GMU hosts ‘Make Your Own Damn Sandwich’ feminist event
The meals were more than merely metaphorical, however, as the GMU Women and Gender Studies Program also provided bread, meat, and condiments so that students could make a real "damn sandwich."
Feminist students at George Mason University held a “Make Your Own Damn Sandwich” event Tuesday, making both literal and metaphorical sandwiches to help them “recognize everyday sexism.”
Feminist students at George Mason University held a “Make Your Own Damn Sandwich” event Tuesday, making both literal and metaphorical sandwiches to help them “recognize everyday sexism.”
The Women and Gender Studies Program, which hosted the event, explained that its “overall goal” was “to have participants in the event make their own sandwiches by deconstructing sexism through facilitated activities,” noting that there would be small-group activities focused on topics including “Job Equity, Intersectionality, Consent and Sex, Media Representations and Body Image, Self-Care, and Gender Binaries and the Sexuality Spectrum.”
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Organizers even provided loaves of bread and packages of lunch meat so that students could make real sandwiches.
“This is an event that is meant to respond to sexist language and attitudes on our campus,” the event description reads. “This event is an attempt to deconstruct and challenge attitudes while encouraging participants to learn about gender equity and how to recognize everyday sexism in their lives.”
“Make Your Own Damn Sandwich” also featured information on the “gender pay gap,” which the Women And Gender Studies Program defined on its Facebook page as “the difference between earnings of men and women” even though the very same post acknowledged that factors apart from gender also influence such statistics.
“On average, women make 80% of what a man makes at the same job,” the group obtusely asserted in the form of a “Women’s History Month Fun Fact” post, which then went on to note that “race, age, and education level” can all serve to exacerbate the wage gap.
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Attendees were also provided with a handout on “the gender wage gap myths” that endeavors to debunk claims that “the gender wage gap does not exist” and that “the difference in earning is just based on what kinds of jobs women have,” but only provided data comparing male and female salaries in the economy overall and within certain broadly-defined industries such as “production, transportation, and material moving” and “sales and office” positions.
Campus Reform reached out to the Women and Gender Studies Program for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
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