Cameo Tietje ‘18
Sports Editor
On Nov. 3 the Men’s Harvard Soccer Team was under investigation for rating the Women’s Soccer Team on sexual appeal. The list rated women on a scale from 1 to 10 and stated their physical attributions and possible preferred sexual positions, such as “Doggy Style” and “The Triple Lindy”. The Men’s Soccer Team’s equivalent is the Women’s Soccer Team, yet the men degraded and objectified them. Women are staggeringly objectified in the media and deserve the respect and support of their male counterparts. This was not the first “scouting report” created by the team. In fact, there was one list that was posted in a Google Document and was open to the public from 2012 until it was deleted this year. These men were brazen enough to publicly shame and humiliate the Harvard Women’s Soccer Team. They reduced the female collegiate student-athletes to their sex appeal and disregarded all of their achievements. This demonstration of dehumanizing sexism by the Men’s Soccer Team makes them completely deserving of having their season to be cancelled as punishment. In addition, the team was forced to forfeit any post-season play and apologize in a letter. Unfortunately, the Harvard Men’s Soccer Team is clear evidence that sexism is still alive on college campuses. The University’s swift reaction and hard-handed punishment is a great example to the public. Harvard set a standard of honor and civility for their students, one where behavior like the men’s soccer team is unacceptable. It is important to recognize that these, thought as isolated, extreme incidents of sexism can occur at even the most prestigious institutions. Harvard University has excellently set the standard for zero tolerance policies on sexism and sexual harassment, especially where athletics and “locker room talk” are concerned.
