Romance's Rough Edges

Biological Drives

ONE DOES WORRY ABOUT BALance when an article about sexual relations begins with a gay and a gal going up to his bedroom after a "hot" party, and the author has this collegeage woman piously thinking they are going there "for some quiet." Nevertheless, Karen Endicott's story ("When Encounters Between Friends Get Ugly," November) was at least a brave attempt to come to grips with the volatile issue of date rape, in that a few mentions were made of the existence of an opposing viewpoint. That's a start in any attempt at date-rape "dialogue."

Yet in their haste to leap to the ideological center of the debate, authors of articles of this kind always seem to skip over the burning fundamentals. It is astounding to me that at a college in which numerous women's studies seem so desperately concerned with the study of the aberrant behavior of men, none of them seem the least concerned with the study of the normal behavior of men. Thus, one is appalled to read of the shocking surprise to some women students who discover and only, it seems, first in a man's bedroom that one of the fundamental realities of the normal relationship between men and women is that men are biologically driven to engage women in sexual intercourse.

That simple fact should be Lesson One in a revised, mandatory freshman women's studies program. If the essential reality cannot be acknowledged, then all the feminist dialectic in the world will never arrive at a consensus. (Perhaps that is what they really want.) Lesson Two in this course is that only the taut veneer of civilization regulates this natural, sexually aggressive male behavior. This is a very thin safeguard that, especially when you peel back each layer—parental supervision, a private bedroom, and the liberating effect of living among so many women that the remaining barriers are often easily dissolved with the liberal application of alcohol. End of Lesson Two.

But, who is to teach this new course? Just as it would be unfair to ask a person who is tone-deaf to teach someone else to sing correctly, perhaps when the issue is healthy male-female relationships, the College should take teaching of normal women's issues out of the hands of those teachers who admit they lack any heterosexual imperative.

Since it is men who are so urgently driven, by the same logic, only they can really understand these seductive pressures. Men, therefore, are really the only ones qualified to teach Women's Studies 101. With this complex issue now fully resolved, I am sure there will be no dearth of willing instructors.

CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS

I ENCOURAGE ALUMNI AS WELL as students to take to heart Dean Pelton's admonition about sexual behavior at Dartmouth: "Men must take responsibility." It is we who reveled in a College image that incorporated just enough sexual aggression to warrant the jest about hiding one's daughters. The rough edges we sported in those days gone by are today obsolete and hurtful to our children and to others.

I for one found the old, all-male Dartmouth a safe place to go because of my own insecurity about women. I acted out that insecurity in ways that are offensive to me today, and were insensitive to women then. My actions are not unique.

Let the past go, but look to your daughters and their boyfriends. What do they see in you; how about the Dartmouth candidates you interview? If you don't take responsibility for teaching them about mutual respect in their growing sexuality, do you expect that Dartmouth will?

MONTPELIER, VERMONT

HOW CAN THE EDITORS SEE ANY constructive purpose in flaunting the dirty sex linen of the present student body (and, if only by assumption, the spinelessness of the administration and perhaps of the Trustees) by running such feature articles as Karen Endicott's article when we alumni/ae are being urged to contribute generously and happily to a $425 million fund drive for Dartmouth's future?

NARRAGANSETT, RHODE ISLAND

I WAS AMAZED TO DISCOVER THAT the same issues sexual assault, sexism, alcohol, and the Greek system are still being discussed so vehemently, five years after my graduation. I am surprised that so little has changed, in part because, when I was an undergraduate, we believed that great strides were being made to eliminate such inequities on campus. Perhaps it was all just rhetoric without action.

While I believe that Dartmouth fails to prepare its students for the real world, I envy the College's idealism and admire its attempts to mold good citizens, through education and awareness of its students.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

I READ THE ARTICLE ON RAPE WITH dismay. The administration is promoting sex with special meetings and distribution of condoms. The natural response to this promotion is rape and sexual assault. What else?!

There is virtually no work being done on restraint and abstention.

YARMOUTH PORT, MASSACHUSETTS

New Fluxus Work!

I WAS FASCINATED TO READ ABOUT Phil Corner's performance at my Alma Mater ("The Stuff of Art," October). I am emotionally exhausted as I write because I have just completed a piece which Mr. Corner may wish to perform the next time he visits Hanover.

As the curtain opens, the performer is seen center stage, walking in broad circles. As he approaches each quadrant of the circle he thrusts out his left arm while removing a piece of clothing with his right. This is repeated 12 times.

The audience, of course, thinks he's impersonating a compass pointing north, east, south, and west. Not so. Suddenly the performer yells "Twelve o'clock and all's well." Then any confusion is cleared up as he plays a 12-tone version of "The Dance of The Hours" on a kazoo. Big Ben!! This is to be repeated 12 times. Blackout! Are you still with me?

As the lights come up on Part II, the performer (now naked) is seen in a semiprone position facing stage rear. Actually, he's supposed to be facing the north star but nobody seems to know where in hell it is. Suddenly the performer sings the first verse of "God Save the Queen" in Canadian French. This is repeated 12 times. Then he breaks wind through the kazoo. This is also to be repeated 12 times. However, at this point numerical symbolism may have to be abandoned. All depends on the stamina of die performer.

The climax comes after the last salvo when a leather-clad assistant rushes in from stage left and slams the performer in the rear-end with a huge Chinese gong. What happens to the kazoo is anybody's guess.

This work is designed to be performed during the 12 days of Christmas and since it's a "Piece Without a Name observers are invited to call it whatever they wish after each performance.

EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF MUSIC RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LUDLOW, NEW BRUNSWICK