Σκάνδαλο στο Χάρβαρντ: Αποβλήθηκε η ανδρική ομάδα ποδοσφαίρου για
σεξιστικά σχόλια.
«Ουαί
και αλοίμονο, υμίν, γραμματείς και φαρισαίοι,
Ότι διυλίζετε
τον κώνωπα και καταπίνετε την κάμηλον»
GUARDIAN,
BBC
Ένα έγγραφο που έφερε στο φως η φοιτητική
εφημερίδα Harvard
Crimson του φημισμένου αμερικανικού πανεπιστημίου αποκαλύπτει ότι οι παίκτες της ανδρικής ομάδας ποδοσφαίρου
βαθμολογούσαν τις αθλήτριες της αντίστοιχης γυναικείας ομάδας ως προς το πόσο
ελκυστικές τις έβρισκαν.
Σύμφωνα με την εφημερίδα οι παίκτες
κυκλοφορούσαν μεταξύ τους έγγραφα με φωτογραφίες των αθλητριών και τις βαθμολογούσαν απ' το 1-10 αιτιολογώντας
την απόφασή τους.
Αλλά δεν έμεναν εκεί. Οι πρωταγωνιστές του σκανδάλου
σχολίαζαν και ποια σεξουαλική στάση
θεωρούσαν ότι προτιμούν οι κοπέλες.
Πρόκειται για μια πρακτική που κρατά
τουλάχιστον απ' το 2012, αναφέρει η Harvard Crimson.
Η πρόεδρος του πανεπιστημίου, Ντρου Φάουστ, χαρακτήρισε «αποκρουστική» την αποκάλυψη, ενώ οι αθλήτριες
δήλωσαν βαθιά απογοητευμένες απ' τη στάση των συμφοιτητών τους.
Η πανεπιστημιακή ομάδα των ανδρών κατείχε
μέχρι τώρα την πρώτη θέση στην Ivy League,
αλλά με την απόφαση αποβολής της θα χάσει το υπόλοιπο των παιχνιδιών αυτή τη
σεζόν.
ΚΑΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΑΓΓΛΟΜΑΘΕΙΣ ΦΙΛΟΥΣ
By C. Ramsey Fahs,
In what appears to have been a yearly team tradition, a
member of Harvard’s 2012 men’s soccer team produced a document that, in sexually
explicit terms, individually assessed and evaluated freshmen recruits from the
2012 women’s soccer team based on their perceived physical attractiveness and
sexual appeal.
The author and his
teammates referred to the nine-page document as a “scouting report,” and the
author circulated the document over the group’s email list on July 31, 2012.
In lewd terms, the
author of the report individually evaluated each female recruit, assigning them
numerical scores and writing paragraph-long assessments of the women. The
document also included photographs of each woman, most of which, the author
wrote, were culled from Facebook or the Internet.
The author of the “report” often included sexually explicit descriptions
of the women. He wrote of one woman that “she looks like the kind of
girl who both likes to dominate, and likes to be dominated.”
Each woman was
assigned a hypothetical sexual “position” in addition to her position on the
soccer field.
“She seems relatively
simple and probably inexperienced sexually, so I decided missionary would be
her preferred position,” the author wrote about one woman. “Doggy style,” “The
Triple Lindy,” and “cowgirl” were listed as possible positions for other women.
The author also
assigned each woman a nickname, calling one woman “Gumbi” because “her gum to
tooth ratio is about 1 to 1.”
“For that reason I am
forced to rate her a 6,” the author added.
“She seems to be very
strong, tall and manly so, I gave her a 3 because I felt bad. Not much needs to
be said on this one folks,” the author wrote about another woman.
Concluding his
assessment of one woman, the author wrote, “Yeah… She wants cock.”
The “report” appears
to have been an annual practice. At the beginning of the document, the author
writes that “while some of the scouting report last year was wrong, the overall
consensus that” a certain player “was both the hottest and the most STD ridden
was confirmed.”
Several members of
the 2012 men’s team declined to comment on the document, including whether
subsequent men’s soccer teams continued to create similar “reports.”
Before the document
was sent out to the team, an older member had emailed the list ordering that
“someone man up and send out a proper scouting report on the incoming freshman
[sic] for girl’s team.” Responding to that email, another teammate addressed
the author, writing “what the fuck where are you on this?”
When the document was
sent, several members of the team responded to the email. One member expressed
approval of the document, writing “hahahahaha well done.”
The document and the
entire email list the team used that season were, until recently, publicly
available and searchable through Google Groups, an email list-serv service
offered through Google.
Director of Athletics
Robert L. Scalise viewed the document for the first time Monday and said he had
been unaware of the document until then.
Directly after seeing
the document, he said “Any time a member of our community says things about
other people who are in our community that are disparaging, it takes away from
the potential for creating the kind of learning environment that we’d like to
have here at Harvard.”
He added: “It’s very
disappointing and disturbing that people are doing this.”
Scalise said the
document reflects issues that extend far beyond Harvard’s campus.
“We’re not insulated
from these types of things,” he said. “These things exist in our society.
Society hasn't figured out a way to stop these things from happening.”
“Whenever you have
groups of people that come together there’s a potential for this to happen,”
Scalise added.
“It could be an
individual, it could be a group, it could be a rooming group, it could be an
athletic team,” he said.
Pressed on whether
the “scouting report” affected campus culture beyond impacting “the kind of
learning environment” that Scalise described, he said “I don’t have a comment
on that right now. I have to think about it a little.”
“We need a little bit
of time to just think about it and not rush to anything,” Scalise said. “But
it’s totally inappropriate and disturbing.”
Though Scalise said
his first steps for responding to the document would “certainly” include
speaking to coaches of both men’s and women’s athletic teams, he added that
“there’s a role for the administration at the College to also play in this” in
addition to the athletics department.
Any reaction to the
document, though, should be “an internal Harvard matter,” Scalise said.
“This is not a media
thing,” Scalise said. “This is something that should be looked at by us in the
administration to figure out what our steps are, but we shouldn’t do anything
more with the media on this other than ‘thank you for letting us know about
this, okay. We need to look at it.’”
First contacted about
the document late Friday afternoon, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana did not
respond to multiple requests for an in-person meeting to view the document.
College spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an email that Khurana was unavailable
for an in-person interview. Khurana instead emailed a statement, after Dane had
viewed the document herself in person.
“As a human being,
and a member of the Harvard College community, I am always profoundly disturbed
and upset by allegations of sexism, because I feel it is wrong and antithetical
to this institution’s fundamental values,” Khurana wrote. “No one should be
objectified. In light of all the attention that has been given to issues of
inclusion, gender equity, and personal integrity at Harvard and elsewhere, we
must work together to build a community of which we can all be proud.”
Khurana also wrote
that because “I was not Dean of Harvard College in 2012 and do not have
knowledge of this particular email, I cannot speak to the alleged conduct of
these particular students.”
Evelynn M. Hammonds,
who was the Dean of the College in 2012, deferred comment to Dane.
“When I first heard
of this report from the Crimson, I was shocked and disgusted,” wrote current
Men’s Soccer Coach Pieter S. Lehrer in a statement provided by Director of
Athletic Communications Tim Williamson. “I will take this opportunity to
address this document from 2012 with my current athletes. I hope their seeing
how offensive and hurtful this is will be a valuable lesson for everyone
involved with this program.”
Neither Lehrer, who
was not the men’s soccer coach at the time of the 2012 email, nor the team’s
current captains responded directly to inquiries as to whether there were
“reports” produced after 2012.
“The information contained
in this document from 2012 is unacceptable, and I am saddened to see this level
of disrespect shown to these women,” wrote Women’s Soccer Coach Christopher P.
Hamblin in an emailed statement, adding that “since Coach Lehrer's hire in
2013, I have seen a huge shift in the culture of the men's soccer program at
Harvard.”
The document, though
written four years ago, surfaces amid a year at Harvard defined, in many ways,
by campus discourse about gender equity and campus sexual harassment. It also
comes at a time in which national conversations on the current presidential
campaign focus on the same subject. After the surfacing
of a 2005 tape in which Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump
boasts about groping women, Trump dismissed his comments as “locker-room
banter.”
In March, a
University-wide task force on sexual assault prevention released
a report aiming to address what University President Drew G. Faust called a
“troubling”
climate of sexual misconduct on campus.
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