Dear Editor:

I agree with Mr. Wilson’s call to protect free speech (Monday’s “What happened to free speech?” column).

One of the benefits of free speech is the potential to inject a little air and light into the darker and more perilous places of social thought. We lose an opportunity to learn when the speech in question is dismissed as merely “bone-headed and in poor taste.”

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Certainly, Kochno’s calling women “stupid cunts” is more than that. It is an example of naked misogyny. The fear (and its attendant hatred) of women is so common, so unexamined, that it apparently doesn’t carry much stigma. We see Kochno’s comments as only the words of a goofy guy blowing off a little steam.

Should we? Or should we pause over those words to consider how they reflect an unbridled, systematic contempt for women?

Chances are Kochno has thought about this – let’s hope he’s the better man for it. Now the rest of us have the same opportunity.

Erin Anthony

department of English lecturer