Harvard’s men’s soccer team is facing some tough punishment after they were exposed for having a “scouting report” where they rated women soccer players on their physical appearance and other sexual preferences.
According to the Harvard Crimson, an email written by the University’s Athletic Director Robert L. Scalise was sent to student athletes informing them of the school’s decision.
“As a direct result of what Harvard Athletics has learned, we have decided to cancel the remainder of the 2016 men’s soccer season,” Scalise wrote. “The team will forfeit its remaining games and will decline any opportunity to achieve an Ivy League championship or to participate in the NCAA Tournament this year.”
Yikes!!!
Apparently Harvard’s Office of General Counsel had been investigating the 2012 men’s soccer team, who were ranked No. 1 in the Ivy League, after the “sexually explicit” document was discovered to be circulating around. The “scouting report” is said to be a nine-page document that has been passed around as a yearly tradition.
In lewd terms, the author of the report individually evaluated each female recruit, assigning them numerical scores and writing paragraph-long assessments of the women. The document also included photographs of each woman, most of which, the author wrote, were culled from Facebook or the Internet.
The author of the “report” often included sexually explicit descriptions of the women. He wrote of one woman that “she looks like the kind of girl who both likes to dominate, and likes to be dominated.”
Each woman was assigned a hypothetical sexual “position” in addition to her position on the soccer field.
“She seems relatively simple and probably inexperienced sexually, so I decided missionary would be her preferred position,” the author wrote about one woman. “Doggy style,” “The Triple Lindy,” and “cowgirl” were listed as possible positions for other women.
The author also assigned each woman a nickname, calling one woman “Gumbi” because “her gum to tooth ratio is about 1 to 1.”
“For that reason I am forced to rate her a 6,” the author added.
“She seems to be very strong, tall and manly so, I gave her a 3 because I felt bad. Not much needs to be said on this one folks,” the author wrote about another woman.
Concluding his assessment of one woman, the author wrote, “Yeah… She wants cock.”
The “report” appears to have been an annual practice. At the beginning of the document, the author writes that “while some of the scouting report last year was wrong, the overall consensus that” a certain player “was both the hottest and the most STD ridden was confirmed.”
University President Drew G. Faust also shared his disappointment over the document’s findings, “I was deeply disturbed to read the news reporting concerning the men’s soccer team. Such behavior is appalling and completely at odds with the mutual respect that is a fundamental value of our community,” he wrote in a statement. “The offensive and derogatory remarks reported by The Crimson have no place at Harvard.”
Six of the women who were named in the “scouting report” responded back to the controversial document in a joint op-ed entitled “Stronger Together.”
“On Monday, October 24, The Crimson published a story detailing a “scouting report” written by members of the 2012 men’s soccer team regarding incoming female recruits on the women’s soccer team,” the piece read.
“We are these women, we are not anonymous, and rather than having our comments taken, spun, and published behind the guise of a fake anonymity offered to us by numerous news outlets, we have decided to speak for ourselves.”
The article goes on to speak on how the hurt is only because of the embarrassment from the “scouting report” but that it all originated from many who they considered friends:
In all, we do not pity ourselves, nor do we ache most because of the personal nature of this attack. More than anything, we are frustrated that this is a reality that all women have faced in the past and will continue to face throughout their lives. We feel hopeless because men who are supposed to be our brothers degrade us like this. We are appalled that female athletes who are told to feel empowered and proud of their abilities are so regularly reduced to a physical appearance. We are distraught that mothers having daughters almost a half century after getting equal rights have to worry about men’s entitlement to bodies that aren’t theirs. We are concerned for the future, because we know that the only way we can truly move past this culture is for the very men who perpetrate it to stop it in its tracks.
Having considered members of this team our close friends for the past four years, we are beyond hurt to realize these individuals could encourage, silently observe, or participate in this kind of behavior, and for more than four years have neglected to apologize until this week.
It must suck to play on a team for four years, just so it all can be taken away from you senior year over a stupid decision. Let’s chat below, do you think the men’s soccer team deserve such a harsh punishment?
TSR STAFF: Debra Oh! @The_Ebony_Issue on IG
Source: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/11/4/soccer-suspended-scouting-report-harvard/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/25/harvard-mens-soccer-2012-report/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/29/oped-soccer-report/
