Are we 'woman haterz'?

"We, He-Men, are sick and tired of our status with women. We have been too submissive to their lustful persuasiveness. We, He-Men, have been duped by the powers of the pirate hookers from whore island and other women who imitate their innate 'skills'."

These words, written and posted by a male Princeton student, serve to describe the purpose of the "Princeton He-man Woman Haterz Club," a Princeton-specific (and publicly viewable) student group formed on facebook.com. Sadly, this group's membership is comprised of approximately two-dozen additional Princeton men.

Pardon me — "He-Men." The "He-Man" credo goes on to assert the need to reestablish the "superiority for men on this campus," and foretells the impending "time for the age of man" at Princeton. The group also expresses gratitude to the University "for giving us women on this campus," clearly implying that women were admitted strictly for the gratification of men.

The more optimistic among us might have hoped that we had evolved past the archaic and misogynistic ethos that has plagued our nation in the past and that regrettably persists in many parts of the modern world. The mentality evinced by our very own "Woman Haterz Club" goes beyond regression — it is a bafflingly proud backlash against the perpetual struggle for gender equality for which countless women (and men!) have fought and suffered. That some students have reacted poorly to the push for equality is made apparent by the group's doctrine; that 20-plus other Princeton males have aligned with such a regressive philosophy is proof that our campus, despite significant strides, has yet to fully acknowledge the extent of the gender inequality that still pervades our community.

To be clear, it is not my intention to single out any particular individual or group of individuals; the existence of the "Woman Haterz Club" is problematic, to be sure, but I would argue that it is symptomatic of a more global problem. I write to draw attention to the casual misogyny that many of us observe, experience, or propagate in our daily lives.

One might make the argument that this Facebook group was created in jest, and that the intent is to entertain rather than to exercise misogyny. Even if this is the case, we have to ask ourselves: Why is this entertaining? As a community, how can we both promote mutual respect for all our members AND laugh at crude nostalgia for a time when the systematic subjugation and objectification of women was more acceptable? It is indeed in poor taste even to feign adherence to an antiquated and oppressive ideology when women have only recently become part of the social and intellectual fabric at Princeton. Language that makes light of female subordination and casually sexualizes and objectifies women only reinforces our tolerance of misogyny in our campus and world culture.

It is critical to realize that the "Woman Haterz" club's rhetoric is an overt manifestation of something more insidious: That our social norms accommodate more serious but disturbingly common (and too often unacknowledged) references to violence against women. Casual statements like "that history test raped me" only serve to support tolerance of misogyny and gender inequality in our social environment.

As a man, I'm disappointed by the actions of those who have elected to publicly send the message, even in jest, that women are inherently threatening sexual objects that must be subjugated in order for men to feel comfortable. This implies, quite directly, that respect is a zero-sum game in which one group always dominates and the other group is always dominated. I am, however, exceptionally proud of the many men at Princeton who have chosen to support and nourish a campus culture of respect, diversity and equality. I can only hope that a renewed discussion of the status of gender on our campus can help dissolve the injustice and prejudice that still remains, and that we, as a community, can redefine what it really means to be a Princeton man. Dante Ricci is a Molecular Biology graduate student. He can be reached at dricci@princeton.edu.