Last week, an article was published in the Orient that blamed Bowdoin’s hookup culture on male entitlement. The article included a few anecdotes about inappropriate sexual encounters. I would like to make clear that I do not condone any of the described events and am not in any way justifying the actions of any party. With that being said, I wholeheartedly disagree with the crux of the article.
First off, the argument failed to follow a logical progression. It introduced a few examples of hookups gone wrong—i.e. feelings were hurt, boundaries were crossed or expectations differed. I could describe many similar situations at Bowdoin where the roles were reversed. The article then used this minuscule percentage of Bowdoin hookups to represent the hookup scene as a whole. This same kind of flawed logic is exactly how stereotypes come to exist.
Secondly, the author blatantly contradicts herself. She says that she is “not trying to generalize or stigmatize a certain group of people,” while having just said, “Men have ceased to treat women in the polite and courteous manner we deserve and have begun to view us as disposable playthings.”
Finally, the author concludes the article by declaring that her argument has proven a fact—that men at Bowdoin do not treat women with the respect that they deserve. The problem is, because her argument is fundamentally flawed, the author has no right to assert this fact. Her accusation, directed at every single male student at Bowdoin College, is that we perpetuate a disgusting hookup scene, we do not treat women with the respect that they deserve, we all assume that hookups come with “blank check consent,” we view women as disposable playthings and that we bask in self-entitlement born from our sexual ineptitude.
The author certainly has the right to look at anyone and think whatever she wants about them, but to publicly accuse a significant percentage of the Bowdoin population of heinous behavior is incredibly inappropriate. There are men on this campus who have acted poorly in sexual encounters, but there are also many who have not.
Ben Citrin is a member of the class of 2016.