Pi Lessons

To the Editors of the Crimson:

After a week of charge and counterchange, insult and defensive reaction, and general lack of dialogue and communication, it seems time to try to draw together some of the lessons of the sad and disturbing Pi Eta affair Hidden beneath all the clamor are some very unsettling conclusions which affect all of us in the Harvard community.

I feel it necessary to first establish my credentials, since the first affair has now degenerated into what amounts to name-calling. First, I am not a member of Pi Eta, nor do I even know any who do belong to the club. Also (I am sure Mr. Ippolito will be glad to know). I am not one of those "homos," whose very existence seems to send shudders down the spines of the macho-men of Pi Eta. And, as reassurance for Mr. Travaglini (whose misguided letter was the original spur for this one). I claim no association with RUS, the Undergraduate Council or the Crimson. Finally, it would perhaps be appropriate, since only those with the proper credentials seem allowed to speak about this affair, for me to say that I am not nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party.

That done, it seems necessary to examine the various reactions of the participants. The people who demonstrated outside the party last Saturday (most of whom are women) and who have kept up their frontal assault on the Pi, were justifiably appalled and upset by the brutal and sexist language used in the newsletter "parody" (according to most sources, previous newsletters make this one look like a passage from The Feminine Mystique.) But their response has been so varied, attacking sexism at the Pi at Harvard, in society in general, as well as bringing up the questions of the brutal rape-imagery in the newsletter, and the socialization of sex stereotypes in society that the message has become clouded. Indeed, it seems that these women have merely served to confirm the image of the shrill feminist unfairly held by much of society.

Then, there are the members of Pi Eta, who have shown their obvious befuddlement at the attention that the leaked newsletter has attracted. Beneath the forced apologies, and statements that "no, sexism does not exist at the Pi," is the clear message that these men regret not the offensive nature of their newsletter, but the fact that it became public. If they had the chance to do it over again, the only difference would be that a certain Kirkland House woman would not receive the newsletter in her mailbox.

Finally, we must deal with the women who went to the party on Saturday, and who have continued to defend Pi Eta. The message of their words and actions are the most disturbing of this entire affair. As for the women themselves, it is clear that they have so internalized the sexist mores of society that they have developed extreme cases of self-hate. They claim that the reason they went to the party was that they knew the newsletter was "not intended to be taken seriously, and...does not represent the attitude of most of the members of the club." More likely, however, and far more sadly, is the probability that these women so accept their stereotyped roles that they feel the newsletter was, if not appropriate, then merely an example of the axiom, "boys will be boys."

These women are surely to be pitied, but this is not the end of the affair, for their reaction (and the reaction of what is probably a good part of the Harvard community) brings with it a frightening message for all minorities. These women claim that the real Pi Eta men are truly "courteous and considerate" and thus do not hold any of those naughty things in the newsletter as their true beliefs. This is one interpretation of the apparently civil treatment of women at the Pi. Another is that these men can be civil and violently sexist at the same time. The message that rings clearly out of this affair is that the surface liberality that minorities are accorded at Harvard and in society is merely a thin veneer which hides the unchanged prejudices of white, male America. If Jesse Jackson, with all his sensitivities about the problems of minorities. can have anti-Semitic tendencies, then surely so can the apparently civil members of the Pi (I do not wish to single out the Pi, for it is merely a convenient example of the disturbing implications of this affair.) With the lessons of this affair in mind. I have heard women questioning whether even the most enlightened men hide sexist beliefs behind their avowals of feminism. The same must be true for Blacks, whose already shaky confidence about their acceptance in the Harvard community has been further eroded.

This, then, is the true message of the Pi Eta affair, and it is a sad one, for no one now knows whom to trust. The only security is within our own group, and this makes a mockery of the ideal of a diverse, interacting community, within which all learn from each other. The message of separatism and mistrust which we have all heard in the past week will, with luck, force our community to address these problems, and for this we should perhaps thank the Pi for bringing the existing tensions into the open, and allowing them to be discussed. If it were up to me, however, this would be the last service of any sort performed by the Pi Eta Speakers Club. Eric Stockel '84