The Hunter Envoy

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Alexia Arthurs Ben Siegel in better times.

Ben Siegel, Vice President of The Hunter Women's Rights Coalition, is being unfairly targeted by a group of women who attended the HWRC's recent open microphone night. During the March event, a variety of groups and individuals stepped up to the mic to perform, or voice their opinions. Siegel served as one of the evening's hosts, and provided occasional filler commentary and jokes between performances. One such spontaneous joke included a reference to heterosexual oral sex. In the tradition of nearly all sex jokes, the reference was a bit off-color. However, it was not negatively targeted towards any gender and found itself comfortably in the company of several other oral sex references made that night. Unfortunately, a few female audience members perceived the comment to be offensive to women and voiced strong objections.

In response to the complaints raised, Siegel met privately with the aggrieved group and apologized for his actions. However, it seems the women are still angry, and have decided to circulate petitions denouncing Siegel and his role as the Vice President of the HWRC.

While their first complaint was with Siegel's joke during the open mic event, I feel that their second grievance merely shows the group's displeasure with Siegel, a man, holding the position of VP of the HWRC and, in their minds, representing them as women.

Though I feel that demanding apologies and drafting petitions were petty overreactions, I am more alarmed by the implications of the second grievance. Siegel has worked diligently for the HWRC, and without him the coalition will have lost a key member and a genuine women's rights activist. Furthermore, it is these types of unnecessarily aggressive responses that give feminists and their concerns a bad name. There is a substantial deficit in the number of men working for feminist issues, and to alienate such a sincere and conscientious individual is a loss to the women's rights community.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools