Does a culture of happiness have deleterious effects on student-to-student sexual respect?
_x000D_
_x000D_
Happiness and harassment appear to be diametrically opposed, but I would like to argue that a culture of happiness entrenches types of harassment that proliferate in gagging silence. Before I continue, let me acknowledge that this article will be mocked by a share of the Claremont student body. Conveniently enough, anyone who sweeps this conversation under the proverbial rug will concede to the main point of my argument.
_x000D_
_x000D_
What is a culture of happiness? Pomona College seems to have it, as evidenced by its frequent appearances on “Happiest Students” rankings and the discussion panels that crop up from time to time to debate its merits. Happiness is a college selling point that parents of prospective students salivate over. It isn’t going away anytime soon, and in some important ways, it shouldn’t.
_x000D_
_x000D_
However, a culture of happiness exists insofar as students on campus remain happy. This obvious assertion nevertheless begs the question: to what end is “happiness” idiomatically perpetuated, and perhaps more salient, at what expense? What does “happiness” want? To this question I have no definitive answer. Rather, I venture that there is no remedy to unhappiness quite like persistent apathy.
_x000D_
_x000D_
We see the consequences of this particular brand of affirmative, lazy thinking manifest in popular opinion among students. A student wrote an editorial in TSL criticizing Workers for Justice for the intended boycott of Frary during Family Weekend. He characterized the protest movement as a “squabble” that interfered with a family’s time “to catch up and enjoy each other’s company for these brief few days.” In other words, the financial security of a college employee takes back seat to the happy moments at a champagne brunch. Another student, in her unlearned “Equalist Manifesto,” urges feminists to adopt the label “equalist” to soothe the “straight males” encumbered by masculinity. She foregoes “feminism” because it makes men unhappy, forgetting, of course, that patriarchy alienates women all the time. These articles differ in content, but their mentalities align: sacrifice critique, dissent, and negativity to the altar of happiness.
_x000D_
_x000D_
Though the doctrine of “hakuna matata” makes an insufferable loon out of Simba for the latter half of The Lion King, its logic appeals because it’s easy to ignore aggression; it’s easy to laugh when a man gropes a woman in Frary; it’s easy to assure her that “it’s all in good fun”; it’s easy to advise her to “just enjoy it”; it’s easy to say over her protests that she shouldn’t “take it personally.” These quotes speak to the repressive side of positivism, and apathy fuels the engine of unquestioned entitlement to a privileged happiness.
_x000D_
_x000D_
It may surprise you that the harassment described above actually happened during a Frary dinner. I stumbled over my words when my friend recounted her assault. I wanted to assure her that hers is an isolated incident, that students here are generally well-meaning, and that it will “get better” at some unspecified date. But there is no justice in a promise of happiness, as if the future will inevitably careen into a land without harassment. Furthermore, hers is not an isolated incident but one among a plurality of aggressions that happen daily and invisibly. These aggressions hide behind excuses of comedy (“I was making a joke!”) and accusations of hysteria (“Why can’t you see I’m only kidding?”). Laughter and happiness are discursive gags.
_x000D_
_x000D_
It occurred to me that I could not articulate a response to my friend because I do not know how to talk about this, and the campus at large does not talk about this. But we must talk about this, and continue talking, because the alternative is a happiness contingent upon silent suffering. So, talk.
_x000D_
_x000D_
Andrew Ragni would like to thank the Advocates for the Survivors of Sexual Assault for their strong presence on campus. Please contact an Advocate if you would like resources, support, or more information.
Facebook Comments