Editorial: Knockout Barstool
When college humor goes too far
Published: Monday, February 13, 2012
Updated: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 15:02
The UNH social media sphere is buzzing with surveys and event invites about a possible Barstool Blackout party at UNH. The university has not historically been particularly cooperative with Barstool, a satirical blog which recently wrote that some women "kind of deserve to be raped." We hope it remains that way.
The UNH community shouldn't give space or money to an openly sexist rape apologist in the name of a good party.
Barstool is run by Dave "El Presidente" Portnoy, who has a consistent record of excusing rape in the name of comedy. And he's laughing all the way to the bank, putting away a small fortune from the Blackout Tour alone.
Setting aside the milder sexism of Barstool — "Guess That Ass" and "Smokeshow of the Day," for starters — Barstool is one of the Internet's worst offenders when it comes to condoning campus rape. Portnoy makes cracks like "we don't condone rape of any kind at our Blackout Parties ... however if a chick passes out that's a gray area" and "if you're a size 6 and wearing skinny jeans, you're kind of asking to get raped … I mean this guy had no choice but to teach her a lesson."
No one asks to be raped. Freshmen girls don't sit around in Stoke, doing their makeup, taking shots and talking about how they hope they get raped that night. Wearing trashy clothes, getting drunk and being generally irresponsible is not "asking for it." There's no gray area. There's no excuse.
Barstool consistently claims that this is all satire, not meant to hurt anyone — but it does. Promoting a culture of victim blaming is detrimental to both men and women. First of all, it excuses rape — portraying college rapists not as felons but as victims of animal instinct and sluttily-dressed coeds. Secondly, victim blaming makes many women internalize the idea of "asking for it."
Many women (85 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) choose to keep silent about being raped. Rapists are frequently repeat offenders; a study in the Boston area found that of 120 rapists, 63 percent were serial rapists. All those unreported rapes mean that the rapists can go on to rape again. Hilarious, right?
On the Northeastern and Boston College campuses, groups of students have gathered under the name Knockout Barstool to protest the Blackout Tour.
Boston College's student newspaper, The Heights, wrote in an editorial: "Although the First Amendment grants creeps like El Presidente the right to say that women deserve to be raped as a form of fashion advice, BC students should know better than to finance it." UNH students should know better as well.
Portnoy responded to these attacks by calling the campus protesters "lunatics'' and "ugly dykes." Aside from being offensive, that's just pretty weak sauce coming from someone who claims he's running a comedy site. Comedians' stock and trade is pushing boundaries — race, class, and yes, sex. The thing is, rape isn't about sex. It's about violence. It's about taking away a person's power over his or her own body. And it's not funny - ever.
Barstool has become a juggernaut of a certain kind of college humor and it's not going away. But we urge UNH to continue to be clear and unequivocal in not allowing any Barstool event on any university property, and we encourage students to vote with their ticket dollars and think carefully before supporting any Barstool sponsored event.
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30 comments
Also, a bunch of you are saying that the author is calling for censorship. She's not. She's saying that she does not want to reward Portnoy with her money, that's completely different. For the record, I don't think there is any subject which can't be made to be funny in the right hands, except unlike someone like Louis CK or Chris Rock, Portnoy is probably only half joking and doesn't have a bone for comedy in his body. The guy sucks.
Nice.
Rape isn't funny, and if you all weren't such privileged, ignorant idiots, you would understand that. Try to have a little empathy. Rape is called rape because it is NON CONSENSUAL, and if a woman wears a short skirt, she still has the right to say No. End of story. Pardon my "ugly feminist" bull. Not.
What gives ANYONE, the right to tell El Pres what he can, or can not write on his blog? Last time I checked, we have freedom of speech in this country. If you do not like that, too bad. El Pres is not doing ANYTHING that infringes on the rights of others through his blogging, thus all arguments promoting the censorship of what hes saying, or his parties, are BUNK.
The WORST part of this though, is how the UNH paper would allow someone to write a hit piece. How about admitting to your readers that you've taken a lot of what el pres has said out of context? How about recognizing that you are upset with a few lines written over hundreds of blog posts, containing thousands of lines of satirical content.
I guess being a good journalist isn't a movement you want to be a part of.
viva la stool. and baba booey to ya'll.
as horrible as the crime of rape is, it unfortunely will happen at some point somewhere. but instead of offering a controlled environment so as to prevent such a thing from happening you are telling the students to go ahead and have a party at your own house and encourage more lawlessness, such as underage drinking, drug use, etc.
it is groups of people like you that can't engage in meaningful conversation. instead you take the position of "my way or the highway" which is no better. you will resort to juvenile tactics like name calling and comments full of hate. these things make you no better than the causes you are supposedly against. you waste your time protesting and attacking the other side instead of offering alternative ideas and actually implementing them so students can have some fun during their college experience. how about working on things that are more important than a silly party (ex. improving the community's economy, energy solutions, needless bloodshed in Syria) which by the way has near zero problems at college campuses it has already visited. it's unnecessary fear mongering and name bashing that continually pulls our country father apart.
in closing, I urge students who are interested in bringing an event such as the Barstool Blackout Tour, to continue to take action, instead of yelling louder than the opposing groups cries. continue to sign petitions, call your school president and ask kindly to allow an event which offers fun for the modern college student. I also encourage students who wouldn't find such a party fun, plan and implement an alternative event for those students instead of yelling even louder. You will find that coming together and actually implementing these solutions will bring the student body closer together.
Damien Olenick
VIVA LA STOOL
Lews Black - Arested for packing a bus full of 18 yo naked girls and parading them around NY
Wiz Kha - Sexist, Drugs, Racist
Akon - Arested for having simulated relations with a 15 yo girl on stage
Ghostface Killa - Domestic Violence - Litteraly has a song about cutting of a girls finger becasue she cheated.
Snoop Dogg - you name it
Bob Sagat - Have you seen the HBO special? He makes Portnoy look like the pope.
these people are way worse than barstool. please protest something meaningfull. I'm sure you could do some good out there.