Word: pi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...undeniable that the sentiments expressed in the Pi Eta newsletter, whether a "parody" or not, are totally offensive to a substantial part of the Harvard community, myself included. Were it up to me, the Pi Eta would by now only be a bad memory. But, for good or bad, that power is not mine...
...think it important to look at the defenses given the newsletter and the Pi Tea. Calling the newsletter a parody is by all measures a well known on this and other campuses. This reputation could be best summed up by the response you give to your sister, a student at Simmons, for example, when she asks your advice after receiving an invitation to a party at the Pi...
Finally, we must deal with the women who went to the party on Saturday, and who have continued to defend Pi Eta. The message of their words and actions are the most disturbing of this entire affair. As for the women themselves, it is clear that they have so internalized the sexist mores of society that they have developed extreme cases of self-hate. They claim that the reason they went to the party was that they knew the newsletter was "not intended to be taken seriously, and...does not represent the attitude of most of the members...
These women are surely to be pitied, but this is not the end of the affair, for their reaction (and the reaction of what is probably a good part of the Harvard community) brings with it a frightening message for all minorities. These women claim that the real Pi Eta men are truly "courteous and considerate" and thus do not hold any of those naughty things in the newsletter as their true beliefs. This is one interpretation of the apparently civil treatment of women at the Pi. Another is that these men can be civil and violently sexist...
This, then, is the true message of the Pi Eta affair, and it is a sad one, for no one now knows whom to trust. The only security is within our own group, and this makes a mockery of the ideal of a diverse, interacting community, within which all learn from each other. The message of separatism and mistrust which we have all heard in the past week will, with luck, force our community to address these problems, and for this we should perhaps thank the Pi for bringing the existing tensions into the open, and allowing them...