OPINION: Con: Who Needs It? Womyn Should Grow Up

As students here at Penn, we are puzzled by the decision to allocate precious Walk space to a group which is inherently exclusionary, and promises only to construct more barriers between us based on our physical differences. This Center appears to be another over-zealous attempt by the University to embrace the backwards principles of the politically correct movement. Although recognizing and respecting the differences between groups of people is a noble pursuit, taking this recognition to a paranoid extreme counteracts the ultimate goals: tolerance, respect, and understanding. We cannot come to understand, respect, and tolerate each other if we continue to isolate ourselves and hide behind our respective euphemistic titles. We have been trying to figure out exactly what this new and improved Women's Center will contribute to the University community. Will we women finally have a convenient place to go to pick up our pills of intuitions and packets of wiles? Perhaps attend a seminar or two on the dangers of misused tampons? Or maybe we can address the eternal question: Wings or No--the Traumas of a Maxipad User? All cynicism aside, we have no desire to belittle the problems facing women today but we want to emphasis that these problems are problems that face society as a whole. We realize that matters, such as rape, bulimia, and lesbian rights, are real issues that deserve to be addressed, however revamping a center like the one proposed will not be an effective way to deal with these problems. It seems that segregating ourselves into little homogeneous groups will only heighten the problems of miscommunication and misunderstanding. How can we learn to deal with real life if half of the population is to be estranged from the discussion of problems that concern us all? Furthermore, a center devoted to counseling, advising, and providing support groups for women only reinforces the idea that we are all little more than helpless victims in need of protection from the big, bad, dirty, mean, oppressive, dominating, over-bearing, phallo-centric world of men all of whom will commit unspeakable rimes against womynhood (oh, oh the evil that men do). To prejudge men with all these horrid adjectives only amounts to a step backwards from any interaction we may hope to have on an equal basis. The prejudgments of and warnings against male-female relationships that this Women (Only) Center will provide, literally as well as by example, is as much a paranoid preventive measure as cutting off one's arm for fear of breaking it. Perhaps, instead of allocating a central location for a retreat that allows women to push all responsibility for their problems onto men and the society they've created for us, the University could truly celebrate diversity and free choice by allowing the space to be occupied by a student center that welcomes all, regardless of their genitalia or their politically correct designation. Maybe, possibly, wind-and-weather-permitting, we should encourage students to interact with each other, even if it means taking the chance that they might make friends who are not exact replicas of themselves. Maybe, given the chance to freely express themselves, students will decide to exchange laundry tips and recipes on their own and won't need to turn to the Women's Center in their times of need. Lana Barkawi is a sophomore Biology major from Las Vegas, Nevada. Ann Tracey is a sophomore Communications major from Norfolk, Connecticut.