Madeleine Lee
Campus Beat Reporter
For the latest stop on The Dangerous Faggot tour, famous Breitbart editor and speaker Milo Yiannopoulos made a stylish entrance at the University of California, Santa Barbara on Thursday, May 26, as he rode into a packed Corwin Pavilion on a golden throne.
Touting a string of pearls on one wrist and pink socks peeking above a set of polished dress shoes, Yiannopoulos waved to fans and skeptics from above as he sat comfortably on the makeshift throne, fashioned especially for the event by Young Americans for Liberty and hoisted on the shoulders of several beaming YAL members.
The ostentatious nature of Yiannopoulos’ arrival was underscored by the controversial nature of the event itself. Fourth year political science major and YAL member Jason Garshfield stood above Pardall Tunnel in the days leading up to the event, singing “Feminism is Cancer”—the tagline of Yiannopoulis’ talk—to the tune of Henry VIII, and to the anger of many Isla Vista residents.
“I want to be like the little boy who says the emperor has no clothes on,” Garshfield said. “I want to encourage people to say what they really think, to show students that it’s okay to disagree with the prevailing opinion.”
Although protesters sporting signs that read “Patriarchy is Cancer” overtook YAL’s band of Yiannopoulos promoters by Thursday afternoon, spirits remained un-dampened as Yiannopoulos ascended the stage that same night. After the cheering crowd took its seat, Yiannopoulos took his place next to the life-sized Donald Trump cutout and began, delving into an attack on modern day rape hysteria.
“Everything you’ve been told by the oppressive left is a lie,” Yiannopoulos said, whose notoriously blunt manner remained expectedly unbridled.
Quoting the UCSB crime statistics listed in the annual Clery Act, he emphasized that in a campus of 20,000 people, only 12 instances of on-campus rapes were reported in 2014. Yiannopoulos pointed to this as one of the many pieces of evidence that strips truth from the widely reported statistics that 1 in 4 women will be victims of sexual assault in college.
“I don’t know whether they want men to rape more, simply to have something to complain about,” Yiannopoulos said, “…or whether they would prefer to ignore truth, accuracy, and evidence based thinking.”
Yiannopoulos did not mention the annual number of rapes that remain unreported, though he did make several rape themed jokes that could barely be heard over the echoing laughter.
In his tirade against feminism that followed, Yiannopoulos made sure to leave no stone unturned, as he encouraged audience members to rethink the dominant narrative behind America’s wage gap and gender equality in the workplace.
“If you want to get paid more, work as hard as we do,” said Yiannopoulos, who cited that men work more hours in the workplace than women, and therefore are more deserving of executive positions. “Women just don’t want to put in the hours to become CEO.”
Yiannopoulos also asserted that women are more likely to major in social sciences than their male counterparts—citing the high number of women who graduate with majors in “dance therapy”—and are as a result, unlikely to afford themselves the lucrative job opportunities given to men who dominate STEM fields.
In defense of women, though, Yiannopoulos seeks to remedy what he feels is a crisis of female unhappiness and male bullying.
“I want men to be happy,” said Yiannopoulos. “I especially want them to be happy because I think some men in this country have been so bullied and divided and ridiculed and oppressed for three decades that they deserve a little bit of restitution. But I also want women to be happy, and clearly feminism is not making them happy.”
Yiannopoulos makes his case for a return to traditional family values. He acknowledges the “impossibility” of a woman in the modern age who is expected to have all three—the job, the family, and the kids—without being driven mad. The blame for these unrealistic expectations sits squarely on the shoulders of Yiannopoulos’ most hated group of individuals: feminists.
“It’s the most enlightened generation in history—the millennials—the least bigoted, least racist, least homophobic, least horrible generation in the history of our species, allowing these dour lesbianic half-breeds dictate how we should interact with each other,” said Yiannopoulos. “It’s insane.”
For the question and answer segment, audience members with name tags touting “white privilege victim” and “subservient woman” flocked to the front of the event stage. Some questions were lighthearted, as one older audience member’s inquiry on the status of a possible internship sparked laughter. Others, like first year undeclared major Vida Jaffe, expressed their gratitude.
“After stumbling upon your work two weeks ago, I stopped being ashamed of my opinions and conservative values, so thank you,” Jaffe said, who stood in solidarity with YAL members outside Pardall Tunnel earlier that day.
In an exclusive interview between The Bottom Line and Yiannopoulos at Silvergreens after the event, Yiannopoulos took a more serious tone as he explained the driving inspiration behind his blunt rhetoric.
“My message is universal, it’s simply rethink what you think you know, and think very carefully before you accept these limits being placed on free speech in America today,” Yiannopoulos said. “America is forgetting why those first amendment ideals matter so much, and I think that’s worrying.”
In regards to the frequent inaccuracies of Donald Trump’s campaign as the Republican nominee, Yiannopoulos remained steadfast in his support, arguing that increased dialogue is better than less.
“Obviously it’s irritating when he’s inconsistent or doesn’t quite get things correct but … by far the general influence of Donald Trump on popular culture by a huge margin is more speech, not less,” Yiannopoulos said.
Though a death threat posted to the official “Feminism is Cancer” page by Facebook user Rick Chavez was reported to the UC Police Department during the event, the event otherwise remained peaceful with no protestors. Students who were turned away due to full capacity watched from home via YAL’s livestream, while a few remained outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Yiannopoulos once the event ended.
To all feminists and allies, Yiannopoulos ended the night with an ultimatum.
“It’s time to shut up shop, pack up bags and do something else in your life.”