Former Student Body Presidents’ performances in last Tuesday’s assembly caused heated discussions regarding sexism, men’s bigotry, and the boundaries of comedic relief among students and faculty in classrooms, advisories, and club meetings this past week.

Vivid images of belly-dancing women’s bottoms in Mark Hines’ ’90 video and audio remix and repeated references to women’s “bazongas” in Scott Rogowsky’s ’03 comedy routine sparked the talk concerning prejudice.

The Women’s Issues Club and Gay-Straight Alliance held a meeting on Monday to review “how women were portrayed in the assembly,” WIC co-president Nicole Albstein (12) said. “Women don’t mind sexual humor,” Albstein added, “but Rogowsky’s comment was very inappropriate for the student audience, and we wanted to address the issue.”

Debate also surrounded an opinion column by Leah Byland (12) and a staff editorial addressing the assembly that were published in last week’s Record, students said.

The idea “behind my complaint is not just that he used the word ‘bazongas,’” Byland said, but that Rogowsky’s speech “as a whole was objectifying women to just a pair of boobs on legs.”

Byland was “compelled to write the article after being offended by the crude nature of the assembly,” she said. While she “didn’t expect the OpEd to become such a big issue,” she said she is “really glad that it sparked the discussion because people need to talk about the issue of sexism here.”

SBP Spencer Penn (12) said he felt “almost like people at school are just looking for controversies. The guest’s speech was definitely far more germane than anything you’d $nd on TV or the Internet,” he added. “The biggest problem is that there are real feminist issues that exist in the world, and by focusing on this inane comedic satire, you take away credibility from the real issues of sexism.”

Photography teacher Karen Johnson however, said she thought that “there are ways to be comedic without the expense of other people.” Johnson said that “the objectification of women with sexual innuendo, even as a joke, links to this underlying mental attitude that leads to the horrible statistics of rape, and domestic violence against women. Whether it’s acted out through a joke, or through violence, it’s the same mindset.”

“I didn’t mean to offend anyone with my speech,” Rogowsky said after having read the op-ed. “I was making a joke about my immaturity as a high schooler; it was all at my expense,” he added.

“The point of my whole speech was totally misconstrued,” Rogowsky said. “My only explanation for this all is that the kids were asleep during the whole assembly, then they woke up heard the word ‘bazongas’ and fell back asleep, assuming that the rest of the speech was about insulting and derogatory synonyms of women."

Rogowsky added that “comedy is all about funny words. There was no real agenda. I got my influence from a Simpsons episode where Marge says: ‘You’ve turned my maguppies into bazongas!’”