The Brown & White

"Bitch. Whore. Hoe." Offended by these words? Gail Stern, a former comedian and activist against hate crimes aimed at women, said people should be. But according to Stern, terms used to degrade women are often uttered with a chuckle and laugh.

Stern said words are powerful and can dehumanize people during her lecture in Sinclair Auditorium Monday.

"We all know it's bad to be racist but we see words for women as just playing around," she said. "It's easy to hate women, and it's fun too," she added jokingly.

To make her point, Stern asked the audience to shout out epithets describing different races, ethnicities and sexual orientations, which she wrote on the board.

However, the audience seemed visibly uncomfortable about offending others and no one responded for at least a minute.

But when Stern asked members of the audience to shout out words that describe women who have sex, the answers flowed immediately from the crowd.

"Notice I didn't say 'What are negative words for women who have sex?' and yet every word on this [chalk] board, with the exception of one, is derogatory," Stern said.

Stern also pointed out the difference in the way people responded to the two questions: When people were shouting out words for women who have sex the audience was laughing and having fun. When the epithets were said, it was completely silent other than the person saying the word.

"At first it was uncomfortable because I didn't know where she was going, but once she connected it all together I understood," Sonya James, '08, said. "More people should have come to the presentation. Especially on this campus where those words are used all the time."

Stern implored the audience to feel the same cringe they feel when they hear a racial or ethnic slur as when they hear a derogatory word toward women.

"The same way you would not use the 'n' word and you would challenge someone who did, I ask you to challenge the same person who uses the 'b' word, the 'c' word, or any other word of the such," Stern said.

Stern also tried to show how crimes toward women could be seen in the same light as hate crimes, which are crimes committed on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Stern said she asked the audience for words aimed at women who have sex because these are the terms most commonly used in justifying sexual violence toward women.

Stern told a story of a case she recently was working on that emphasized this point.

She said a 16-year-old girl who drank a half a bottle of vodka at a party woke up with the words "slut" and "whore" written all over her body in Sharpie marker, only to find out later that four boys had not only taken turns sleeping with her, but had filmed it as well.

Stern said on the film the girl was visibly passed out and had vomit on her body. However, the boys were acquitted with the exception of the photographer who was convicted of child pornography. Stern said after the verdict, the defense attorney was quoted as saying, "Well, boys will be boys."

"If we distract ourselves into thinking the people we hate aren't human, then we can justify our actions towards them," Stern said.

Carl Brown, '10, said Stern's demonstration certainly proved a point.

"The presentation definitely made me realize how much these words are still used today," he said.