Panel debates campus views on sex, gender

A panel held yesterday in the Frist Campus Center on the media's role in shaping views about sex and gender on college campuses was the scene of considerable and often passionate debate.

The impetus for the panel — sponsored by the Organization of Women Leaders — was a controversial Men's Health article by Laurence Stains that named Princeton one of the nation's top 10 "male-friendly schools."

Members of the panel — which included 'Prince' Editor-in-Chief Richard Just '01 — discussed whether Stains' article endorsed an anti-female or chauvinistic sentiment among some collegiate males.

Stains, who was a member of the panel, maintained that his article was designed to criticize campuses on which males are unnecessarily uncomfortable and the subject of "out-and-out scorn."

Citing his belief that women "rule" in academia today, Stains argued that his article was designed to help prospective college students determine where they would be most comfortable.

But students on the panel and in the audience said they believe Stains' article did much more than help males determine where they might find a supportive and tolerant environment.

Terrace Club president and panel member Nili Safavi '01 took issue with the criteria used in the article to determine which campuses were male-friendly. By referring to rigorous university sex codes as "silly rules," and calling those campuses with such rules anti-male, the article "belittles rape," Safavi said.

OWL treasurer Josephine Decker '03 said the factors Stains chose as male-friendly could be viewed as meaning "anti-female."

And when Stains asked the audience if University females were comfortable with how they are treated at Princeton, a small but vocal chorus of "no"s filled the room.

Indeed, many female students on the panel and in the audience remarked that gender relations at Princeton must be improved.