4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, Ocotober 11, 1993 U7bE ,£id~iguu flg Shr as Toas 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed - by students at the University of Michigan JOSH DUBOW Editor in Chief ANDREw LEVY Editorial Page Editor A ON s WA Sro YouNGTo 0063N ODL*K1URNth ...AM Too o t.v rO k FISHY IN rE KOWN AN W... T ~'V'ITV WAR-**I!NvesER. srorw... F " Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board. All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Sit this one out 0 The Law School shouldn't join in the Colorado boycott T he Queer Law Students Association (QLSA) recently called for the Law School to join the increasingly popular boycott of Colorado by ban- ning Colorado law firms from using University facilities to recruit. The boycott is an effort to force Colorado to overturn its anti-gay-rights Amendment 2. Although Colorado's Amendment 2 is deplorable and the general boycott commendable, the Univer- sity has no place joining it. Colorado's Amendment 2 prohibits any legisla- tion that would protect the rights of homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals from being passed anywhere in Colorado. This legislation is a gross violation of the civil rights of Colorado homosexual, lesbian and bisexual citizens. And while the boycott of Colorado is completely justified, the Law School has no busi- ness participating. The purpose of the boycott is to force the over- turning of this amendment through economic pres- sure. Prohibiting Colorado law firms from recruiting at the Law School would have no significant effect on the Colorado economy; those firmhs will simply recruit elsewhere. True, these law firms will no longer have access to recruiting some ofthe country's best new lawyers..But Michigan's Law School is far from being the only law school to produce fine attorneys. Joining the boycott will simply serve to limit the employment opportunities of University students. The Law School, or any other part of the Univer- sity, should not subject potential employers to a political litmus test before allowing them to recruit on campus. QLSA has asked that Colorado firms that ....THLI , XrAKe VAur iN MyFrr1sr- AMERICAN WAR~: can demonstrate they are actively working to over- turn the amendment be exempted from the ban. But this is an ambiguous position that would be difficult, if not impossible, to define. The Law School has no right to determine the politics of students' employ- ers, yet this is exactly what instituting this ban would accomplish. Without the availability of University facilities, firms will simply recruit elsewhere. Law School students, not the school itself, should be allowed to choose where they will work andwho they willwork for. The Law School has no right to limit that choice. Amendment 2 is a dangerous step backward in the fight for civil rights for all citizens of this country. It would allow open discrimination against many Colorado citizens, something that is abso- lutely unacceptable and probably unconstitutional. No citizen should ever have to face discrimination on the basis of any factor - whether it's race, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, etc. Amendment 2 must be overturned, and Colorado firms should work toward that. However, it is inap- propriate for the Law School to sit injudgement in the meantime, demanding proof from prospective employers that the politics of their firms are accept- able. Colorado's Amendment 2 is disastrous. It opens the door for Colorado to deprive American citizens of their basic civil rights. Still, the Law School must recognize that its students must decide for them- selves whether they wish to work in that state. The Law School must reject the arguments of QLSA and not join in the boycott. _ U Men are also victims of sexual assault elly was raped. A knife wielding rapist stripped WSKelly of all traces of human decency and self, teem Klly, experienced the same feelings. as many female rape victims - helplessness, anger, shock and guilt. And, just like many women, Kelly was wary of calling the police and reporting the rape. However, Kelly's feelings and fears were com- pounded. Kelly was a man. We use the term "was" because Kelly's feelings of self-worth as both a man and a human being have been brutally shred. But, sadly, Kelly's attacker isn't the only one at fault. A societal paradigm that teaches men to be strong and to never display emotion must also bear some of the blame for the damage done to Kelly and to all male victims of sexual assault. Rape is a crime of violence. Anyone -anyone - can be a victim. According to Dr. Andre Modigliani, associate professor of sociology, rape victims fit no particular genre. A person's race, socioeconomic background, religion, etc., doesn't exclude them from possible victimization. Unfortunately, the idea of male rape victims tends to be more of a joke to many. Granted, many more females are raped than males. Furthermore, date rape of women is a widespread and growing problem on college campuses that needs to be dealt with. Never- theless, men are victims also. And, as such, men are subject to the same stresses that many female rape victims must cope with. For instance, according to Kristi Breen, a counse- for at Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC), men tend to be more afraid of reporting being raped thanwomen. Although both male and female rape survivors are often scrutinized or even ostracized (many times unfairly) by society, men tend to bear a crueler scrutiny because, unlike many women, "their sexual orientation is ques- tioned and questions about their masculinity may arise," according to Ms. Breen. In short, the idea of a male rape victim is consid- ered an absurdity by many in this country. Only wimps and gay men can be raped, some say. But this attitude only fosters old fallacies and stereotypes. Just like women, mentend to be afraid of reporting rape, not so much because of the rape itself, but because of their fear of the public's reaction to them for having the "audacity" to be "victims." Rape is no joke, and it doesn't become a joke simply because a victim just so happens to be male. We as a society must do more to combat this serious ill plaguing America. We must also become more sensitive to the feelings of male rape victims. Men are not gods. Men are humans with the same emotions as women. Rape strips women and men of much of their dignity. Let us not compound men's hurt and confusion with ridicule, scorn and lies. Let us love them and support them through their suffer- ing. Let us remember that male rape victims are just that - victims. Let us not add to their torture due to our unwill- ingness to believe them. Pornimage By CAROL JACOBSON Why is the University of MIchigan so afraid to deal with censorship on its own campus? One year ago, the art exhibit, "Porn'im'age'ry: Picturing Prostitutes" was censored, sight unseen, at an anti-porn conference sponsored by the law school and The Michigan Journal of Gender and Law. Called "pornographic" and ordered down, the exhibit had presented a point of view that favored the decriminalization of prostitution. This clashed with the view dominating the conference, which reflected the anti-pornography position of University law professor Catharine MacKinnon and Keynote speaker, Andrea Dworkin. Unfortunately, the pervasive silence among university faculty on the incident has served the forces of censorship on campus considerably. During the past year the seven artists - with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Feminist Anti- Censorship Task Force (FACT) and others - have waged an uphill battle against the Michigan Law School to reinstall the exhibit and to hold a feminist anti-censorship forum to address the banning of the exhibit and the rights of sex workers to speak for themselves. While the campus turned its back on censorship, a national coalition of supporters from the broader arts', feminist, sex workers', academic, legal and anti-censorship communities rallied and registered their protests in a variety of public ways. "The Village Voice" called for a "fax attack" on Dean Lee Bollinger, who was stalling on negotiations. The New School for Social Research and The City University of New York sponsored conferences which discussed the Jacobson is the artist who created Porn'im'age'ry The earth is clearly not round To the Daily: In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan, the first supposed circumnavigator of the earth, departed from Spain and began a myth that has sailed on into today. This explorer, who supposedly brought proof to bare that the earth was round, in fact never even completed hisvoyage. Arriving in the Philippines several years later, Magellan was apprehended and brutally slaughtered by natives; a sad end to the life of a courageous man. What was then assumed by European cartographers, in their attempts to bring enlightenment to the citizens of the Dark Ages, was that if only Magellan had been able to complete his voyage he would have returned home safely to Spain. Oh, how we have been misled! In fact, there is no "proof" and has never been any proof that the earth is round.-The TRUTH, as recently uncovered by our diligent revisionist staff, is that the earth is in reality shaped like a large bowl, somewhat like the glass that descends over a pheasant at your ' yreturns tc case. Prostitutes of New York (PONY), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other feminist and sex workers' groups issued press releases. Women's Action Coalition (WAC) led petition drives. Newspapers on both coasts as well as art, legal and academic journals, public radio and television news covered it. By last spring, the ACLU had negotiated an agreement on behalf of the artists. The law school had agreed to: * Reinstall the exhibit at law school expense. " Pay the artists $3,000 in settlement of all claims. * Invite the artists to speak at the opening of the exhibit. - A proposal to hold a public forum to address issues arising out of the controversy in conjunction with the reinstallation. Despite its commitments, the law school made no concrete progress on arranging or scheduling the events throughout the remainder of the spring or summer. Instead: * Promises to invite specific speakers, including Carole Vance, a professor of Anthropology from Columbia University who is a specialist on both the sex debates and the culture wars, Holly Hughes, a performance artist who was one of, the NEA Four, and Deborah Willis, a curator from the Smithsonian, were revoked. " Commitments to panels and subjects relating to the feminist, race and class dimensions of censorship were withdrawn or recast to support a conservative position. * All honoraria and expenses of the artists were denied. * Legitimate expenses to reinstall the exhibit were rejected. Finally, in late August the ACLU wrote to President Duderstadt, threatening to sue for breach of contract if the University did not F 01 I eamnlic honor its agreement to reinstall and hold the forum. In response, Dean Bollinger set a definite date to reinstall the exhibit and hold a forum in the law school October 15-16. The artists have remained determined throughout the past year to see the exhibit reinstalled despite the law school's constant -and for the artists, costly -stonewalling, a television news report that opponents might disrupt the exhibit if it's reinstalled, and Catharine MacKinnon's threat to sue our lawyers for libel. We believe there are many students and faculty on campus who want to see it, and who oppose tactics that employ bullying . and abuses of power to suppress dissenting views that are based on sex, race,class and other differences:. Through this fight we have resolved to challenge both the laws that criminalize women for sex work and-: the censorship that continues to assault the arts community. Censorship can only be defeated when it is seen for the instrument of social control that it is. Historically, it has been used against women and others to systematically erase whole cultures. We must now begin to use it for open, public discussion and an opportunity for education. Unfortunately, that will not happen at the law school this fall. Having won the right to reinstall, the artists are being forced to bear much of the cost of reinstallation, and to pay our own way to attend and speak at the opening. The accompanying forum does not honor the original commitments: it is a substitute for the forum that should have been held. We wonder why the law school is so afraid to address the central questions involved in this controversy: points that would seriously challenge the ongoing censorship of feminist sexual imagery and raise within the legal community the important issue of prostitutes' rights. issenting opinions Cod b C0oradoboct is Premature truth, your flying time and fare should be cut in half due to fact that you merely have to shoot across the flat underbelly of the earth, resting comfortably in a Shanghai hotel within 10 hours. "How has this gone unchallenged for so long?" you might ask. With printing presses rolling, annually shooting out textbooks, posters, and bumper stickers that say "think globally,"scientists, journalists, and government officials have cowered before the task of re-educating the populace. Consider for a moment how long Native Americans were called Indians despite the absence of any connection between residents of Topeka and those of New Delhi. You cannot recall an idea like you can a faulty Saturn automobile or Perrier water. We at the Magellan Revisionist Society will not accept such lies! Though major institutions such as NASA may oppose the unearthing of this information we cannot allow our fellow man to suffer the sad misrepresentation of the very ground he walks on Though there may be. By Eugene Bowen In framing the various articles and laws of the U.S. Constitution, our founding fathers made one of their smartest moves when describ- ing the judicial system of this infant country. Judges, they declared, will be appointed, not elected. A very simple move, but not without pro- found implications. Since judges are appointed to their posts and, in general, can not be removed from their offices by a popu- lar vote, those of the iudicial branch. issue are expressed can outgreat country honestly be termed egalitarian. NOAH SIEGEL. DAN SELIGMANN Magellan Revisionist Committee w - or determining the constitutionality of a law, were put in a position where public pressure shouldn't be of much, if any, influence. In short, ourjudges have the right to do their work free of any and all public pressure. However, for all their intense study and knowledge in the field of law, members of the Queer Law Students Alliance (QLSA) and some Law school faculty seem to have forgotten about this right of judges. Currently the OSA isnronosin a that Amendment 2 is no longer in the hands of the people; it's in the hands of the judicial branch ofgovernment. This also means that if the Law school supports a boycott now, it wouldn't put pressure on the people of Colo- rado to rescind Amendment 2 (the measure is no longer in the hands of the people). It wouldput publicpres- sure on the judges. But judges have the right to do their work free of any and all public pressure, right? Right. So, a boycott at this time wouldhe nremature. The Bylaw amendment doesn't protect Christian groups To the Daily: In your editorial of 9/29, you state "Including homosexuals in the Regents' Bylaw is not meant to be a means for censoring student groups." I agree. But the intent of the bylaw may not correspond with its enforcement. Consider these examples: MSA has a rule which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Five years ago, that rule was used to ban a Christian organization from campus because it would hypothetically deny a position of leadership to apracticing bnmnenual _ -