We are two of over 350 students who are strongly opposed to Tucker Max's appearance on our campus this Wednesday night. This event is a slap in the face to the women on campus, the sexual abuse survivors, the sexual and racial minorities he denigrates with unprintable slurs, the physically disabled, and anyone who does not fit into a white, Western-European, narrow-minded standard of beauty. We are appalled and disgusted that the HOP deems it acceptable to use our tuition dollars to bring a man to campus who routinely and blithely refers to women as "cum dumpsters" and "hos" and believes that "[y]our gender is hard-wired for whoredom," especially in light of the fervent and widespread opposition from students, faculty, and some members of the administration.
Max's misogyny veers into hate speech and endorsement of male entitlement, implied consent and rape. Welcoming him onto our campus gives his words a veneer of legitimacy and acceptability that they do not deserve. This HOP-sanctioned event gives the young men of this campus the wrong impression that Max's attitude and actions should be both glorified and mimicked. In the course of our protest, we were called - to our faces - "c---s," "fat bitches" and "whores," by male students - ostensibly our intellectual equals - who, taking a cue from Max, view misogyny and hate speech as a viable response to peaceful dissent. By bringing Max to campus, the HOP irresponsibly reinforces hateful, entitled attitudes, codifying them into the public discourse. Cheering on these attitudes further dehumanizes women and paves the way towards eventual acts of (sexual) violence, which happen - often - on our campus. Between one fifth and one fourth of college-aged women will be sexually assaulted by the time they graduate. Why has an internationally ranked university become a forum for Max to further his hate speech?
Imagine if Max's violent statements were applied to any other minority group. If he had said that "Muslims aren't real people" instead of "fat chicks aren't real people," if he had said that, "Basic human rights do not apply to Asians" instead of, "Basic human rights do not apply to fat, loud, annoying women," if he had threatened to "grind up [Jews] into pig fodder" instead of grinding up women, the HOP would never have allowed him to set foot on our campus. By inviting him here, the HOP is effectively telling us that it is okay, because, "He's just talking about women." The women of this campus are effectively being told that we do not matter to the University or to the world, that our concerns mean nothing, that it is entertaining and we should shut up and take the joke.
This event is a mockery of free speech. If students are desperate to hear Max's drunken, misogynistic prattle, they can go see his movie or buy his book with their own money, or even listen to him speak, just not on our University campus. Using our tuition money to give this pig a legitimate platform at our top-ranked University is an unacceptable perversion of free speech, and destroys the safe learning environment that this University should be fostering. The HOP has legitimized Max by calling him "controversial," implying that his pathetic shtick has any sort of intellectual or comedic utility. It does not. This is not "controversy." None of Max's hateful blanket statements are rooted in reality or fact, and none of them are subject to debate. He is not a political figure with contentious views, or a controversial comedian whose act is predicated on pushing our limits and giving uncomfortable voice to our marginalized impulses. Tucker Max is a washed-up, 35-year-old wannabe frat-boy desperately trying to relive the glory days, relying on hate speech and misogyny to do it. If HOP members wanted controversy, they could have gotten someone who did not - at his best - insult our collective intelligence and - at his worst - endorse the objectification and date-rape of the women on this campus.
HOP members keep thanking us for the "educational opportunity" that our activism has provided the student body. This statement - while well-intentioned - dodges responsibility for their oversight, instead passing off their egregious insensitivity to the insulted party, effectively inviting us, the maligned, to clean up their mess. It is not our job to educate this campus about the unacceptability of misogyny. We are not here to spearhead a battle that should have been won long ago - that women are people and deserve to be treated as such. We resent that the HOP wastes its time issuing PC statements about its "support" of this "teachable moment" when its refusal to cancel this speech proves that HOP members have learned nothing.
