Let me preface what I’m about to say with a few facts of my own: I’m a Guelph graduate, I’m a filthy leftist (Harper is the worst), I’m an atheist, and I believe wholeheartedly in a woman’s inherent right to control her own sexual identity from start to finish. I also like beer, soccer, women, kittens, and Netflix; preferably all at the same time. Good, now that we’ve gotten irrelevant introductions out of the way, we can move on. The difference being that, unlike your article, a few trivia bits about myself aren’t the only facts I base my positions on.
Matthew, I’m a bit perplexed that as a CJPP student, you seem to have a pretty nebulous grasp on what “rights” are, but I’ll let that one slide because maybe they haven’t covered that in class yet. To summarize: there are no special rights protecting people who paint the cannon, and nothing the protesters did violates any campus policy. I’m significantly more thrown off by your treatment of your peers. You immediately dismiss those protesting the display as “social justice warriors.” You use terms like “twisted ideology” (ironic given you identify as pro-choice), “grotesque,” and “malicious” to describe people whose greatest crime was spray painting a hashtag. In fact, your whole article is rife with histrionics aimed squarely at the people you claim to be reaching out to. If your aim is to promote open, respectful discourse on campus like you say, you’re doing a poor job of it.
I don’t know you, Matthew, but I’m fairly certain you’ve never had to consider terminating a pregnancy. I doubt you have any idea what it must feel like to be a young woman who has struggled with such a weight, and to walk around your campus—a supposedly safe space—and see something like “#WENEEDALAW” painted on a symbol of your University. To be a woman on campus and see your peers campaigning for a law that would make it illegal for you to have your own sexual and bodily autonomy. A campaign taking place in the middle of a pile of flags representing supposed dead children has a message with a less-than-subtle meaning. It’s not about being “offended,” Matthew, and it’s beyond arrogant of you to assume it is. For someone supposedly pro-choice, you have a pretty flimsy idea of what it’s like for women in our world. Maybe you were offended, but you could never be hurt by that message. You could never feel unsafe or unwanted on your own campus because of it. It’s not about offense, it’s about vulnerable women being bullied by people claiming to want to help and support them. And you know who ACTUALLY gave them help and support? Your “social justice warriors.”
It’s not grotesque to cover up a hurtful message to protect your fellow students. Malicious people do not cover the cannon with messages of support, love and respect for women facing an incredibly difficult choice like our peers did. These aren’t social justice warriors, and they’re certainly not the people you need to be worried about on this campus; they’re the people that make it worth going to. I hope you stick around here long enough to understand that one day. Whatever your persecution complex tells you, at U of G we don’t squash dissent and we certainly don’t let minority groups go harassed without a response. The actions of the young men and women armed with spray paint, notepads, markers, and signs are why Guelph is one of the most supportive, progressive, and open-minded campuses you’ll find. You need only ask the women on campus who went home feeling a bit more secure than they had a few hours before.
I’m sorry you’re disappointed to do so, but those students made me proud to call myself a Gryphon.