Kennedy is the campus projects manager of the Independent
Women’s Forum and the editor of www.SheThinks.org.
By Kate Kennedy
It has come to our attention that the UCLA Clothesline Project,
along with the Coalition for the Fair Representation of Women
organized a rally to protest the April 18 placement of our ad,
“Take Back the Campus” in the Daily Bruin.
We applaud their right to hold a rally to protest our ad. We
stand for truth, open debate and dialogue. But these fundamental
principles cannot exist if you refuse to allow a dissenting
viewpoint on your campus.
Christie Scott, executive co-chair of the Clothesline Project,
has made it clear that there is no room for a different point of
view when, in reaction to our advertisement, she said, “Most
of all, we want this not to happen again” (“Women’s
groups demand apology from Bruin for ad,” News, May
17).
It is a matter of free speech. But according to Scott, the
free-speech argument for printing our ad is “somewhat
cowardly.” Since when did the aspirations of the First
Amendment become cowardly? We wonder if Scott would have the same
belief if it were her ad that was under attack.
We highly encourage Scott and all interested parties to visit
our Web site at www.iwf.org. There one can find the citations for
every fact in our ad. The Independent Women’s Forum is not in
the business of placing advocacy research and inflated statistics
above common sense and reason.
Specifically, on the subject of rape, the Independent
Women’s Forum does not seek to diminish the horrific nature
of this crime. But the unsubstantiated claim that, “1 in 4
college women will be the victims of rape or attempted rape”
is as false as they come.
We dismiss the statement of Tina Oakland, director of the UCLA
Center for Women and Men, that the American Medical Association and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation have quoted this bogus
statistic. The latest crime statistics from 1999 stated on the FBI
Web site prove that the “one in four” argument is
ludicrous (http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel00/cius99.htm).
On the Web site, the FBI states, “Representing the seventh
year of decline, the estimated total of 89,107 forcible rapes
reported to law enforcement during 1999 was the lowest total since
1985.”
Also, “the 1999 rape rate ““ 64 out of every 100,000
females ““ was 5 percent lower that the previous year’s
rate.”
Fortunately, women are not victims anymore. This is not
something we should bemoan. Unfortunately, many college campuses
have become breeding grounds for learned victimology. If this type
of attitude and rhetoric doesn’t do harm to the women’s
movement, then I don’t know what does.
Indeed, the Independent Women’s Forum wants to take back
the campus. We want to restore today’s campus to its natural
state of reason and common sense, not hysteria and hype.