This guest article was submitted by a member of a Top 25 ranked North American Collegiate team, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of this topic. It is a response to “A Plea to Stop Sexism and Sexual Harassment on the Collegiate MUN Circuit,” which was published on this blog in April of 2019.
He walked into the room with a smug expression, but also a misplaced smile, nonetheless. For some reason, he sat right next to me when there were plenty of other open seats, which interrupted the conversation I was having with the female delegates around me; ironically, we were conversing about how happy we were to see a female-saturated committee room in a Crisis committee. This ended up not mattering whatsoever in terms of the misogyny that unfolded throughout the weekend.
“What’s your name?” I asked the boy next to me to break the ice after he intentionally sat so uncomfortably close to me that our blazers touched.
“You’ll find out,” he muttered with a toothy grin an an unnerving amount of side eye. I found this off-putting and odd, but perhaps he was nervous about the conference or very excited and already fully in character. I laughed it off and went back to talking with the girls.
Moments passed and he interrupts, “Brett, from Minnesota State, Duluth.” It never occurred to me this could be false information, so I made small talk about a friend who spent some time in Duluth. I was genuinely interested in connecting with him, as I do in all committees I’ve participated in over a six year MUN career. It should have been a red flag when he had absolutely nothing to add to the conversation about his school’s city or the state of Minnesota in general, but again, I thought, maybe he was nervous or already very much in character.
Minnesota State, Duluth, does not actually exist, and he later used this to gaslight me and frame me as a “liar” to the other delegates, to whom he had given different identification credentials. His name was not Brett, either, and I am still unsure of who he is or where he was from. All I know is that he deliberately made an effort to sabotage the female delegates in my committee, and despite being reprimanded by secretariat for his behavior, he ended up getting an award – rewarding his behavior that multiple female delegates complained of.
This individual will forever remember that hiding female delegates’ directives under his chair, refusing to work with female delegates, intimidating female delegates to vote a certain way, violently ripping out a female delegate’s portion of a merged directive from the compiled document after she called out his misogyny, calling female delegates “snakes” whenever they spoke, and having sexually inappropriate crisis arcs and directives will be the key to winning. Since MUN has so much real-world application, he will likely treat women this way in school, the workplace, or wherever he ends up. This was a crucial life lesson missed.
While the MUN circuit is most definitely sexist and disproportionately male, I had never experienced this level of misogyny before. Everyone has heard horror stories of sexism destroying committees and MUN experiences, but I never thought it would be me. I am a strong delegate and have learned to navigate these situations well – specifically, ensuring I am heard in a crowd of men during an unmod or making sure I get in the circle since male delegates often have the physical advantage of being larger. I was never prepared for or equipped to deal with what happened during this conference, however. My heart sunk when I saw he won an award. Not because he was not a good delegate or I wish I placed higher, but because this was a lesson completely missed.
I am not one to be silenced, give up, or stay quiet, especially on issues that impact both the MUN community and real world, but after what happened I toyed with the idea of MUN retirement in protest of the toxic environment that has stemmed from an activity about diplomacy, collaboration, and sustainable peace. I regretted speaking out against “Brett from Minnesota” with a handful of other female delegates for about a week. It seemed like a waste of our time and dignity since he learned no life lesson and will continue to target women. In fact, he was rewarded for targeting women.
My friends on the MUN circuit agreed this was poorly handled by the conference, and I moved on with my life figuring they were just agreeing with me to make me quiet since we all somehow have lives outside of MUN. It seemed nobody really cared about the misogyny festering under our noses. Then, on April 8, 2019, some circuit friends reached out assuming I wrote an anonymous article about sexual harassment that was published on Best Delegate, based on the “Brett from Minnesota” conference and my outspoken personality. They said it was brave and necessary. I let them know that I did not write it, though I related to a lot of the author’s sentiments, but that it inspired me to potentially write a reply. So, this is me doing that – this is me sharing my story so that the MUN circuit now sees that two delegates on Top 25 North American teams who have had enough with MUN circuit gender inequality and harassment.
This is me sharing my story so that others will speak out too and so that when I graduate in a couple of years I won’t have to console my female friends when their male chairs hit on them, I won’t have to teach my delegates how to navigate the large men in suits during unmods, I won’t have to worry about another “Brett from Minnesota” ruining people’s times at conferences, I won’t have to watch a girl on my team pretend to care about football scores to keep up with men in committees, and I certainly won’t be reading more accounts of this unacceptable behavior across North America. This is enough. I am confident we are the MUN generation to change the landscape for future generations to come.
I refuse to retire because of “Brett from Minnesota,” and I refuse to leave the circuit without laying the groundwork for MUN to be an activity for all to feel safe. We can do better, and we deserve better.
#metoo, #MUNtoo.
If you are looking for more resources, check out How to Be an Effective Ally for Women in MUN and How to Run a Women in MUN Program. If you would like to share your story on Best Delegate, email conna@bestdelegate.com