To the Editor:
This past week, I was appalled to see, on my morning walk to class, “RIBS” (Ratio-Induced Bitch Syndrome) spelled out in posters on the windows of the Low Center for Industrial Innovation. The posters used made claims such as, “Careful, friend! These RIBS can kill,” as well as, “Look at the guys to your left. Now look at the guys to your right. Three years from now, neither of them will still want you to be there.”
As a womon attending school at RPI, as well as participating in the RPI and Troy communities, I am deeply offended. RIBS is degrading and disrespectful to the womyn on this campus. The real problem lies with the men who offer to do a womon’s homework, expecting a date in return, and with the womyn who take advantage of this system. A date should never be expected as some sort of payment for anything, and a womon should never be called a bitch because she asked for help studying for her physics exam, but then didn’t call you that weekend to go get dinner. Don’t blame us womyn for your inability to get laid. Womyn should never have to act out of fear of being called a bitch, or a womon with RIBS.
If RPI as a school wants to attract more womyn to campus, then perhaps the current student body should rethink how it interacts with people of the opposite gender. I do not want to see signs degrading my fellow womyn and me on my walk to class in the morning, and neither do prospective female students. I demand, as a womon, to be treated with the same dignity and respect given to men. Genuine respect and care lands you with more dates anyway.
Amy Wieliczka
EMAC ’10
Editor’s Note: The spelling of womon and womyn are stylistic.
