I'll try to make this as simple as I can possibly put it. Women are not objects. In an article of the November 14th issue of the Student Life, "Colleges See Rise in Crime, Students Urged to Be Careful," there was a quote from APCS President Ari Greenberg that goes a little something like this: "I think our time has come. I think people can see the Claremont Colleges as a resource - we have beer, laptops, expensive equipment, women, and a very trusting environment."

I can understand what he probably meant to say that we have women at the Claremont Colleges and just got really lazy with actually saying another sentence. We Pomona kids are really frugal with our words I think. I mean why bother with using another period when you can laundry list women in with stuff that men can buy with money. We all know that women cost money to maintain and stuff. I think women in the Claremont Colleges definitely expect 6 or 7 dinners before they put out. In fact, putting expensive equipment and a very trusting environment next to women in that sentence really works well because one has to get women into a very trusting state of mind before one can shove expensive, kinky equipment into them. I'm being sarcastic by the way in case you can't tell.

I realize that Ari probably meant no harm, but I think it would be a good idea for all of us to be aware of language that would equate women with objects. While the safety of students at the Claremont Colleges should be no laughing matter, neither should the objectification of women even in a seemingly innocuous quote. I’m sure I’m not the only person that noticed that the first response that we have in preventing violent crimes against women is to restrict their freedom. How many times did you offer to a walk a female friend back to her place? She has to walk back with a guy because she needs a guy to protect her or something. Yeah... That’s not too cool. Anyways, I don’t want to make too many judgments and I’m running close to the four hundred words limit. I just think that we should all be a little bit more careful with what we say.

Andrew Wong ‘04