Tuesday, May 21, 1996Not created equal
Editor:
In response to Edward Hsu’s "Measuring up Asian Male Sexuality"
(May 20): From my personal experiences and my experience in the art
department, I have to laugh when I hear a white male talk with
arrogance about the size of the white male penis and with
condescension toward the Asian male penis.
I have seen a small erect penis on a white male which didn’t
compare to the penis of my Korean boyfriend. When my sisters or
friends talk about their respective boyfriends, I hear about a
whole range of penis sizes  from Asian males and a
Mexican-Italian with 7-inchers to Asian males with 5 inchers.
The stereotype of Asian men having a small penis is just that, a
stereotype. There are Asian men who have a big penis as well as
Asian men who have a small penis, just as there are white men who
have a big penis as well as white men who have a small penis. If
it’s any consolation to Hsu, I think you’ve got a lot of balls.
Eun Han
Third-year
Psychology
Married … with privileges?
Editor:
Clinton promises to sign the Defense of Marriage Act, which will
outlaw same-sex marriages in the United States. You might be
wondering, as the Supreme Court of Hawaii did, what compelling
interest the state has in forbidding same-sex marriages, or why gay
and lesbian couples have bought into the idea that they should get
married. It’s because the state discriminates against unmarried
people. Married people find it easier to visit each other in the
hospital, inherit and get tax breaks, among other things.
If the gay movement were truly anti-marriage, as conservatives
claim, they would not be fighting for the right to marry, but
striving to eliminate the unfair advantages married people have.
Gay couples aren’t really fighting the status quo, they only want
to share its privileges. But you should be asking yourself, why
should the government regulate marriage at all? Why should married
people get special rights that other Americans are denied?
Today, women are no longer compelled to marry or give their
children up for adoption if they become pregnant. Why then, do we
continue to cling to a paradigm that legitimizes women through
marriage? Property law and family law, for example, could be
greatly simplified by eliminating the legal category of marriage.
People should be able to designate anyone they wish as having a
right to visit them in the hospital or inherit their property, or
with whom to divide a household in the event of a breakup or
death.
Lest I should be attacked as opposing marriage, let me say that
I am not arguing that marriages should not occur, only that they
should be legitimized by whatever religious authority the parties
recognize, and not by the state. What business is it of the state’s
to determine who may marry whom? The religious right stands to gain
as much as anyone from this change. Utah, for example, could have
been a state 40 years earlier because frankly, it isn’t any of the
government’s business. So, if lesbians and gay men want to get
married, they should be able to.
Lathe Gill
Fourth-year
Anthropology
Hungry for kosher
Editor:
As a kosher student (read: vegetarian out of necessity on a
campus where kosher food does not exist), I often find my options
for lunch on campus limited. Recently, these already pitiful
options were further reduced when Panda Express removed the
vegetarian "Buddhists’ Delight" from its menu.
Now, this may seem to be a minor, petty, even trivial issue,
especially to people who do not know what it is to suffer through
life on a campus where one cannot eat anything. To me, though, it
means nothing short of the loss of one of the few meals on campus
that I both COULD and WANTED to eat.
So what am I supposed to eat for lunch now? Candy bars? French
fries? Salad is very nice and all, but my tolerance for lettuce at
every meal only goes so far.
It is bad enough that UCLA does not provide kosher food. Now
vendors on campus are whittling back their already insufficient
vegetarian food offerings? No, I’m sorry, this isn’t acceptable.
Man does not live by salad alone.
Rebecca Blustein
First-year
English