginning of the meeting, discussion began when they split into several smaller groups. Students from a variety of faculties – including philosophy and social work – were able to inject many different perspectives into the discussion.
Regardless of their faculty, while students wanted more transparency from the school, all were content with how their faculties were tackling the problem through class discussion.
Thoughts on the 13 male dentistry students who were suspended by Dalhousie for being part of a misogynistic Facebook group varied: some attendees thought that four months is not enough time to help them, some thought the homophobic element of the posts in the group deserved more attention, and others were tired of hearing people say that the men would never change. On Jan. 20 one of the 13 men, Ryan Millet, broke his silence to let the media know he feels his case has been mishandled. Attendees were in agreement that the timing of Ryan Millet’s interview was suspicious and were uninclined to believe his claims.
However, mediators tried to redirect the focus of the meeting to both the women directly involved and the rest of the women at Dalhousie, acknowledging how easy it is focus all of the attention on the men. Many attendees expressed rage on the women’s behalf and agreed that problems at the school existed before the dentistry scandal drew attention to them.
Attendees wondered how to go about teaching ethics to university students. Several community members at the meeting had worked with women who are targets of misogyny around the country, and wished for a larger role in classroom discussion in order to alter the university environment of the privileged instructing the privileged.
There was consensus that Dalhousie should establish an oppression awareness requirement. The credits could be obtained by choosing from a variety of courses that educate students about intersectionality or by doing volunteer work in the community.
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