Jacob Bartholomew says he will always remember the night Don McPherson changed his life. McPherson spoke at the ‘Home to the Dome’ annual event for incoming students during Bartholomew’s freshman year in 2006.

McPherson addressed the students with words about hate-speech, sexism and hegemonic male dominance – a theme that seemed to stick with Bartholomew.

Laying in his bed that night, he began to partake in what he described as a ‘deep-routed process in unlearning the sexist and male dominant patterns that (he) perpetrated every day,’ he said.

Bartholomew, a master’s student at SU studying the cultural foundation of education and a coordinator of the Intergroup Dialogue Outreach, was one of six members of a panel that addressed the topic of male’s role in feminism.

The panel, titled ‘What it means to be a man and a feminist,’ was held Tuesday and is part of a series of events leading up to the Office of Prevention Services’, ‘Take Back the Night’ event that begins tonight.

‘If there is one thing that I would like people to take away from this event it is that it’s important for men to work with other men and to work collaboratively with women to alleviate issues of racism, sexism, ethnocentrism et cetera,’ said Amit Taneja the associate director of the LGBT Resource Center at SU and a doctoral student in the higher education program.

The panel discussed a wide range of topics, including asking if a man can truly be a feminist to what men can do to alleviate issues of sexism.

In detail, the panel seemed to express that being a feminist is something you have to work at every day and ultimately a lofty goal that should be considered an honor to have obtained.

Richard Shin, an assistant professor in counseling & human studies, said ‘It’s a danger to identify yourself as a feminist simply because you do some of the things that perpetuate feminist ideas.’

‘It’s really a badge of honor (to be able to identify as a feminist), and you don’t deserve to call yourself a feminist if it’s not something you think about all the time,’ he said. ‘And I admit that I slip up often.’

Tremayne Robertson, a doctoral student in cultural foundations of education, and a diversity education specialist in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said he has to remind himself that becoming a feminist is something he has to work on.

‘Just because we are on this panel today doesn’t mean that we don’t perpetrate or perpetuate male dominance or sexism,’ he said. ‘It’s something that I have to remind myself of over and over again, that I am working on this.’

The panel also discussed the issues surrounding unfair pay for women who do the same work as men.

‘Women make 77 cents to the male dollar,’ Shin said. ‘This is one of those concrete things that we as men should work to alleviate.’

A memorable moment was when Taneja challenged the audience to call SU’s human resource department and question its policy on maternity leave.

Taneja said pregnancy at the university is counted as a vacation day before it goes on to maternity leave.

‘Call up your parents and ask them if pregnancy is a vacation,’ he said. ‘If you’re really interested, call up SU’s Human Resource department and ask them why they use up vacation days before they give maternity leave. I’d love to hear that answer.’

SU students seemed particularly pleased that such an event was held on campus.

‘I think it’s a great thing that this event was held on campus,’ said Christina Fletcher a freshman inclusive education major, who attended the panel. ‘It seems pretty relevant, and I don’t see how it can be a bad thing.’

Although there were only about 12 men in the audience out of approximately 50, members of the panel seemed pleased they could speak about these issues to anyone at all.

‘I’m not really discouraged with the low turnout,’ Taneja said. ‘That’s 12 more men who got to hear the message.’

pwsmithj@syr.edu

Published on April 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm