Dalhousie University: A Backhouse Analysis

The Backhouse inquiry into the actions and behaviour of a group of male students in the Faculty of Dentistry at Dalhousie University is an interesting examination of how a runaway culture of misogyny, homophobia and normalized attitudes towards sexual violence can desensitize a group of impressionable young people to the immorality and emotional consequences of their actions. It is an example of the pervasive discrimination towards and mistreatment of women and minorities on university campuses, which often goes unchecked because of tacit administrative and professor approval, and the perpetuation of the archaic, tribal faculty mentalities which prop up these unfortunate legacies and hinder our ability to combat gender and minority group inequalities.

That there exists a broader culture where sexism, misogyny and homophobia permeate the very core of University life which does lasting, quantifiable damage. They began the investigation knowing that equity issues present complex problems and require complex answers which may not be readily available, but which can certainly be narrowed down by eliminating the obviously incorrect ones. After the inquiry, the findings demonstrated that the underlying culture at the school's faculty of dentistry permits and is conducive to sexism, misogyny, homophobia and racism and is perpetuated by and affects a wide range of stakeholders (students, faculty and administrators) within the faculty which engenders distrust among the student population of the ability of the university to handle these toxic phenomena. Overall, Dalhousie's internal procedures for dealing with complaints and evidence of this sort of misconduct is ranked very high, and compares well with other Canadian post secondary institutions with similarly high ratings. It concluded that the best way forward is to continue to focus on systemic change and addressing the broader concerns of the marginalized groups in question, rather than dealing with them on a case by case basis. Continued education and research into the effects

A culture of callous and insensitive attitudes towards any person not a typical cisgendered male had been present within the faculty of dentistry for years, as evidenced by the discovery of the “historical walls,” a wall behind the bar in a student lounge that, for over a decade, had been an infamous canvas for comments glorifying sexual violence, racism and homophobia, where it is alleged that homecoming meetings were held and where faculty even entertained students with stories about their own contributions to the wall. This history of toxic and backwards philosophy, tacitly, even explicitly endorsed by faculty members on impressionable young minds, combined with a generally pervasive attitude of indifference and even outright aggression towards women, homosexuals and racial minorities and a neanderthal preoccupation with and glorification of the phallic symbol helped to foment a culture of repression and male aggression which made the creation of the Facebook group not in the least bit