hetero-izing Smith

One facet of the summer program I work for is that it exposes 100 girls to Smith College every year and, from the perspective of the admissions office, that's 100 prospective students to appeal to. In addition to heaps of other information about actin' right and schedules, we include Smith admissions pamphlets in their folders that the girls receive on their first day. As a Smithie who adores her school but has been disabused of many romanticized notions that I held as a high school student of what living and learning here would be like, I flipped through the information to see how they tried to portray Smith. And what I found pissed me off and disturbed me.

Of course, Smith talked about our wonderful educational resources and opportunities and how gorgeous our houses are (all true, unless you have the misfortune of living in Cutter, which resembles an office building and has showers that are so small, some obese students have had to move out!), but it also addressed the advantages of a women's college education, including that we're more likely to complete a graduate degree, be more self-confident and generally better prepared for careers and advancement than women who graduated from coed schools.

All lovely, right?

Wrong.

All of the images feature women who are attractive, smiling, and (of course) diverse. Except that only ONE of them has hair cut above her shoulders. Most of them are wearing jewelry and makeup.

And my favorite: the pamphlet features a picture of a long-haired student, strolling through the botanical gardens, hand-in-hand with a man who appears to be wearing a UMASS t-shirt. This is featured just beneath the heading Great Social Life (Really!).

...

Because we couldn't possibly have great social lives without men.

What further pisses me off about this is that this brochure gives no hint of gay, lesbian, trans or otherwise non-hetero identity on this campus. While Smith is by no means the gay sex fest it's often stereotyped as (students identifying as LGBTQ made up about one third of the student body of 2600, according to a recent survey done by Howard Gold of the gov department), to ignore it does a disservice to both the very active gay community on campus and to prospective Smithies.

If one of Smith's most appealing aspects to you is the idea that it might be a haven for people not identifying as strictly hetero, you'd never have that hope reinforced by the brochures Admissions is handing you, full of seemingly hetero chicks and UMASS boys(I say seemingly, since as a long-haired someone who is attracted to both men and women, I'm well aware that short hair is not the only way to be gay). And honestly, the gayness might be a turn-off for some, and while I will privately judge and glare and disapprove of you, that just means Smith is not the right place for you if you can't learn to accept people, regardless of whether they get down with the ladies, men, both, or neither.

I'm not really sure why Admissions feels the need to "de-gay" Smith. It's a piece of our identity as a women's college in Northampton, and it's a wonderful one at that. To try to whitewash over it with cheerful hetero students (who are absolutely part of our community too, but not a part that needs to worry about representation or visibility as much) is bullshit, plain and simple, and likely simply motivated by wanting to keep more conservative alum happy by not ruining their vision of Smith as a place of white gloves and afternoon teas and dress codes.

Public image can be vastly different from the real, authentic feel of a place, as evidenced by the Admissions office's sad attempts to distance itself from the sexual, romantic and social realities of Smith's student body.

Much love,
The Sheriff