by Paul Naumann
Staff Writer
If you look at practically any co-ed organization on the Mountain, you’ll see that the majority of leadership positions are filled by female students. I have seen this in practically every student organization on campus: the executive members of the Crew Team, the editors of the Sewanee Purple, and the office-holding members of Alpha Phi Omega are all populated with strong, capable female leaders. This is certainly a good thing overall, building a future of strong capable women leading the world. But this is a little odd on a campus with a gender divide that is practically 50/50. What is the reason for this divide? Spoon-fed mythology about capable men, student body tired of upholding it? Deluded that they are so great that they don’t need to do anything else to prove themselves in the eyes of the world? Biases in jobmarket would certainly confirm that.
Perhaps reciprocating cycle causes the gendered divide: no strong men in leadership roles for budding young citizens to hold themselves to, instead aspiring to the ideals of drunken fratty culture. Except, SGA has consistently had male president for a long time now. Perhaps our own biases play into this – we trust male presence/ thus more likely to elect more often despite being proven that women are capable leaders elsewhere on campus. The student body seems so assured of male excellence, though we seem unwilling to notice that it isn’t in fact so excellent. For instance, misbehavior from practically every frat-star on campus, as evidenced by any woman who’s been harassed leaving Trez, massively disrespectful language to women that gets tolerated on Yik Yak and/or your fraternity email thread/Facebook page, or even nationally with the theft and distribution of various female celebrity nudes recently.
As a whole, we are too secure in a collective brotherhood. Unwilling to change ways or realize that our collective behavior is unacceptable. Not all men act with this disrespect, but the ones who do cause the trouble for all women on campus, and all other men are hesitant to call out their shitty behavior. For the love of god, hold yourself and others to a higher standard, get involved, build a better world for all.