Controversial Comments

Posted by Susan Carney Apr 16, 2007

The recent controversy surrounding Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team has stirred up quite a few issues regarding freedom of speech, racism, sexism, and censorship. They are all worthy topics for discussion. The piece that has intrigued me the most, which, coincidentally, I have heard the least rumbling about, pertains to the language that our culture routinely uses to talk about girls and women. On this point, I agree that Don Imus is certainly not solely to blame.

When I speak to my students about sexual harassment, I make it clear that the term is defined by unwanted or unwelcome comments or behavior of a sexual nature that make a person uncomfortable. That definition covers a lot of actions and content. I find it difficult to teach this topic to kids, primarily because they hear such messages everyday: messages that come not only from each other, but from the larger culture that surrounds them. We hear them in casual conversation, in music, on screens. These messages have become so pervasive that kids often don’t notice them, or think there is anything wrong with them. As I’ve said in a previous blog, maybe we need to look at the possibility that kids are being sexually harassed by our culture.

We all need to pay more attention to the kinds of derogatory terms we use to describe people on a regular basis. The comments in question were made, I would assume, because the speaker believed that others would find them funny. It isn’t a one way street. There are those who say such things, and those who laugh at such things. And that laughter gives tacit approval to describing or referencing girls in sexual terms, which wrongly and unfairly send the message that their accomplishments pale in comparison to their sexuality. That’s something we all need to work on.