A student at far-left Oberlin College in Ohio is being mercilessly mocked for penning an op-ed in the school newspaper complaining of being “angry” and “scared” that “cisgender” men installed radiators in the author’s “safe space” dorm designated for women and transgender students.
What are the details?
The op-ed’s author — Peter Fray-Witzer — wrote that the radiator work was being done in Baldwin Cottage, which the school’s website says is “the home of the Women and Trans* Collective, a close-knit community that provides women and transgendered persons with a safe space for discussion, communal living, and personal development. It has a capacity for 30 residents, and is open to anyone who identifies as female or trans, regardless of race, nationality, religion, assigned sex, or sexual orientation.”
Fray-Witzer wrote, “In general, I am very averse to people entering my personal space. This anxiety was compounded by the fact that the crew would be strangers, and they were more than likely to be cisgender men.”
The author added that when work began in common areas, “I could see immediately that they were all men.”
More from the op-ed:
I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?I felt mildly violated and a little peeved. […]
I couldn’t help but think that, though there were other dorms affected by the installation, Baldwin Cottage was one of the worst places for it to occur. There are myriad reasons to want to be housed in Baldwin Cottage, but many people — myself included — choose to live there for an added degree of privacy and a feeling of safety and protection. A significant portion of students choose to live in Baldwin because they are victims of sexual assault or abuse, have suffered past invasions of privacy, or have some other reason to fear cisgender men. […]
They should have taken measures to keep students comfortable and safe — especially those who have elected to live in a specifically designated safe space.
Given Fray-Witzer’s first name — Peter — and the fact that Baldwin Cottage is for women and trans students, it isn’t clear why Fray-Witzer is allowed to live there. The author doesn’t elaborate in the op-ed or offer personal pronouns.
How did commenters on the op-ed respond?
Fray-Witzer’s op-ed has since gone viral, but not in a very positive way. The author is getting mocked — even in the comments connected to the op-ed. Here are some responses:
- “I read this and all I see is a bigot playing victim,” one commenter wrote. “We seriously need to stop entertaining nonsense like this.”
- “Please let this be a joke!” another commenter declared. “Please!”
- “I’m surprised that the writer of this essay didn’t tell us his/her/their pronouns,” another commenter observed. “This is exactly the kind of newspaper where such information would be expected to appear.”
- “I’m so sorry that the students whose families can afford to send them to an $80k/year tuition college like Oberlin are so oppressed by the $15/hour maintenance men who just happen to be male and heterosexual,” another commenter noted. “The nerve of those privileged monsters to step into your dorm to make sure the radiators work and to unstop the toilets. When will the class intimidation of the blue collar privileged over the oppressed rich and woke ever end?!”
Anything else?
Fox News said Oberlin’s press office did not immediately respond to its request for comment on the matter.
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