Let's not talk about sex.
Let's talk about constructive discourse and about dissent and debate in an Ivy League college community.
A conservative crusade is being mounted against Spare Rib, a student-run women's issues publication. Members of the Conservative Union at Dartmouth were offended by Spare Rib's recent "Sex Issue" and now, led by Matthew Berry '94, they are asking local businesses to stop advertising in the journal.
Conservatives such as Berry say the issue amounted to soft-core pornography and students should refuse to do business with local merchants who advertise in Spare Rib.
Students have a right to object to anything they read. But trying to destroy a publication by crippling its advertising base is the wrong way to protest.
In the spring of 1992, English Professor Tom Luxon and several liberal students and administrators tried to persuade a local seafood caterer to withdraw advertising support from The Dartmouth Review. That effort was equally inappropriate and misguided.
While attacking a student journal's financial base may be a powerful way for a group to voice its concerns, there are many more productive and appropriate ways to express disagreement with the contents of a publication -- especially in a college environment.
Dartmouth has few enough student publications as it is. Student-run papers should be encouraged to learn responsible journalism -- news journalism, advocacy journalism, feminist journalism, etc. -- and to find a niche in campus discourse.
The best way to criticize these publications is to write letters to the various editors, write guest opinion columns in The Dartmouth, argue with friends about the contents of publications or simply recycle anything you find offensive.
Taking aim at a publication's advertising base indicates an effort to remove that publication from campus debate, not an attempt to convince its editors to change.
Local business people are smart enough to decide where they want to advertise. Berry, CUaD and all students should be smart enough to find constructive ways to express their views.
