Alum critiques use of phallic language

To the Editors:

In her letter to the Review on 04/18/03, Ms. Shahana Siddiqui attacks Israel for “occupying illegally other people’s lands...” To accuse Israel of occupation is to imply that Israel is in the role of masculine aggressor, imposing its military phallus upon the oppressed — in this case, the Palestinians.

In Ms. Siddiqui’s same letter, she insists that those ‘kids...writing or putting up signs anonymously” to “grow a fucking pair of balls and own up!” In this statement, Ms. Siddiqui flip-flops in her stance. She stands against the male oppression and then in the SAME letter insists that these kids grow the very source of male power that she attacks.

Ms. Siddiqui, you write as a proponent of the oppressed and yet you are blind to your own perpetuation of the hegemonic power structure. Before you cast your words at others Ms. Siddiqui, own up to your own intoxication with testicular oppression. It is your own blind fixation upon the male genitalia that is of great danger and not those who speak from behind the veil of anonymity. The empowerment of the oppressed will not be served by those like yourself who are insensitive to how you perpetuate the problem.

—Morris Levin
OC ’01