Letters to the Editor

November 30, 2009 5:36 PM

To the editor:

An Open Letter from a Waitress to the Men of MacPherson.

Dear Douche Nozzles,

I will, with some reticence, keep this as simple as I can. Perhaps it was one too many concussions on the football field, perhaps it was that extra keg stand, perhaps it was just one too many rounds of clap-killing antibiotics that made you and your brothers go soft in the head.

Regardless of the reason you behaved so abominably the other night (and the fact that I am indeed being far too generous with any assumption of your intelligence as you went to “Shake Hands with the Devil” that night assuming that Romeo Dallaire was a Shakespeare character) you need to be taught a lesson. You are never too old or too cool to be spanked, and gentlemen, consider this letter my fucking knee.

It was bad enough that you showed up late to your reservation, perhaps a bit worse that you chose to quibble with the location of your seats, squashing you and your table of 15 into the corner farthest from the kitchen and bar.

To be honest, given the color of your language and the stench of the ditch weed you’d previously been smoking before gracing me with your presence, having you sequestered in a corner where the only senses you could assault were my own was probably a blessing.

It was worse when you all acted like newly minted 18 year olds, insisting that I repeat each item on tap for each group of your self-aggrandizing bros, as if I didn’t have anything better to do after already working for nine hours that day. But I plodded through, gave you my three token boy jokes, made you laugh. I even stood up on a chair to change the TV to football for you.

As your group of mongaloid knuckle draggers began to dwindle and, I can only guess, stagger through town whacking women on the head and dragging them back to your communal cave, three of you decided hell, “I’m only in Supply Chain Management! I still have to find two pennies to rub together to make a cohesive thought in my sloping forehead. I might as well just stay here, harass what is obviously a tired waitress, and continue to drink umpteen pitchers of beer.”

(Though I’m sure in your mind that only translated as “Me thirsty. See titties. Stay here.”) So, despite my thorough attempts to encourage you to do basic math and pay your fucking bill, I left you and your fellow onanists to play with each other in the corner. I checked in with you regularly until, stupid me, I had to deal with another group of poorly trained young adults tossing potato skins at each other and drinking Coors Light. (What is WRONG with you people?)

And you left. Without paying.

Brothers, a pox on you and your entire hall. I hope that each and everyone of you suffer the indignity of severe erectile dysfunction every night of your life, left as limp and sad in your hand as your unpaid bills in mine.

I pray that you try to return when I’m working so that you may suffer the wrath of my very tiny, very angry fists upon your protruding brow ridge. I hope that you are driven to distraction by the sound of your own pea brain rattling around in that giant pre-historic skull of yours.

But I am not without grace, you disgusting ass-sniffing dick weeds. I do want to thank you.

In fact, I want to thank your mothers for ostensibly smoking, drinking and sticking their thumbs in your soft spots and causing you to be so blind as to tell me where you live, and leaving your phone number for a reservation.

If you ever choose to return, I will be waiting to go positively medieval on your pimply jock-strapped asses, and attempt to dole out the same embarrassment, disappointment and sadness upon you that I felt when I had to take money out of the ATM at the end of the night to cover your bill.

Do not think for just one moment that I will hesitate to put you over my knee and spank you for your bad manners and questionable personal hygiene. Assholes.

Andrea McQuade xo.

PS—To the other sweet young men from various other halls in the pub that night who tried to make up for your bad behavior by scrounging through coat pockets for extra change. May you be blessed with many large breasted women and free chicken wings for the rest of your lives. You are sweet and kind.

To the editor:

Re: Brenda Richard’s letter in last week’s issue

When St. FX students travel, they are representing our university, more so when they are clearly identified when they go to watch sports games.

When people from other towns and universities see our students, if they have never been to St. FX they are judging a large portion of their opinion of our school on the actions of that small portion of our population.

The homophobic heckling that took place last Saturday was neither a true nor positive representation of St. Francis Xavier, yet to the letter writer and likely many other people who witnessed the incident that was the impression they left with. When students engage in this kind of behaviour, they are not bringing down the team they are ridiculing; they are bringing down their own school.

I encourage those in the stands to have good sportsmanship themselves and to respect their opponent’s school and town or city as much as their own.

If one good thing can come from this incident, it should be that this behaviour is seen as unacceptable and more people should be aware that behaving as such does not make them any more of a sports fan. As for those around them, if bystanders had told the person in question that he should stop, the incident may never have happened at all.

It is not difficult to show school spirit without being offensive, nor is it impossible to enjoy sports without unsettling those around you.

I hope that the respectful supporters of the St. FX football team, the vast majority, will do their part in representing our school in the positive light it deserves, and discourage those around them from tarnishing our reputation with a repeat performance of the incident.

Keltie Coupar X Pride President

To the editor, and Brenda Richard:

I was appalled after reading this letter to the editor, for several reasons.

First of all, it is worrisome that a person acting in this manner is traveling in a vehicle with a STFX sticker on it. To have someone, behaving this way, associated with our university is upsetting because STFX is diverse in culture AND sexual orientation.

What this man portrayed, however, was bigotry and distinctly un-Xaverian. To have such a person traveling to a major university sporting event is also disturbing because there was nothing sportsmen-like in his words or actions.

Finally, to have a faculty member of another university witness this is, to be honest, embarrassing. This person took political incorrectness to a new level and dragged our University with him, and he should be held accountable.

Meghan M. MacEachern

To the editor:

To the St. FX Community:

We are writing this letter in support of Professor Brenda Richard’s letter, “To the man in the blue bus…,” published in last week’s issue.

We join Professor Richard in her condemnation of the man yelling homophobic epithets from the bus travelling to the St. FX vs. SMU football game on November 14, and any of those on the bus who might have supported his behaviour.

Further, we request action from the administration of our university that goes beyond finding and reprimanding those who were involved on this particular bus to address the larger cultural issues that lead to this despicable event.

This response suggests that what happened on November 14 was merely an isolated incident perpetrated by an individual or individuals who do not represent the university’s values.
But this incident was not an isolated one.

Already this year, there have been other complaints about homophobic insults made by fans at other St. FX sporting events. Simply targeting the individual or individuals involved will not eradicate homophobia on this campus.

Important and positive changes have been made to the culture at St. FX, which has helped to reduce homophobia, but there is still a long way to go.

A structural analysis of this situation highlights the barriers and discrimination that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning (GLBTTQQ) students, faculty and staff come up against at this university.

This is clearly demonstrated in the fact that a student felt entitled and empowered to yell hateful homophobic slurs out of a bus window, and that the other occupants of the bus either found his remarks funny or felt too intimidated and afraid to confront him.

It suggests that those of us who are GLBTTQQ students, faculty and staff are not valuable members of the St. FX community, and that we are de facto excluded from campus events like football games.

Homophobic epithets exist along a continuum of violence that GLBTTQQ folks experience that includes legal discrimination, GLBTTQQ bashing, murder, rape, expulsion from families of origin, and other social exclusions.

In Canadian urban centres, GLBTTQQ bashing is stable or on the rise: in Vancouver, the number of reported hate crimes has tripled since 2006; in Toronto the number of gay bashing cases reported to police has doubled since 2007; and in other centres such as Montréal, Ottawa, and Winnipeg, the numbers have remained stable.

In our own Antigonish community, two cases of gay bashing have been reported since 2005.
To echo what Professor Richard stated in her letter, homophobic insults are not just hurtful, but arise from and contribute to a culture that tolerates and condones all homophobic acts.

To understand this incident as an isolated event bearing no relation to the larger culture at St. FX constitutes a willful refusal to acknowledge the pervasive homophobia that continues to exist at St. FX.

While we appreciate the efforts of the administration to uncover who is responsible for the events outlined in Professor Richard’s letter, we implore you to take seriously the broader underlying issues that this event compels us to consider.

Sincerely,

The Women’s and Gender Studies Student Society and X Pride