Taking a Stand on Gender Equity—for Men

Quick Read! A doctoral student at the University of Southern California with no Connection to Yale has filed a Title IX complaint against Yale’s affirmative action programs for women. The student, Kursat Christoff Pekgoz alleges that since women do better than men in gaining admission and academic performance at Yale, there is no basis for special programs to advance women. He cites the fact that Yale’s class of 2021 is 52% women as a reason to gradually phase out the programs or open them to men.

Pekgoz said he is neither “supportive nor critical” of affirmative action programs, adding that Black and Latino students are often underrepresented at colleges, so affirmative action makes sense to achieve “balanced representation.” But as the majority, to Pekgoz, women don’t need help.

What Do Men Really Want?

In other news, Ashe Schow, writing in the Federalist, reports that a drunken college man has accused a drunken female of taking sexual advantage of him, and the institution involved, the University of Cincinnati, has ruled in favor of the male and suspended the female until the male graduates. Now, in a familiar lament usually expressed by college men, she is suing the university for denying her due process.

Both the Yale and Cincinnati stories are examples of males finally pushing back against perceived female advantages in the campus sex wars.

Author

  • John Leo

    John Leo is the editor of Minding the Campus, dedicated to chronicling imbalances within higher education and restoring intellectual pluralism to our American universities. His popular column, "On Society," ran in U.S.News & World Report for 17 years.

2 thoughts on “Taking a Stand on Gender Equity—for Men

  1. “Balanced Representation!”

    What’s not to like??

    Don’t we apply that rule to ordinary life… in all ways….at all times? And aren’t the results of “balanced representation” always superior to outcomes which are demographically unbalanced? Of course they are!

    I used to prefer good, well-trained dentists….dentists who were good at dentistry….but then I read this study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which told me: “The underrepresentation of Blacks, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives among dentists raises concerns about the diversity of the dental workforce, disparities in access to dental care and in oral health status, and social justice.” And now I am convinced that social justice and diversity (which flow only from “balanced representation”) are vastly more important than being good with cavities and teeth. Huzzah!

    I used to think that being a Basketball Wizard was and should be the primary qualifier for being in the NBA, but I have seen the light and have come to despise those incredibly unbalanced and unrepresentative teams which are filled to overflowing with really good players who all — dare I say it — look the same and display, always, the same incredible level of talent. Where are the short, uncoordinated Hispanics and Native Americans? Where are the fat White Guys who can’t dribble? Where — for God’s sake — are the women??? Women comprise 50% of the population and yet there’s not a single one on any NBA team? Can’t we trade a Stephen Curry to get, say, a Nancy Pelosi or a Kim Kardashian in the Golden State uniform? And just wait until that “balanced representation” team plays Houston next year!

    And what about plumbing? Every time I hire a plumber, they all look like they grew-up in the exact same Plumbing Family (they all certainly buy the same gap-waist pants)! What’s up with that? Of course, they all have done a great job with all those plumbing things, but c’mon! What’s really important here? Great, cost-effective plumbing solutions installed by expert plumbers….or balanced demographic representation among all those who drive plumbing trucks? All I know is next time a pipe bursts, I’m gonna wait until I get a trans-gendered Black immigrant (I just hope he knows something about plumbing) before I accept an unrepresentative solution in my flooded basement.

    And sadly, as I look back at all the women I dated, they were — in retrospect — pathetically unrepresentative of all the various demographic possibilities which are out there. I just hope my wife understands as I seek to — belatedly — make that population sample significantly more balanced.

    “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” That totally balanced, totally representative, totally equal future — it can’t get here fast enough. Vonnegut would be so proud!

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