If you’re headed for college for the first time this fall, you need to be aware of some
strange new developments. Don’t be alarmed by what I am about to say. Most of you are
going to be very happy at college and will thrive there. But you need to know what to expect.
Coming up next on the Factual Feminist: how to negotiate your way through the wacky sexual politics on campus.
Colleges throughout the United States are carried away with eccentric gender politics.
In general, the higher the tuition, the greater the eccentricity. At
schools with a more working class population, the students often have more pressing concerns
than finding new ways to be offended. As an incoming freshman, many of you will be subject
to special training sessions and introduced to a new vocabulary with unusual terms like “trigger warnings,”
“othering,” “microaggression,” “male privilege,” and “safe spaces.”
Outside Speakers—especially comedians— will be called out and boycotted for breaches
of sensitivity. Colleges are changing their mission: Truth seeking is being replaced by
the more sensitive goal of making everyone—especially female students-- feel safe and validated.
Ideas that get in the way of this mission may not tolerated. Well, here are three survival
tips—custom-tailored to your political views—plus a fourth, bonus tip for everybody.
Number one: If you are libertarian or conservative, no one is that concerned with your feelings.
That’s actually a good thing. You’re going to face a challenging intellectual environment.
According to a recent UCLA study, there are nearly 5 times more liberal professors than
conservative professors on college campuses. Your views are going to be tested every day, but most
of your teachers will treat you respectfully. Your ideas are going to face critical scrutiny and
you may end up revising or abandoning some of them. Again, that’s a good thing. That’s
what education is supposed to be about—and it’s something many liberal students are missing.
What is not good is that a noisy minority of students—and a few professors—will
see you as the embodiment of evil. If you express your opinions vigorously, some classmates
may complain to school authorities that your presence makes them feel “unsafe.” But
here is the bright side. Even at schools overrun by the new orthodoxy, you will find great
friends and allies, male and female, and professors too, whether they agree with you or not.
Now, if you are liberal and idealistic, and also a woman, you face a different sort of risk.
When you get to campus you will find a large and excited group of gender activists—students
and some professors—eager to recruit you to their cause. They will present you with
shocking statistics of sexual violence on campus, and theories about an oppressive patriarchy.
They will tell you how mistreated and traumatized you are. It will seem new and exciting to you.
Maybe a way to make friends and fight injustice at the same time—and you may be tempted to
sign up. Just be aware that most of the victim statistics you will hear are wildly exaggerated
and the theories about women’s oppression are twisted and surreal. As for trigger warnings
and safe spaces—these are infantile. They are the opposite of empowerment. It’s the
fashion on many campuses to treat women as delicate flowers—fragile little birds. But most of you are tough
and resilient. The gender activists I am describing will probably say, “Don’t listen to her.”
“Don’t take her word for anything.” Well, that’s true you shouldn’t take my
word on these matters. You shouldn’t take anybody’s word. Think for yourself. And remember that your
feminist foremothers fought and won a battle for your right to be educated on a par with men.
They knew you were tough, and they wanted you to have the opportunity to put that strength
to use. Don’t waste it by falling captive to a pointless ideology or indulging in victimhood.
Take serious classes in philosophy, science, and history. Avoid courses that luxuriate
in female oppression. Third bit of advice: If you are a liberal and idealistic man, you may face an
even greater risk. You probably think of yourself as an open-minded, well-intended progressive.
But many on campus will not see you that way. Today many college women practice gender profiling.
It’s the fashion among activists to judge men by the worst members of their sex and
women by the best. Many of your attempts to exonerate yourself or your friends will be
dismissed as “mansplaining.” To save yourself from excommunication, you’ll be asked engage
in a fair amount of self-flagellation and male-bashing. But don’t do it. Have some
dignity. Don’t be the guy who sends tweets like this.
Today’s campus manias are not going to last. Sooner or later, the age-old virtues of higher education will reassert
themselves—free speech, intellectual diversity, open inquiry, vigorous competition of ideas, mutual respect.
If you learn to be a critical, independent thinker yourself, you can play a part in this intellectual renaissance.
Well, let me know what you think about today’s politically charged, safe-spaced campus.
And if you’ve been to college recently or have kids in college, do you agree with my characterization?
I welcome your comments. If you appreciate this series please subscribe,
follow me on Twitter and Facebook—and thank you for watching the Factual Feminist.