Comments on: It’s a Woman’s College, Not a Girl’s School

By: School guide

School guide — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:32:27 +0000

Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post,and very informative

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:14:12 +0000

I attend Mills College, and even with our reputation, there is surprisingly little queer visibility in our admissions material.

Believe it or not some of those women will choose the attend a womens college, and in my experience they make life miserable. For the most part they complain all the time and get defensive about how hetero they are, I routinely hear a group of them talk about feeling oppressed.

Just know that a womens college is a special place. Class room dynamics really are different. I shamelessly plug Mills. Its awesome.

By: em

em — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:03:13 +0000

Great post.

I am a recent graduate of the very school I assume you speak of, and even served as a tour guide.

It’s important to remember that there is an unfortunate but very real (and very political) hierarchy pulling the strings behind the scenes. For example, the Board of Trustees at the womens college I attended were all old white women and men (whose wives had attended the school) who still thought of the school in terms of pearls and white-gloves – the homogenized and elite institution that they had attended. Those people are, at least in part, responsible for shaping the school’s image.

Additionally, going to such a school does not mean that every one of your classmates will be the queer kid feminist I was. And I promise that most of those people are NOT serving as tour guides. That being said, I gave tours with my trans friend who was very open about his experience at the school.

I’m getting off track – just don’t forget to think about who it is that’s delivering the message and who it is that’s directing them to. It’s not necessarily “the school” as an institution endorsing whatever message you may find objectionable.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:00:10 +0000

http://www.breitbart.tv/superfreakonomics-how-womens-liberation-led-to-high-end-prostitution/

By: Amy CT

Amy CT — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:56:50 +0000

Wow. I don’t think we even have any all-women’s Unis in the UK. I know that Cambridge still has at least one all women’s college within their University, but that’s about it.

I didn’t realise this kind of thing even existed!

By: Mara

Mara — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:11:07 +0000

Yeah, they should really try to make sure that the tour guides and their publicity fully acknowledge to LGBT community on campus. I know that that’s something that matters to me when I’m choosing colleges, and pretending that such a community doesn’t exist is really a turn-off for a lot of prospective students at schools like that.

By: Nellie

Nellie — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:13:35 +0000

Let me clarify: I don’t think it’s heteronormative for prospective students to ask about the opportunities to interact with boys. I find it annoying, however, when tour guides and publicity materials entirely ignore or quickly gloss over the queer community.

By: Mara

Mara — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:39:00 +0000

I don’t think wondering about opportunities to meet people of the opposite sex is inherently heterosexist, but I am surprised that they wouldn’t mention LGBT life on campus. All the small liberal arts schools that I’ve visited have been really proud of their LGBT community and tried to showcase that during tours and informational sessions. That’s really surprising.

By: Maia

Maia — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:54:16 +0000

I mean, I won’t call it heterosexist necessarily, but it does seem pretty disappointingly typical that the tour people’s priority is to reassure applicants that they won’t go into boy withdrawal at a women’s college… And when I ask a tour guide about social life outside the college, and they respond, “oh, tons of the girls have boyfriends from one of the nearby schools,” well, THAT’S just irritating.

I agree that it’s freaking ANNOYING when schools rattle on about their diversity and don’t mention the LGBT community unless someone specifically asks… and then that someone (usually me) gets really weird looks from the rest of the tour group. Ugh.

Though when I toured Bryn Mawr, at the end of the tour I asked about queer life (this was when I was young and stupid, you see, and didn’t know that liberal women’s colleges were some of the gayest places on earth), and my tour guide responds with, “Well, my girlfriend and I…” Aah, it was awesome…

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:26:29 +0000

I totally identify with this post. I think that what may be misenterpreted here (and perhaos has been) is the idea that giving (or asking for) the rant on where to find the boys is in and of itself heteronormative. It isn’t, because, as Shannon said, you should find out all about the social life and opportunities of a school. What is heterosexist, and what the poster was getting at, was the assumption that every woman looking into an all woman’s school will be really concerned with this. An All woman’s school is the last place where I, as a queer woman, want to be made to feel invisible. That is it’s so frustrating.

In related news, I was told, point blank, at Hampshire College (a small experimental liberal arts school in MA) that “It’s a little abnormal to not be queer at Hampshire” and Smith College’s promotional material includes pictures of the “typical” students, many of which are butch and other variations of Obviously Gay. It was really exciting to see that, unlike other schools who had a large gay population but seemed ashamed of it, they valued students like me.