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OPINION
The Daily Campus
FRIDAY n JANUARY 25, 2013
Quote Worthy
humanity
“This is an historic step for equality and for recognizing the role women have, and will continue to play, in the defense of our nation,” — Democratic Senator Patty Murray, on allowing women to serve in front-line combat. “When I heard that, I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record … next time I’ll probably do the same.” —Aretha Franklin, on Beyonce lip-syncing the national anthem at the inauguration “There’s this tendency to think that I want to shock people, but [‘Kill Your Darlings’] is not a shocking film. It’s a beautiful film and a powerful film and an emotionally fraught one, but I don’t think it’s shocking.” —Daniel Radcliffe, on his latest film. “I think that honesty is always the best bet and that the truth will set you free.” — Sheryl Crow on ex-boyfriend Lance Armstrong’s doping firing line
Morality without God In the past week or so, an essay contributed to CNN’s iReport by Deborah Mitchell has drawn significant response from readers. Mitchell, a Texas resident, started a blog a few years ago about raising her children without religion and the challenges that come along with such an undertaking. In spite of the ire she has aroused from some members of different religious communities, I commend Ms. Mitchell for writing this essay. As the number of religiously unaffiliated people in this country steadily increases, I think it’s important for us atheist and agnostic citizens to make clear that we are not morally deficient and are just as capable of raising well-adjusted children as any other person of faith.
Sexual assaults stem from deeper issues michael dearman Contributing Writer mdearman@smu.edu The plague of sexual assaults at SMU is tied to a much deeper problem than just the challenge of keeping women and men safe from predators on campus. It concerns the sexual culture of the community as a whole and how one might go about changing it. Rape is not solely a sexual act, but an act of power, violation, and degradation. It stems from a mindset unconcerned with the intrinsic worth of individuals, and this mindset prevails on many, if not most, college campuses in the United States. Rampant objectification is clearly not a novel phenomenon here on the Hilltop, but throughout the United States, which is why these are not incidents isolated to colleges and universities. Sexual objectification becomes really ugly when it destroys the lives of individuals in an act of sexual assault, but that is clearly not where the objectification begins. Assault is the ultimate outworking of objectification, which begins in the individual mind. If we constantly expose ourselves to media that depicts sex as something to be consumed like any other item, then we not
only degrade sexuality, but we open ourselves up to an alteration of our mindset as well. Recent research in psychology and neuroscience demonstrates how watching porn over extended periods of time alters one’s brain chemistry. Yet Forbes reports that the porn industry continues to turn, by conservative estimates, a $4 billion profit. Forbes’ analysis included adult video sales, Internet sites, pay-per-view movies, and magazines, but says nothing about the actual consumption of porn from free sources. Regardless of how much the porn industry makes, porn is merely an overt example of objectification for the sake of personal pleasure. The sale of consumer goods using sexuality (most commonly using female images, but male portrayals are not exempt either) serves to reinforce and take advantage of an already degrading respect for sexuality. The problem of objectification seems to manifest itself, regrettably, most often in the Greek community on campus. That is not to disparage fraternities or sororities in theory, as the necessity of community through brotherhood and sisterhood is
commendable and essential, but the culture has questionable effects on the behavior of individuals. Commodification of sexuality will not disappear by cracking down on parties or by enforcing penalties on fraternities for violating university policy. Instead, people will change when they decide to have higher respect for the intrinsic worth of the other and exercise wisdom. That means that “no” really does mean no and that protecting each other from sexual assault is a necessary duty. Instead of encouraging each other to engage in risky, undignified behavior, we need to see a change in attitude toward sexuality. Instead of viewing one’s sexual partner as an object of pleasure, one must view the other as an autonomous being of the same worth as oneself. The encouragement of objectification goes both ways. Some willingly accept it and some willfully seek targets of it, both male and female. I want to clarify that I am not victim-blaming those who have been sexually assaulted. Those individuals deserve love, care and support unconditionally. All I mean to say is the desire to be objectified and to objectify another person are
equally wrong because they are drawn from the same source of disrespect for human sexuality. These characterize two distinct types of desires – to be possessed and to possess – which both turn oneself or another into an object, which is distinctly different from a human being. I come at all of this from a Christian world view, which leads me to recognize the intrinsic value of each individual and to acknowledge the transcendent value of human sexuality. But what I have emphasized is not exclusive to Christians or other people of faith. What I have said is not applicable only to a bunch of shut-ins and prudes. I am not targeting one group but all individuals at SMU to realize that transforming someone into an object of sexual desire is degrading to oneself and the other. It is tantamount to a declaration of that person’s subhuman worth instead of the full consideration of his or her value as a human being with the same right to respectful treatment as anyone else. Dearman is a junior majoring in philosophy, political science and English.
— Brandon Bub, SMU junior
firing line
The death of liberalism A few days ago in an article on Salon, a woman argued that while she believes that life begins at conception, she was still pro-choice because she believed that the life of the mother was worth more than the life of the child. While I appreciate her honesty, her position shows just how far liberalism has fallen. The central tenet of liberalism, of classical Lockean liberalism, was that all men are created equal. That was the justification for liberal support of ending slavery, of supporting civil rights, and liberalism has always won out on these issues because “all men are created equal” is such an easy ideal to agree with. This pro-choice position in Salon, the only scientifically literate prochoice position, could not be less liberal. And it is precisely the illiberal nature of that argument that makes me so confident it will lose out in the end. — Tucker Keene, Online Editor
Courtesy of MCT Campus
MIGR ATION
Being ‘First Name Unknown’ creates a sense of identity loss abhijit sunil Contributing Writer abhijitsunil@gmail.com The U.S. definitely teaches you many things: especially if you are an international student who has traveled to study here for the first time. And one of those lessons is the importance of a surname. Now as humans, we take many things for granted in life. Sometimes the people we love, our comfort zones and the luxuries we can afford are just aspects of everyday life. But little would we think of how much we take for granted our most important identity: our names. I should know. I have the egregious handicap of not having a surname altogether. My name simply is my first name and my middle name, which is my father’s name. This, of course, has been the custom and practice of many families and communities from the South of India where I hail from. Generations of my forefathers have never had a surname. We lived happily this way, too. Our schools and universities
blissfully acknowledge this sentiment and make no fuss about it. All my life in India, whenever I filled out an application or told my name to a government official, I would gleefully explain that I only have a first and middle name. The government official by default would ask me if I am South Indian, and then we would proceed to talk about the beautiful natural forests and cuisines there for the next five minutes. So, when I applied for my passport, I made sure that my name was spelled correctly and that the surname field was left blank. Of course, I knew hundreds of others who had the same name format, and I was almost proud that my name was unique until I decided to pursue graduate studies in the U.S. Then, my bubble burst right on my face. That’s when Uncle Sam reprimanded me in no gentle terms for my sin. Here in the U.S., all government records and identities are indexed and classified according to surnames. The surname fields in any document or application are
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always mandatory. Thus, when I received my I20 form, it had christened me as FNU Abhijit Sunil, where the university put in my given names as my surname and First Name Unknown. This apparently is the norm that the U.S. government instructs universities to follow for special cases like mine. But this was just the start. The Visa officials follow a completely different set of norms, and they split my name and put my father’s name as my surname. So, by the time I had flown to the US, I was already the proud owner of three sets of names. But this was just the beginning of my journey. When I applied for my Social Security number, the Social Security office stylized my name according to my I20, following their own norms. But, when I applied for a driver’s license, they informed me that my Social Security card has to match my visa. But, the Social Security office follows the I20, which follows my passport which doesn’t have a surname. Yes, this indeed looks like a menza
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Applicants wait to apply for the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals. The U.S. started accepting applications to allow them to avoid deportation and get a work permit.
puzzle. If I solve this, I will get my driver’s license. The root solution, of course, now seems that I should change my passport to include a surname
and stylize it according to my visa. This experience definitely teaches me to acknowledge the simple ‘pleasures’ of life you cannot take for granted – not even your
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own name. Sunil is a graduate student in the Lyle School of Engineering.
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