The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 31, 2007 Page: 3 of 24
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2007
THE RICE THRESHER
Guest column
Third-wave feminism needs a hero
What does it mean to be a feminist
today? When Rice students were
being photographed for Playboy
this year, I heard many different
answers to this question,
some of which appeared
in the Thresher.
Certainly, the nature
of feminism has necessar-
ily changed since the First
and Second Waves —
but changed into what?
Some women claiming to
be feminists today do so
without educating them-
selves on the history of
feminism, and this is an
extremely serious prob-
lem. We all have different
ideas about what it means to be a
feminist, but we must understand
that our history is the same. There
is no easy way of describing our
current Third Wave of Feminism
because there arc so many different
factions of it.
The First Wave fought for suf-
frage. The Second Wave fought
for broader equality, especially in
the workplace. The Third Wave is
a bit more difficult to understand
because we are lighting so many
separate battles — sometimes we
even fight against each other. There
are so many different people saying
conflicting things — all claiming
to be feminists. This is extremely
harmful. For women to be truly
free we must work together as
feminists. We must be united. But
what will it take?
Last year I joined gay. lesbian,
bisexual and transgender leaders
and activists at an Equal Rights
conference in Austin. One of the key
issues at the event was recognizing
our own apathy within the Equal
Rights movement, before Proposi-
tion 2 served as a call to arms.
Laura
Lamping
Greenwell
During the Clinton administra-
tion, we thought we had a friend in
the White House and became com-
placent — we stopped organizing,
stopped fighting. Well,
women and girls: We do
not have a friend in the
White House now.
I recognize how for-
tunate I am, but even as
a white, educated, upper-
middle class woman I
encounter the boundaries
of womanhood on a daily
basis. When 1 am physi-
cally or mentally strong
I am told that I am acting
in a masculine way. Sure,
I can deal with that. I can,
and do, deal with worse gender
discrimination — but I shouldn't
have to.
But where are our activists? The
Second Wave had Gloria Steinem,
women's rights activist and founder
of Ms. magazine.
How much longer can
we pretend that women
are equal citizens
in this nation?
Our Third Wave
movement is riddled
with women who
believe that they
are asserting their
independence
and autonomy
by objectifying
themselves for the
pleasure of men.
How much longer can we pretend
that women are equal citizens in this
nation? Women must not continue to
ignore even the smallest injustices
we endure — we must rise up.
Steinem worked undercover as a
Playboy bunny waitress and wrote an
expose on the poor working condi-
tions, poor wages, sexual objectifica-
tion and harassment of "bunnies." In
sharp contrast today, ourThird Wave
movement is riddled with women
who believe that they are asserting
their independence and autonomy
by objectifying themselves for the
pleasure of men.
Who will be our Third Wave
Gloria Steinem? I refuse to believe
that she does not exist. We live in
a largely apathetic nation, its true.
But wouldn't that make an orga-
nized, mobile feminist movement
that much more powerful? The
Riot Grrl band Le Tigre shouts,
"Get off the internet/I'll meet
you in the street," and I couldn't
agree more. Let's get out of our
dorms, our apartments, our clois-
tered suburbs—lets meet at City
Hall. The marches, the rallies,
the protests of the Second Wave
must find their place in our own
Third Wave movement. We must
educate ourselves about our past
if we have any hope of securing an
equal future.
Ixiura Iximping Greenwell isaMartel
College sophomore.
Guest column
Celeb alumnus Gonzales shames Rice norms
Many universities like to brag
about their alumni, and Rice, with
its comparatively small alumni
base, has only so many famous
graduates to draw from.
But if you want a Rice
alumnus with real name
recognition, look to for-
mer Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales (Ix>vett
'79). Gonzales was a com-
mencement speaker, too—
but that was back in 2004,
when he was only White
House Counsel and hadn't
quite made a name for him-
self. Given how this grad-
uated Owl has come to the
forefront of national attention —
and given the timely announce-
ment of his resignation on Aug. 27,
the first day of classes—there are a
few questions the Rice community
might want to ask itself.
Dan
Henkoff
Of course I don't
allege that Gonzales'
Rice education led
him to become the
worst attorney general
ever — / certainly
hope there is no
relationship in
the slightest.
First and foremost, what did
Alberto Gonzales learn at Rice,
and how did he put his lessons
to use?
Did Rice help him gain the
stone-cold Texas cojones to re-
spond "I don't recall" to what
seemed like every question in
an extraordinary effort to stone-
wall Congressional
investigators as he
testified about the
U.S. Attorneys scandal?
Maybe he gained the
intellectual creativity nec-
essary to help craft the
current applications of the
unitary executive theory
and the infamous torture
memo that seemed to
declare the United States
above the Geneva Con-
vention and conventional
notions of human rights.
Perhaps Rice taught Gonzales a
reverence for history. That would
explain why he took Richard Nixon's
statement that "when the President
does it, it is not illegal" to new
heights of subversion and reinter-
pretation of the Constitution.
Maybe the strategic thinking
and political science training Gon-
zales received from, among oth-
ers, Doc C, led him to allegedly
remove scores of U.S. attorneys
from their traditionally non-partisan
positions so that they could be
replaced by lackeys as part of Karl
Rove's plan for a "permanent Repub-
lican majority."
1 lowever, Rice educations extend
beyond the classroom. Maybe Gon-
zales learned his run-out-the-clock
strategy of stalling as long as possible
from playing on Rice intramural or
college sports teams. Just think, a few
semesters' experience on the Lovett
College flag football team — or,
more likely, on the sidelines — and
Gonzales now knows what it takes
to provide cover for his higher-ups
and slow the American people's
discovery of nefarious acts.
Of course I don't allege that
Gonzales' Rice education led him to
become the worst attorney general
ever — I certainly hope there is no
relationship in the slightest. In fact,
Gonzales may just be living proof that
even the best instruction can be used
for something drastically different
than that for which it was intended.
But we should think about what it
means for Rice when Gonzales — an
apparently devoted public servant
with a Hispanic Horatio Alger back-
story turned crafty Bush lackey—is
our most prominent alumnus.
Dan Henkoff is a Hanszen College
sophomore.
Guest column
Internet activism must not
stop at saving Facebook
Alert the masses and rally
the crowds: Facebook might
be shutting down, and we must
do everything in our power to
halt what might go
down in history as
the most disastrous
event ever to alter our
daily routines.
The founders of the
social networking site
ConnectU have filed a
federal lawsuit claim-
ing that Facebook
founder Mark Zucker-
berg stole their ideas
working on computer
codes for their soon-to-
be-launched Web site, but failed
to follow through and instead
independently launched Face-
book. Zuckerberg faces charges
of copyright infringement, fraud
and misappropriation of trade
secrets, and ConnectU's found-
ers hope that the courts will shut
down Facebook and grant them
full control of the company and
its assets.
Although Facebook has ex-
isted for less than four years, it
already hosts profiles for more
than 35 million users, including
more than 85 percent of college
students. Facebook is currently
the seventh most visited Web site
in the United States, and only
time will tell whether it will be
a temporary fad or whether it
will remain a permanent fixture
of our daily lives.
When Facebook addicts —
um, users — heard that they
soon might need to find alternate
means of communication, they
did not take the news well. The
users decided to take action —
but not the old-fashioned type of
action that requires actually do-
ing something. Rather, as news of
the federal case against Zucker-
berg spread, thousands created
groups to "petition" against the
closure of Facebook — the larg-
est one has over 1.3 million upset
Facebook users demanding that
the courts rule in Zuckerberg's
favor. College students and other
Facebookers have chosen their
battle and now are cyber-rallying
for their cause. And who said that
activism on college campuses
was dead?
A few days ago I signed onto
Facebook — yes, I'm addicted
too — and found that I had in-
vitations to four different Save
Facebook groups. I realized
then that it was time to question
our full time commitment to the
Web site. There is nothing wrong
Julia
Ager
with Facebook: It connects us to
both new and long-lost friends,
allows us to communicate with
our siblings who live far away,
and lets us share our
pictures for free. De-
spite the Facebook
horror stories and the
necessity of Facebook
detox for many heavy
users the site's social
networking ability is
both smart and help-
ful. What troubles me
about the Facebook
fad, however, is that
it seems to be one of
the only things that
our generation is committed
to. College students are rallied-
up and ready to fight, but it
isn't for an end to poverty or a
solution to the war in Iraq — it's
for Facebook.
The vast technological ad-
vances that have been intro-
duced during our lifetimes are
exciting, but we must not let our
generation's fascination with and
commitment to recent discover-
ies hinder our activism in other
areas of life. Our country is at
war, our government is divided,
and new medical advances are
on the brink of discovery. Our
generation has got a lot to fight
about and even more to fight
for. We must rethink what is
important in our lives. We can
fight for Facebook too — by all
means Save Facebook! But let's
not forget the opportunity and
power that can lie with groups
united by and committed to
their beliefs.
In generations past, Ameri-
cans have rallied for causes and
succeeded in bringing about
change. We can use the technol-
ogy new to our generation to fight
for what we believe. Internet-
based activism has proven to
be a success—candidates use
the internet to rally supporters,
raise money, and spread informa-
tion about themselves and their
beliefs to others. This year's
Democratic presidential debate
allowed many voices to be heard
when CNN asked constituents to
submit questions to candidates
viavoutube.com. Even Facebook
itself is now used to raise money
for social causes and rally politi-
cal activism. We must pick and
choose our battles and then fight
for them; let's make the Face-
book cause one of many.
Julia Ager is a Lovett College
sophomore.
the Rice Thresher
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Bursten, Julia. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 31, 2007, newspaper, August 31, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443104/m1/3/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.