I would like to respond to the column written by Erika Fields regarding the “terrible” state that feminism is in today. I would like to know what planet Ms. Fields is from. Women are ” … now, under the law, equal.”

Do women earn wages equal to men? I believe the latest statistic states that women in the United States make approximately 75 percent of what men do.

I’m not a math major, but that statistic does not seems to reach parity to me. Also, since the ERA was never ratified, we are not considered to be equal under the law.

“Radical feminists have destroyed romance.” If Ms. Fields is advocating a return to the time when women were afraid to report domestic violence, rape or to speak out about issues regarding choice, I do not want to return to that glorious era.

Also, Ms. Fields apparently does not understand how individuals can get others drunk. I don’t know if she has ever been to a party or a bar and had another person buy her a drink. I know I have, apparently setting back feminism, because I was poor at the bar.

She obviously has friends who developed common sense regarding drinking at a far earlier age than my friends.

Maybe she hasn’t ever had to talk to one of her dear friends the morning after they had too much to drink and woke up in a strange bed, having no idea what happened.

Maybe she hasn’t ever been to a party where shots were poured out for all: Has she ever heard of peer pressure?

Finally, in the future, if one of my co-workers “whistles” at “or ogles” me, I first would be disappointed at their lack of professionalism and speak to the person directly. If the behavior continues, I would take the matter to my supervisor. If he/she continued, then I would sue the hell out of them.

I do not think that I am a radical feminist for thinking this way. It is simply a matter of respect and the fact that most people cannot function normally when they are being treated as a sex object.

I do agree with Ms. Fields on one point: Women should use their common sense. Using the buddy system at parties and the bar, watching our friends’ backs and not getting wildly trashed and stupid are generally good things.

However, renouncing all of the progress that feminism has made on the basis of a few radicals, is indeed not using the “common sense” that Fields advocates.

Jen Hinson

Senior

History