Perhaps it is self-indulgent, but today my column takes the form of a parable; it is a true story that raises important questions about the nature of social life at the College.
Fifteen people -- six women and nine men -- set out for a distant country on a Foreign Study Program. Surrounded by a strange culture, they formed a society of their own -- a micro-society if you will.
Everybody got along well with each other, and a bit of a societal rule came about that when there was a "group activity" everyone in the group was invited.
All was good for several weeks. The group attended the ballet, the opera and the theatre in between en masse invasions of various pubs.
Into this world of harmony a monkey wrench was thrown on the very holiday which represents togetherness: Thanksgiving.
The men of the group decided that a game of American Football would be a great way to celebrate an American holiday in a country where "football" means "soccer," and all the turkeys on death row don't get axed until Christmas. Part of the football plan included the specific condition that the women would not be informed.
The women in the group were more than a little peeved, and rightly so, when they discovered that part of "the group's" Thanksgiving day activities included a portion that was strictly reserved for "men only."
During that evening's Thanksgiving dinner the group agreed that there was nothing wrong with the women in this micro-society having a "women's night out." Likewise, the men were free to hang with just the boys on any given evening. The mistake could not be explained solely by the fact that there was an all male activity.
The problem was that Thanksgiving was clearly a day of inclusion, a day where the activities should involve all of the micro-society. Certainly, on a 10-week trip, there was plenty of time for single-sex bonding; it need not have been on Thanksgiving.
Now what makes this a parable and not just a story? It really doesn't take that much imagination; simply notice that our FSP micro-society greatly resembles the Dartmouth society.
The parallels are remarkable. On the FSP there were more men than women; at Dartmouth there are more male social organizations than female. At Dartmouth those male organizations define, to their taste, the majority of Dartmouth's social life, while on my FSP the men defined the activities of Thanksgiving day to their taste.
One might wonder why the women of Dartmouth don't speak up in the same way that the women on my FSP did. Some might suggest a simple reason: because nothing is seriously wrong with Dartmouth social life.
Or perhaps women are simply doing their best to avoid getting the "Danielle Moore treatment." I don't think I would make my opinions so clear if I knew I would be berated by my peers.
However, I think the real reason lies in my parable. Before the division on Thanksgiving, there was a genuine sense that group social activities were planned mutually by both men and women. The women of Dartmouth haven't had a taste of such a "foreign" experience.
