Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 15:37:01 -0500
From: Danne Polk <dpolk-AT-vill.campus.mci.net>
Subject: punishment is medicine...


hello everyone.

I teach a course on ecofeminism at Villanova University, and the mother
of one of my students sent me a letter describing a peculiar situation. 
I will quote:

The warden of our county prison has recently painted both the intake and
the isolation cells a delicate pink.  In both rooms, he has painted
large fuzzy Teddy bears, one happy, the other sad.  Additionally, he is
changing the color of the male prisoners' uniforms from highway-warning
orange to pink. Everything carries the written message "Punishment is
medicine."  The unwritten messages. . . well, where do I begin?

The warden is a friend of mine as well as a friend and supporter of my
agency.  He is a someone I generally consider feminist and sensitive to
victims' issues.  When he proudly showed me these changes at the prison,
he said he knew that his decision was sexist but he felt that it was so
effective that a little sexism could be tolerated.  I think that being
sexist is about the least important problem with what he is doing.  

He is well read, and he has a high regard for the authority of the
written word--actually rather a weird regard.  He faxes me an average of
20 articles a week and refers often to the latest in research on
violence towards women.  That's why I want your help with addressing
this.  I think faxing Tom a couple of dozen articles on everything
that's wrong with what he's doing will be more effective than any
conversation I could have with him.  Besides that, I'm having trouble
articulating everything I think is wrong with pink walls and pink tee
shirts.

First, humiliation and punishment aren't synonymous. But that's a
different discursion from the one we need to have about Pink.

Many, perhaps even most, of the men in the county jail are there for
crimes of violence against women and children.  Violations of Protection
>From Abuse orders, assault, child sexual abuse, stalking--you know the
assortment, I'm sure. I feel very strongly that the prison's use of a
child-like and feminine identity as a shaming tool for men deepens
misogyny and further endangers the women and children that these guys
are in prison for abusing.  Belittling a group de-values its members. 
And tieing someone's identity to that belittled group would, I think,
engender further rage against its members.  But I only believe that.  I
don't know it, and I can't cite research or theory to back up my
beliefs.    

----------------------(end of quote)
I, myself, am at a loss for references that might address the issue(s)
here, and I'm wondering if anyone on this list knows of any texts that
would be helpful.  

thanks.
Danne Polk
dpolk-AT-vill.campus.mci.net




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