By Kim Bullimore
There is a trend within the student press of more blatantly sexist articles and reporting. Last year the University of Canberra's student newspaper, Curio, published an article titled "Chicks you wanna punch in the face". It listed many well-known women and described their existence as "intolerable". At around the same time, the Australian National University's Woroni ran a cover story titled "No fat chicks".
In response, Resistance activist Amanda Lawrence wrote an article for the 1998 International Women's Day broadsheet arguing that by printing such material, student papers were dismissing the reality of violence against women and perpetuating the false idea that women's oppression no longer exists.
Curio's editor replied by reprinting "Chicks you wanna punch in the face", along with a letter claiming that the article is "not just a thoughtless attack on women" because many of the women named in the article "don't really exist" (they are TV and film characters).
By using this argument to defend himself, the editor completely misses the point. "Chicks you wanna punch in the face" trivialises the issue of violence against women and sends the message, regardless of its intentions, that this kind of violence is an acceptable part of society.
In any case, many of the women named in the article do exist, and the editor neglects to explain why these women are so "intolerable".
The student press should challenge sexism and educate readers to do the same. Words such as "chick" and "babe" perpetuate sexist stereotypes and are used every day to infantilise women. The argument that the term "guys" is also derogatory does not stand up. "Guys" does not convey the same derogatory image as "chicks".
Lawrence told Green Left Weekly: "The fact that Curio reprinted this article, despite the widespread disgust at its first appearance, shows the disregard which the editor has for both women's issues and women. The letter from the editor was a patronising dismissal of a valid debate. It's important that women students demand that Curio be part of a movement which challenges sexist ideas, rather than reaffirming them."
The University of Canberra women's officer, Ellen Burt, agrees. She told Green Left: "While I can appreciate that the editors of Curio have not set out to deliberately offend anyone, the fact remains that the title of the article reinforces the acceptance of violence against women".