Last week, I discussed the College's varied failures and successes in coping with one of the greatest challenges it has faced in the past 35 years: how to coeducate a college that, traditionally, prizes hypermasculinity.
Now, on to Dartmouth today. The gender smack-down has resurfaced over the past month: Chi Gam T-shirts, anonymous fliers, anonymous counter-fliers, anonymous panel discussion, and zillions of op-eds in The D rehashing every moment. Sometimes, it seems that we are talking in circles. We stand around with our pens and our swords and our paddles and beat the dead horse like there is no tomorrow. We beat it like its going to get up and run, but it never moves an inch.
The day I realized I was involved in the gender debate at Dartmouth was not a happy one. My obsessive championing of the great state of Minnesota aside, I do not feel comfortable in debates that are inherently divisive or combative and, to be honest, I often avoid them.
But considering the place of women at Dartmouth is vital for every student, myself included. I say this for two reasons: first, because masculinity is a defining factor of the Dartmouth experience and, second, because gender discovery is a defining factor of the college experience at large. Like it or not, this automatically places you, me and everyone we know on the battlefield. Welcome to Dartmouth.
"Frat" is a four-letter word
Let's start with the idea that masculinity is a defining part of the College. We attend a college that is notorious for the cultish loyalty of its students and alumni, and whether we love the College or rebel against it, how we connect with the Dartmouth experience is important.
A central feature of the Dartmouth mystique is the traditional Dartmouth Man. He is almost a caricature of a man: so hypermasculine that an outsider might think the whole persona is ironic. The Dartmouth Man is tough, rugged, charming and athletic, yet still inclined to spend days at a time guzzling beer and wreaking havoc. To adapt the old "Chuck Norris" joke, the Dartmouth Man doesn't even have to read books, he just stares at them until he gets all the information that he wants. The Dartmouth Man drinks napalm to quell his heartburn. He lost his virginity before his dad did.
It's no surprise that Dartmouth women are still struggling to find out where they fit in. They are just as eager to "bleed green" as the men are. We worked our asses off to get here; we want to love the College and be loved by it, to honor and be honored by over 200 years of tradition and prestige. But how? To be a Dartmouth woman, traditionally, is to be used for sex and put on a bus back to Mount Holyoke come morn. Some females who don't want to model themselves after that image try to de-feminize themselves all together. If a female proves that she can "play with the boys," she hopes that perhaps the boys will begin to treat her like one. Is this what it takes to gain membership?
To be fair, men face the same issues with conforming to traditional Dartmouth stereotypes. Men feel pressure either to perpetuate the expected norm by behaving in ways about which they would not dare tell their mothers or sisters or, alternately, to abandon being a "Dartmouth Man" altogether. One has to admit that they, too, received the short end of the stick.
Some elements of the issue are universal to college students: All students must decide how they want to manage their sexualities in different platonic, non-platonic, intellectual and spatial situations. It's a fact of adolescence. Unfortunately, given Dartmouth's history and unadulterated love of tradition, the "Dartmouth bubble" is not a very forgiving space to experiment with gender identity.
Chauvinism is a two-way street
In my opinion, the most frustrating reality of the gender battle is that each side demands total loyalty unto itself. It's difficult for a member of a fraternity to criticize or reform his frat without feeling that he has betrayed his brothers. Likewise, the women of Dartmouth come under immense pressure to either endorse or abandon their social behaviors -- friendships, parties, sexual encounters -- if others see these behaviors as perpetuating negative views of women.
Chauvinism is sometimes a two-way street, my loves. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the first two definitions for chauvinism are, "a. exaggerated patriotism of a bellicose sort; blind enthusiasm for national glory or military ascendancy," and "b. excessive loyalty to or belief in the superiority of one's own kind of cause, and prejudice against others."
True, no one has sought out "military ascendancy" (yet). But the exaggerated, combative adherence to a single cause or nation rings true to both the men and women at Dartmouth. Both groups are guilty of expecting unfair and counterproductive adherence to their gender groups. Dartmouth itself prides itself on chauvinism -- as students here, we are encouraged to be nothing if not fanatical about our alma mater. It is no coincidence that those who gravitate towards a school with this mindset are inclined to reproduce it amongst themselves.
The Revolution Will Not be Televized
Many offer structural panaceas as ends to the gender struggle, such as the cry for more local sororities, or for the College to take a harsher stance against sexual assault. These are potentially fruitful changes, but can they overhaul social norms that are, at this point, deeply embedded in the Dartmouth identity?
Women here are consistently excluded and mistreated. On the other hand, there exists a fear that reforming campus culture could result in a lobotomy of the Dartmouth experience, ending the right of Dartmouth students to engage in wild, charmingly irresponsible escapades and possibly ending the Greek system. It seems, however, that sticking with this (frustrating, challenging) conversation about gender norms could be a profitable way to change how we think. A professor told me that discourse is like manual labor in the world of thoughts. The long, slow, incremental change in how women of Dartmouth are treated may be our only sign of progress, but there is progress nonetheless. Perhaps that dead horse is heading somewhere after all.
