To the Editor:
President Dye was quoted in last week's Review saying that the recent Tribe 8 show was "absolutely contradictory to the values of this community." She doesn't really say what aspects of the show she considered "disrespectful," "exploitive," "degrading to both men and women" or "encouraging of sexual violence." Was it the presence of women not wearing shirts? Rubber dildos? Profanity? Punk rock? Radical anti-patriarchal anti-homophobic positions?
I'm not sure who gets to decide what the "values of this community are," but I'm not sure Dye and I are living in the same community if she thinks any of those things are foreign to it. Tribe 8 are probably happy to be called offensive and disrespectful, but only someone who didn't attend the show and has never listened to one of their records could possibly call them "encouraging of sexual violence" with a straight face. Tribe 8 is a band that, as far as I can tell, is radically against exploitation, degradation of women, and sexual violence. I'm glad they played, I wish Oberlin would invite more good bands like them to campus, and I thank Chris Baymiller for arranging for them to come.
And if Nancy Dye can speak for all of Oberlin College about our "values," surely I who actually attended the show can speak for all privileged white male hetereosexual Oberlin College students in saying that I was neither threatened nor offended at the show, and in fact had a good time. Anyhow, offending privileged white male hetereosexuals might not be such a bad thing on occasion.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 9; November 15, 1996
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