Who let the boys out of the sad, decrepit frat house/EC suite? And into an equally depressing fort on the Barnard Quad? This poor pledging tactic alerted the inner Gloria Steinem of Staff Writer and Barnard Quad-dweller Asya Sagnak to speak of these menacing men and their stupid demonstrations.
Bwog has received photos and updates from what seems to be a men’s rights demonstration on the Barnard campus. It looks like some frat pledges have decided to remind Barnard students why they chose to apply to Barnard in the first place with a big, menacing show of masculinity: a blanket fort in the middle of the Quad.
The “protest” began at 10:30pm with a group of around seven boys huddled underneath Avengers themed blankets and outdoor wooden furniture. A dryer rack held up their collective motto: “NO GIRLS ALOUD”. When asked whether the misspelling of “ALOUD” was for comedic effect, the group began to sing along to Miley Cyrus, ignoring all other comments and questions.
After realizing that they had attracted a crowd, the boys sent out a “representative” who tried to lobby for the repeal of the 19th Amendment – women’s suffrage. “If you’re agreeing to being segregated in your own university, you should be cool with this,” he said, waving around his empty petition paper with no signatures. “I’m being serious. Sign for equality.”
Any attempts from Barnard students to infiltrate the tent were met with high-pitched screams and kicks. From far away, one might have mistaken the boys for literal children, and poor reenactors of cult classic The Little Rascals. One girl kicked down their sign, to which they responded by threatening to perform the “Penis Monologues”.
Around half an hour later, and after repeated warnings from surrounding staff members, the event was shut down by a guard from Sulzberger. The small white boys revealed their fragile egos by complaining about “police brutality,” which got them forcibly removed off campus. They packed up their Toys-R-Us blankets and walked out of the quad, dejected, back to their homes across Broadway. One boy yelled “BOY-NARD FOREVER” as he walked out . Everyone else in the Quad chuckled with second-hand embarrassment.
Soon after, Bwog heard word that the Quad had been egged. A parting gift of the Rascals? A Barnard girl’s attempt to protect her space? A message from the gods, warning us that they had been angered by this night of overall disgrace to the BC campus? We don’t know. What we do know was that this felt a lot more like 2008 than 2015. Get it together, frat boys. If you’re going to embarrass pledges, at least do it creatively – midterm season is tough enough without having to deal with outdated social commentary by way of sloppy execution.
Update, 12:47 am: Various sources from both outside testimony and those on scene have confirmed that these boys are pledging AEPi.
Correction, October 21: The students involved are allegedly associated with AEPi according to various sources and those on the scene. There is no confirmation that the students are pledges.
61 Comments
@Are you guys stupid? This is obviously a joke. And a hilarious one at that.
@anon Congrats on writing the dumbest piece of…anything, that I think i’ve ever seen.
@Equality All female institutions like Barnard are the last forms of separate but equal segregation policy.
@bc 16 seems like the only people who really fucked up here were the residents of the quad who didn’t turn this story into one about an elaborate counter-hazing operation
@bc 16 really ladies — this feels like a group of 18 year old boys presenting themselves at your mercy and for your entertainment. you couldn’t find some fucking water balloons?
@not your lady “ladies” – fuck off.
@bc 16 nah don’t downvote this
you’re right and i apologize
@Anonymous ^
|
Gentleman.
(I know, ” ‘gentleman’ – fuck off”…)
@Peaceful CC Everyone’s complaining I’m just here amazed that the author got this out so fast like damn how those journalists be journalisting am I right folks lol everyone calm down
@Anonymous Yeah, but it reads like an angry rant-post, and I (who am not a writer) can knock one of those out in like 10 minutes.
@How? How is this an angry-rant post? Stop complaining about everything, commenters! It provides information with a funny tone. The post isn’t taking the issue half as seriously as all of you are, it’s obviously meant to be cheeky.
@Anonymous You should just know that back in the day, Bwog actually did that. Today? Just a mere shadow of what could have been…
@Pft... I’ve seen people say this every year about every publication.
@bc 16 no, there’s never been a downfall quite like bwog in the past three years
@Anonymous “everyone calm down”, “Stop complaining about everything, commenters! ”
This is, I’m afraid, tone policing.
@This is out of hand Let’s not forget that this fraternity isn’t just misogynistic, it’s also unabashedly Zionist. They way that they think they can co-opt Barnard’s space makes a whole lot of sense when you consider that. The violence caused by AEPi’s male, hetero, judea-supremacist, market-oriented hegemonic caste towards the rest of the Columbia/Barnard community, especially those of color, is out of line. It’s time that we stop giving them the right to publicize their violent, triggering views and positions. And if the administration can’t change that, it’s obvious whose pocket they’re in.
@Anonymous Dear god I hope you’re joking
@This is out of hand If you think this is a joke, evidently the problem I’m talking about is far more deep-seated than anyone could hope for.
@Anonymous Ah yes, the old “disagreement with my argument actually means I’m right” position. Sorry, but your complaints not only reveal your own desire to see “The Jews” behind everything, but also show just how closed off to discussion this new wave liberalism can be. Reading cultural conflicts into a joke involving Barnard is just that; interpretation that’s gone too far.
@Dr. Necessitor Your funny. I bet you brag that people find you funny. Sheeesh! You’re so funny!
@stop stop using zionist as a dogwhistle for jewish you antisemitic scum.
@Anonymous Lol at this because AEPi has several non-heteros and even a trans man
@Anonymous This person is clearly a self-identifying anti Semite
@hmmmm everyone finding this “joke” funny is a CC boy. it’s only funny when you aren’t the butt of the joke. everyone’s so quick to call it off as a joke, but they’re only doing it because it’s Barnard. i’m sure these are the same people who get offended at being called crackers and protest for ALL lives matter…
@CC 19 Seems like these incidents wouldn’t happen if there weren’t two schools. Has anyone ever brought up the idea of merging Barnard and CC?
@Anonymous Let’s not open that can of worms again…
@Shocking controversial theory 2.0 They weren’t taking it seriously, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have serious impacts? I could hear them from my room on the 8th floor. They were disruptive. They egged the Quad, which is vandalism. No one would have allowed this to happen if it were anywhere other than Barnard, so kudos to the author for actually shedding light on an important issue.
@Anonymous Seeing as the author you’re kudoing doesn’t say the fratguys did the egging (in fact, explicitly saying “we don’t know”), you’re doing better at reading-in than actually reading.
Anyway, I was okay with all the (very legit) protests at Barnard and on campus, when they were ‘disruptive’, it’d be kind of two-standard to say it’s wrong to be ‘disruptive’, when it’s someone I don’t embrace with both arms, you know?
@check the facts All the people i know that were there said it was actually an observer that threw eggs at the fort… funny joke in my opinion.
@Dr. Necessitor Translation: Get off my lawn you damn kids!
@Shocking controversial theory Perhaps it was not seriously-meant. Journey as we examine the evidence. There are, possibly, hints and clues toward this… Such as the entire thing being ridiculous from the word go (“Aloud”, singing Miley Cyrus, kicking away ineffectually with their little feetsies , etc).
It was fun, though, that Bwog played along with the boys’ pantomime of twitting the nose of what they were pretending to see as humorless institutional feminism by being unfunny down to the microscopic level. Good job! Participation medals for all!
@Maria Is everybody here deficient in recognizing irony? These boys made a microchasm of Barnard within Barnard, a miniature gender-exclusive institution within a larger one. This isn’t a symptom of their whiteness, its genuinely funny. This fort didn’t marginalize women, or mock Barnard, it was a display of authentic and humurous irony.
@No though It stops being funny when the joke is ALWAYS ABOUT BARNARD
@Anonymous So make one back! If it’s gotta be a practical joke rib ’em, Eve. If it’s got to be turning up at Orgo and beating their material with better material, let it rip.
It’s just the “but it’s not FUNNY! Stop it, you guys!” thing that gets you nothing. Well, not totally nothing- someone did call security. And threw eggs at the frat guys.
@lol barnard is overrepresented in the marching band you have no clue what you’re talking about
@Anonymous Was it not Barnard that was protesting the hell out of Orgo last year, ’cause of those oh-so-scandalous (pretty average) jokes? Were there not a bunch of Barnard people with painter’s tape (duct being too hardcore) over their mouths at Midnight Breakfast? (How DARE you eat pancakes while the world cries!)
(Answer’s yes, btw.)
Point is, Barnard students are supposed to be all kinds of tenacious, but don’t “play back”. It can’t be because it’s unladylike, what with that being a subordinating patriarchal construct. So, go to it, maybe. If you think it’s no-fair that people get to make all the jokes, but they’re always about Barnard, MAKE YOUR OWN JOKES.
Tl; DR: no u, lol.
@Larel | BC Bwog, if you really thought this was so stupid, you shouldn’t have given them so much attention. In the end, they’ve gotten exactly what they wanted. But of course, in this day and age everyone has to prove that they were there first, that they saw and had an opinion on everything that happened. Give them a break. Yeah it was stupid…thats what pledges are. Thats why they happen. If you’re too good of a person to acknowledge that, stop spending your time writing shit like this when in actuality you should be “studying for midterms”
@Alum Not creative!? This is fucking hilarious & totally creative. Take a step back and just laugh at this Bwog, no need to take everything so seriously. Didn’t you used to be the fun publication?
@bitch “fucking hilarious and totally creative” at the cost of an entire student body’s dignity….
@Anonymous Oh please. If a couple of fratboys goofing around in the middle of the night “cost an entire student body’s dignity”, how much dignity can they possibly have?
@Are you sure? Are you sure it was AEPi? Or any group specifically? Or was that part mostly inflammatory?
@this is sensationalist journalism as a non sensationalist normal fucking journalist how can you publish something like this
@Anonymous How is this sensationalism? It’s reporting news that’s relevant to both Columbia and Barnard… Get it together man
@Barnard16 I wonder why the author felt the need to be mean about freshman building a fort. I hate frat guys also, but this seems over the top.
@that angry barnard feminist why are people ignoring how this is a smaller keg in a big systematic machine that involves barnard always being looked down on? this is not just a funny joke this is serious stuff
@sorry to be that person but i think you mean cog
@Anonymous Nah. Frat thing, “keg” is always appropriate.
@Asya It was a fort……
@Anonymous wait for the white Jewish barnard girls to start complaining about people “having no chill”
@Anonymous Replace “white Jewish” with “black” and see how it sounds
@Anonymous If you ever feel like your safety is being compromised call public safety or 911…just sayin
@OK BUT this is less about public safety and more about Cc always using BC as the butt of a very bad joke
@Anonymous no, just the butt of a bad body in leggings.
@cc17 Nonissue, they couldn’t get girls anyway
@Anonymous As if women are posessions to be “gotten”. Check your premises, cc17! (And your privilege, whilst where at it, though you should do that regularly like the oil in your car. Dipstick! Just sayin’.)
@AEPi? These boys gotta get chewed out by administration
@But what about Beta?
@it wasn't! Doesn’t smell like Beta to me
@Anonymous Okay, what _about_ Beta?
@We knew from the beginning Why we applied to Barnard lol
@post their medical history you know you want to