By Angel Feliciano and Bill Shaner, News Staff
Knockout Barstool, a group created in opposition of popular men’s blog Barstool Sports’ use of rape jokes and light attitude toward sexual assault, will protest the Barstool-hosted Blackout Party tonight and host its own “alterna-party.”
“We’re invigorating new life into a conversation that needs to happen,” said Knockout Barstool member Frank Marino, a senior human services and international affairs major.
The party, at The House of Blues at 9 p.m., is part of Barstool’s regional Blackout Tour. Northeastern was chosen as a stop through a Facebook competition, but the university itself is not officially affiliated.
In an interview with The News, Barstool Sports’ founder and main personality David “El Presidente” Portnoy addressed the Knockout protest, emphasizing Northeastern is the only school of the five so far to meet the tour with formal resistance.
“I guess they should dress up warmly because it’s cold out on Thursday night,” he said. “I figured that, if there are 15,000 students at Northeastern, 14,995 of those students will like Barstool and five of them don’t. So I’m not worried so much and not giving too much thought to what five students who don’t like us think.”
Portnoy’s assertions were validated when tickets went on sale and all 2,400 sold out in less than a minute. The event’s Facebook page had 2,156 likes at press time.
“Barstool Sports perpetuates rape culture,” Knockout member Anna Siembor said at a Student Government Association meeting Monday. Barstool, she said, normalizes rape through “rape humor.” But, she noted, Knockout respects Barstool’s free speech and does not aim to shut it down.
Portnoy said he finds the group antagonizing.
“We obviously don’t want anybody to hurt these people, but at the same time I feel like protesters, people who are trying to express a radical minority viewpoint sometimes that’s part of their game plan,” Portnoy said. “They will provoke people and provoke people to get someone to react to it. They’re trying to antagonize people to threaten them.”
Two quotes in particular have emerged as representations of Barstool’s attitude, as featured on Knockout Barstool’s Tumblr.
One is pulled from a May 7, 2010 post, where Portnoy wrote about a court verdict in which a man was acquitted of rape charges after alleging that the female victim’s pants were too tight for him to remove without her help. Portnoy wrote of the case: “I never condone rape but if you’re a size 6 and you’re wearing skinny jeans you kind of deserve to be raped right?”
The other comment came in a Dec. 14, 2011 post. Portnoy wrote he doesn’t condone rape at any of the Blackout parties, “however if a a [sic] chick passes out that’s a grey area though.”
The students launched the “Knockout Barstool” campaign with a Tumblr blog on Jan. 25, and have since expanded their campaign to Facebook and Twitter. The group’s pages say it aims to point out the rape culture exhibited in Barstool articles, and are also lobbying the university to send a campus-wide email, informing students of the event and the site’s attitude toward women.
Barstool responded to the creation of the Tumblr account on the same day, boiling Knockout’s argument down to “a couple fat chicks who are mad [Barstool Sports] didn’t accept them as smokeshows.”
Three days later, The News published a Knockout letter to the editor online, which quickly garnered over 80 comments and a mention in popular feminist website Jezebel. The Jezebel piece drew a response from “El Pres,” Portnoy, titled “Does This Look Like The Face Of A Man Who Needs To Rape A Chick To Get Pussy.”
“These looney bins are what sets back the women’s rights movement,” he wrote.
After Barstool’s response, Boston news outlets Universal Hub and BostInno also picked up the story.
A female Northeastern student wrote Barstool in opposition to the Knockout movement on Jan. 31. Gracie Clarke wrote her gender makes her “naturally subpar when it comes to telling stories and composing coherent thoughts,” and said she’s getting a degree in acting because you cannot major in “housewifery.”
Threatening comments were posted on both the Huntington News letter to the editor and the Barstool articles, including a commenter under the name “El Pres” saying “I’m going to rape you for that.” On the Barstool post, several anonymous commenters posted Facebook pictures of Knockout members and their relatives, which prompted some members to file harassment reports with the police.
Director of the Human Services Department Lori Gardinier said she feels this is an issue that transcends the Blackout Party and one that should be discussed openly after the event.
“Often times, [sexual assault] is looked at as a women’s issue but it’s also a public health issue and it affects everyone,” she said. “Northeastern is a community, so this is our community health and our community well-being and our community should be concerned.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Frank Marino’s majors as communications and cultural studies.
