Letter to the Editor

Dylan Matthias,

I’d like to take this opportunity to address you as well as the Dal Gazette, pertaining to the article Smile You’re at a Protest. Slutwalk and Take Back the Night are protests that intend to remove blame from women who have been sexually abused, and to make the statement that sexual abuse is inexcusable. Your article takes the blame from yourself, for not so much as trying to get consent for the images published, and puts it on the women at both protests.

You have successfully accomplished the exact thing women were challenging through their participation at Slutwalk and Take Back the Night. It is one thing to disregard ethics in your chosen profession, yet when the story trumps ethical reasoning then that evidently creates a problem. I do not so much as agree with the way you’ve chosen to express your frustration with the woman whose photograph was taken at Slutwalk. By publishing the article Smile You’re at a Protest, you not only belittle the unbiased reader by talking down to them, but you have personally offended each person, male or female, whom attended Slutwalk and Take Back the Night.

Putting your personal satisfaction over the integrity of the Gazette displays poor judgment on your part. In your article you mention the media’s freedom to take photos on public property, however, what you conveniently omitted was the fact that at the minimum verbal consent is needed for the photos to be published. Ignoring the fact that the author of the Slutwalk article was not present at the event she was outlining, the honor of the Dalhousie Gazette has significantly been compromised.

Unfortunately your actions and those of your staff have created anger in many of the Gazette’s readers, as well as acted as a deterrent for readers in the future. I hope my frustration with the Gazette’s actions has been communicated clearly to you and your staff, and I look forward to reading another of your personal retribution articles in tomorrow’s paper.

Lauren Simone