How many of you women have, in the past, had a man tell you that your response to sexism was ill-conceived, and then go on to counsel you on how you might better respond?

How often has his advice been suggestions for how you could be more diplomatic, gentler, more considerate, and/or more compassionate toward the person you’re complaining about?

How often does the advice suggest that the sexism you’re complaining about isn’t real sexism, or that it is mitigated by factors a, b and c, and therefore is less heinous than regular old sexism?

My suggestion for Michael Mlekoday: consider taking a Women’s Studies class, or read the XY Online blog I linked above.

That is an extremely justifiable, reasonable position, and a fantastic way of handling this issue. Criticism of EZRA’s video need not include demonization of EZRA himself.

On the other hand, people like Zee, Violent Socks, and Tara are making ad hominem attacks on EZRA and any of his defenders/friends.

For example, Zee–why are you attacking me? How can you claim I am here to lecture and not learn while simultaneously ignoring everything I tried to discuss with you? I’m simply trying to participate in this discussion in a reasonable fashion.

Tara–Asserting that these students shouldn’t be allowed to graduate because they made a piece of art poorly and offensively? Really?

The New Agenda–why are you making blanket statements about the intelligence level of EZRA’s friends?

Violet Socks–you are correct that the one sentence you outlined from my two posts is indeed a bit combative. I apologize. However, there’s no need to attack me back. I made plenty of reasoned arguments that you apparently felt no need to consider.

I’m not saying that any of you are wrong about this video being offensive. I’m saying that: EZRA is not the misogynistic rapist you think he is, and that you might get more accomplished by making logical arguments rather than attacking people, and that in attacking people you’re not setting a very good example for how nonviolent discourse should be able to settle problems like this.

If anybody would like to continue a rational discussion about these issues, try getting in touch with EZRA, or even me–my email address is mrmlekoday@stthomas.edu –if you’re just going to keep making ad hominem attacks on people, I want no part of it.

We’ve made the school aware, and there really isn’t anything more we can do. Let’s not give him any more free publicity. If he continues to use websites that have standards agreements and violates them, we can continue to flag his work.

Note the image in the original post.