In light of the article on Karen Owen that just appeared in The Atlantic and was promptly eviscerated by Pierce Harlan here on The Spearhead, it is interesting to note the reaction to a recent incident in a Chicago-area high school.
A male student at Oak Park-River Forest High School made up a list of female students on Facebook, then judged them according to various attributes. He then printed out reams of copies and handed them out to other boys at the school, then made a scene at the student center, dancing around and shouting “women are the future, unless we stop them now” to cheers from his fellow classmates.
The girls on the list were given nicknames, such as “The Designated Drunk” and “The Amazing Bisexual.” One girl who was on the list insisted that the listed girls are all “athletic, beautiful, honors students, talented.” Evidently, the list was quite comprehensive, ranking girls on facial beauty as well as anatomical attributes. It seems certain that the boy got the idea from Karen Owen.
However, where the story really differs is in the reaction to the boy’s list. While Karen Owen is all but called a rape victim by Caitlin Flanagan for violating intimacy, parents and school officials are calling for the boy’s head. He faces possible expulsion, and a number of people called the police on him. If the boy had actually slept with any of the girls on the list and rated their vaginas, as Karen Owen rated her conquests’ penises, he’d probably already be in jail.
What the boy did was inadvisable, to say the least, but where Karen Owen gets either praise or sympathy from feminists, he’ll receive neither.
In addition to revealing a double standard, he also clues us in to the fact that now even boys know the score. His shout of “women are the future” is probably a verbatim repetition of what they are telling high school students today. Although feminism had already taken root when I was in high school, I can hardly imagine what it must be like for young men today, facing subordinate status and irrelevance in a world that heaps scorn on men. It’s little wonder the kid acted out.
