Renee Rosenow

Some fans at the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher-University of Iowa Hawkeye football game Nov. 26 may have witnessed more action off the field than they did on the field during the 55-0 shutout win by the Hawkeyes.

Two Iowans were caught in a men’s bathroom of the Minneapolis Metrodome engaging in sexual activity. By the time campus police broke up the couple, there was a group of 15 onlookers cheering on Lois Feldman, 38, and Ross Walsh, 26. The pair was cited in the police report as being uncooperative and heavily intoxicated. After names surfaced, Feldman was fired from her job at an assisted living home and is now pointing the finger at foul play and possible drugging.

Feldman, a mother of three, claimed in an interview with the Pioneer Press that the incident has ruined her life. She blames the incident for ruining her life rather than her intoxicated behavior – at what point does her responsibility come into play?

Feldman has since blamed the host of the party she was at prior to the game for giving her too much wine and to her husband for not accompanying her to the bathroom. It has become so common in our society to not take responsibility for one’s own actions, there always seems to be someone else to take the fall. What was once thought as immoral and dangerous behavior is now praised by the media and pseudo celebrities are created.

In all her efforts to victimize herself even more, she continues to speak of how this situation is affecting only her, I feel that she is missing one important aspect of her life – her family.

Not once did Feldman mention her children and the embarrassment they will face at school, or her husband who had to identify his own wife to campus police after the sexual activity took place.

The example she is displaying to her family is that you can get so intoxicated to the point that you cheat on your husband and have sexual intercourse with a complete stranger and then not take the responsibility of the result.

I’m not trying to hold the double-standard, my sympathies go out to Feldman in the fact that the reason she is getting as much publicity as she is is due to the fact that she is a woman.

In our society, mothers are perceived as well-mannered and maternal, while the fathers are the ones allowed to get intoxicated and scream at linebackers. However, she holds the power to how long this thing continues.

Welch has stayed quiet during this debacle, while Feldman has done everything in her power to shift the blame elsewhere, thus inviting the media frenzy.

In a later interview, Feldman’s lawyer claimed she was taken advantage of. As a young woman myself, I unfortunately understand these circumstances arise; men taking advantage of women after intoxication.

However, I find this completely ludicrous that Feldman is playing this card after basically putting on a show for the 15 cheering bystanders in the incident where neither of the two participants were there against their will. I also feel there are plenty of women to cry wolf and blame the man, and in this case a rape claim could ruin the life of Welch.

Would anyone take Welch seriously if he had claimed that he was drugged and then proceded to get taken advantage of? Her attempt to ruin Welch’s reputation to save her own is pure cowardice; her 15 minutes of fame are up.

Feldman, own up to what you did, you are not the victim, apologize for your indecency and stay home for all future road games.

Kloek is a senior public relations major and a copy editor for The Spectator.