To the Editor:

Re: “Strings Attached,” Comics, March 4

Exactly 100 years ago 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and voting rights. They were a group of individuals tired of being discriminated against due to their gender and undermined solely because they were women. That day in 1908 now continues to be acknowledged as International Women’s Day on March 8th around the world.

The International Women’s Day Committee at Cornell has spent a year organizing weeks of events addressing the continuing sexism and gender inequality that persists, locally and globally. I am often asked why this issue of women’s rights is so pressing. Didn’t we have a woman candidate for the presidential seat this year? Aren’t we making progress?

We are, but obviously not enough: The Sun recently published a “Strings Attached” comic that included putting the cost of getting a girl “drunk enough to go home with me” at $35.

Days before International Women’s Day, in a global society where women and girls are struggling to overcome illiteracy, poverty, violence and sexual exploitation, I see this comic and I know that we are still far from attaining equality and respect between the sexes.

I encourage the comic’s author and The Sun to move beyond unoriginal, offensive college humor, beyond placing a price tag on women and beyond shallowly valuing her for her sexuality.

This International Women’s Day, I plan to think about what I can do for the advancement of women, not what I can do to take us back 100 years. The women’s movement continues ... and this comic is the perfect reminder why.

Angie Hsu ’09