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FIFTEEN MINUTES (weekly magazine of the Harvard Crimson)
Harvard Crimson, February 22, 2001
14 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
(E-Mail: letters@thecrimson.harvard.edu )
( http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/ )
http://www.thecrimson.com/fm/article3A.shtml
Ask a heterosexual boy what he thinks of lesbians. A smile will quickly
appear on his face and his
eyes will reveal thoughts of all the sexual possibilities. Girls know
this. Girls will kiss in the Grille
and grind on the dance floor for their amusement. The unspoken fact
underlying this is that these
women are not actually lesbians. The idea of it is cool not the practice.
But the real lesbians are
out there. And to these women, same-sex love is not a fleeting fad,
but an identity. At Harvard, as
in much of American society, the absence of out lesbians is marked.
Where are the lesbians?
I was coming from a South Texan Catholic home, says a sophomore of
her first experiences with
Harvards lesbian community. I had this foolish notion that there would
be a bunch of lesbians
everywhere, practically waiting at the door for me... And there were
a lot of gay men, many of
whom are now my close friends. But very few lesbians."
I didnt really expect anything, says Kate Callaghan 03. I wasnt really
thinking about it. But yes,
there are very few lesbians around here.
Harvard is so fucking lame. So, so lame. Ive walked into rooms and
had people grimace in disgust
because Im so elegantly femme. Its quite. Put simply, fags like me
arent terribly popular at
Harvard, erotically or otherwise. There is a rush to homogeneity here.
It would seem the average
gay boys erotic life is entirely contained within the covers of this
months Abercrombie and Fitch
catalogue you know, enthralled with blond boys decked out in overpriced
clothing and that
slicked-down hairstyle thats spiked up in the front, whiter-than-white
and better at playing straight
than most straight boys can.
Being so effeminate, I have spent much of my life pointedly out. I
never had a choice. In that
sense, Ive never experienced myself as what most people mean when they
say closeted, though I
clearly had my own outings with family and friends. I came out directly
into AIDS politics and
work on queer cinema in California, spaces that were all about calling
normalcy and homogeneity
into question, both within the queer community and the community at
large.
In the course of my work on queer issues at Harvard, a number of gay
men have accused me of
making it harder for others to come out that, because of my experiences,
I narcissistically ask
every LGBT person on the planet to be as queer as I am. My ass. Queer
space is not about
establishing some ascending scale of whos appropriately queer. Its
not about whos cool enough.
For me, queer space and indeed coming out as well would help people
have different kinds of
desires and different ways of doing their sexuality. This does not
mean we should tell the boy whos
always wanted to look like Justin Timberlake to strap on 12-inch heels
and a 13-inch dildo. Its
obviously not that easy. But while you cant just change who and how
you desire, you can work to
think past your own way of experiencing your sexuality and about the
lives of others. Its the
failure to do so thats so narcissistic.
Obviously I have BOND in mind. BOND claims to provide a space that
is beyond our normal
differences that though you might be, for example, a queer person of
color or transgendered, we
can get beyond these normal differences and reach a place of commonality
about some vague
concept of respect, dignity, blah, blah, blah. I mean, their acronym
really begs the question not
only are our differences normal and ours but were beyond them anyway.
If only our differences
were universal too then wed have BOUND! But theyd never be so creative.
BOND would claim to be neutral, apolitical, and indeed universal space,
but of course they
represent a rather weighty political view namely, that of those who
can afford to believe or who
really want to believe that we can bond beyond our differences by not
bringing them up. What
BOND fails to take seriously is that our normal differences are part
of who we are we live these
differences in very real ways. If were looking for a point of commonality,
it should be in a
commitment to engaging with these differences rather than ignoring
them like idiots.
Where theyre not
The Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and Straight Alliance (BGLTSA)
is an umbrella
organization for Harvards queer students. But their union is a precarious
one. Theres really very
little in common between gay men and lesbians, aside from being ostracized,
Claire E. Herrick 02
says. Society tends to look down on feminine men and masculine women,
but they arent the same
thing. Not at all. Theyre not even comparable. So how did gay men and
lesbian women end up
married in political alliance? The classifications for sexuality [heterosexuality
and homosexuality]
are only about a hundred years old, Herrick adds. Gay men and lesbians
have only recently been
lumped together.
Basic behavioral differences exist between the two groups. Men are
more socially forced to face the
reality that theres no one to date, and that they need to go to a gay
venue, Jesse A. Green 02-03
says. Laure E. Voop de Vulpillieres 02 echoes these thoughts: Women
are more content with being
asexual. If their last relationship was six months ago, theyll say
I havent met anyone, not, I havent
found anyone. When explained this way, as two groups with little in
common, it is not surprising
that one group might end up under-represented, as happens with any
general group dynamics.
Basic behavioral differences between men and women are more pronounced
in smaller
communities, such as Harvards gay and lesbian population (the BGLTSAs
mailing list currently
serves around 400 students, though many are either inactive or straight
supporters). Guys have to
be either on one side of the fence or on the other, says Vulpillieres.
Its hard for a guy to be
bisexual. But for women its more accepted. Women do not necessarily
feel social pressures to be
lesbians if they arent straight. It is easier for them to be bisexual.
Bisexuality as a phenomenon in pop culture has made it easier for Harvard
women to blend in.
Very few Harvard women identify strictly as lesbians, although many
more identify as bisexual.
Ever since the whole thing when bisexuality became cool, says Betty
C. Luther 03, chair of
BAGELS, Hillels sexuality discussion group. There are a lot more women
who dont feel the need
to define themselves. If youre bisexual its a lot easier to not come
out, because lets face it, once
you graduate its a lot easier to be straight and date a man; its something
to reassure the parents
with. For some people, bisexuality is like a stepping stone to coming
out.
College years tend to be years of sexual exploration. Smith College
is an example of this
phenomenon, known to the gay community as the birthplace of the four-year
queer. In college,
when many women arent quite sure of their sexual identity, they are
hesitant to accept the lesbian
label. As categories such as gay and straight are very constricting,
many have latched onto more
lenient terminology, such as heteroflexible, bisexual and homoflexible.
To further the label confusion, female sexuality has a tendency to
be much more fluid than male
sexuality. In two 60-person surveys Vulpillieres ran for sociology
projects asking general
populations of men and women to rank their sexuality on a scale of
one to five, five being
completely homosexual and one completely heterosexual, women invariably
did not rate
themselves as ones or fives, implying the slightly flexible nature
of female sexuality. Not one
woman identified as a five, Vulpillieres says, while only one male
identified as not a one or five.
Unlike men, many women do not rule out dating someone outside of their
usual status quo. I
wouldnt ever rule out dating a guy, says Callaghan.
Many of Harvards queer women who classify themselves as bisexual enjoy
the privacy and
anonymity Harvard gives them, happy to focus on other aspects of their
lives. They criticize
Harvards gay organizations for wanting to classify and stereotype for
an entire group of people
that only have issues of sexuality in common.
Im not sure what out means or entails besides me telling my parents
and close friends, says a
female junior, who is involved in a homosexual relationship. Theres
really not a problem [with not
advertising sexuality]. I dont know what else I would do besides walk
around in a rainbow. Its
good that there are people who are politically active, but everyone
who is gay or lesbian does not
have to politically active. There are other common bonds you can form
with others besides
sexuality.
Women are not necessarily proud of being lesbians, says Vulpillieres.
Theyre still hoping for a boy
and considering themselves bisexual. Theyre not going to advertise.
With more women choosing to
keep their private lives private, the political sector will continue
to miss them.
Visibility and politics, the two issues where lesbians and gay men
seem to differ the most, are
pivotal to the BGLTSA. Often, an unaware Harvard community looks to
the BGLTSA as the
spokesperson for gay issues, without recognizing that the BGLTSA only
represents a portion of the
gay men and an even smaller fraction of the lesbians in their ranks.
Most students dont seem to
give it much thought, says Janet Hanseth, co-chair of girlspot. They
assume the whole gay and
lesbian community is the BGLTSA. Taking on the role of spin doctor,
the BGLTSA tends to
handle more politically oriented events and general community concerns
as they arise. Were a
non-specialized queer student organization, Michael A. Hill 02 says.
We handle more political
events, speakers and faculty interaction. The organization also hosts
semi-annual dances which
draw campus crowds. But, contrary to popular belief, many gay and lesbian
students are not at all
affiliated with the BGLTSA. BGLTSA is by no means synonymous with the
gay community.
However, even within this large BGLTSA network, there are very few
lesbian women. Many joke
that they all went to Wellesley, but the question remains, why are
they not as active as the gay
men?
I was the only out gay person in my high school, so I could never test
out my sexuality, the
French-born Vulpillieres says. I couldnt wait to get to America, because
in America, the streets
were going to be paved with lesbians! I was so excited, I couldnt sleep
the night before the prefrosh
BGLTSA [Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and Supporters Alliance]
meeting. But then I
got there, and there were three women and five guys. Id expected hundreds.
Three months later at
the first real BGLTSA meeting, 75 percent were guys, only seven or
eight women were there and
half of them were straight supporters.
It turns out that the BGLTSA social structure, in which active male
political committee members
outnumber women seven to one and only two of eight board members are
female, mimics that of
the national political arena, where women have long been reluctant
to participate. The social half
of BGLTSA is dominantly male, says Claire E. Herrick 02, BGLTSA political
chair. Theres much
more lethargy among women to maintain social and political activity,
which is unfortunate,
whereas men tend to much more make their sexuality their identity.
Nationally, higher percentages of women run for office in regions where
more women are already
in office, a statistic that jibes with the BGLTSAs difficulties in
maintaining women. Women are
not represented in campus groups, Callaghan says. And I think its because
not many women
participate. Its a self-perpetuating cycle not many women are there,
so not many go.
This remains problematic for the BGLTSA board. People ask a lot why
there are two male
co-chairs of BGLTSA, says Hill. Only males ran. People say we should
actively seek out women,
but we cant force them to run for office.
Being classified as lesbian, political or feminist on the Harvard campus
is often perceived as deadly
to ones social status. At Harvard, women are more likely to become
president or run an
organization, but theyre not as likely to stand up for what they actually
believe in a social contest,
says Angela L. Peluse 01, a straight Womens Studies concentrator. Peluse
adds that while fear does
not always restrict womens actions, it can still cast an underlying
mood. Fear of being labeled can
extend to the general Harvard population. Some people are reluctant
to take gay and lesbian
studies courses because of the connotations, Herrick says. Professor
Bradley S. Epps, who is
teaching this semesters Womens Studies 103: Introduction to Gay and
Lesbian Studies, announced
during his first lecture that students have the option of selecting
an alternative, more vague course
title to appear on their transcripts. The issue resonates among gay
and lesbian students enough to
warrant yesterdays student-faculty panel entitled, Should I Be Out
on my Application?
Why theyre invisible
People seem to think were only gay on once a year, on National Coming
Out Day, says Hanseth, a
cute, bubbly blond. Gay and lesbian-sponsored events on National Coming
Out Day tend to draw
attention to gays and lesbians, commonly eliciting, I didnt know you
were gay responses from
bystanders.
Beyond simply having a lower profile, the pooling of the lesbian populations
into various pockets
is a fascinating phenomenon. As a general trend in society, lesbians
tend to crop up in larger
percentages than the accepted 10 percent statistic in certain extra-curricular
areas, and smaller
percentages in others. Harvard Hankido, for example, has an inordinately
large lesbian
population, with all five female leadership members identifying as
lesbian or bisexual. At Hankido
theres an interesting dynamic sometimes I have to remember to stop
cracking queer jokes because
not everyones gay, says Herrick, a member. This trend does not only
surface in the world of sports.
The vast majority of interviewees for this article concentrate in Womens
Studies and ESPP. In my
ESPP 78 section last semester, over half of the 10-person class was
gay, Callaghan says. Similarly,
many queer students are involved in the Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Club.
Given the social nature of a well-sized, vibrant university where students
often associate based on
common activities and interests, this natural pooling of gay and lesbian
students makes general
student awareness of gay and lesbian life dependent on interaction.
Students who happen to
participate in activities with higher gay and lesbian populations are
much more likely to be aware
of the population.
There is strong gay subculture on campus, says Rebecca A. Windt 02,
a straight student who
interacts with the gay and lesbian community reguarly through blockmates.
Its well fleshed out in
terms of activism, but not in terms of the general Harvard world. This
means that a student who
has minimal contact with gay and lesbian students (or is unaware that
he or she does), may have
an extremely superficial awareness of Harvards gay community. Youre
either in or youre out.
Straight students will either have many gay friends and regular contact
with gay students or almost
none at all. Considering that many lesbian and bisexual women keep
quiet about their seuxality, it
is to be expected that only students who know a lesbian or bisexual
student well will be aware of
other women who she is dating or has previously dated.
To add to the confusion, there are small pockets of lesbian social
circles, but most are
unconnected. The idea that there is a lesbian community at Harvard
is a highly contestable claim.
In this way, Harvard lesbians are a particularly invisible campus group
in contrast to gay men,
who seem to draw considerable attention. The male community is bigger
and more noticeable.
Women will quietly have a girlfriend for a year and a half, but never
be active. They might be on
the BGLTSA mailing list, says Herrick. And because it is quite common
to see two women sitting
together in the dining hall or walking around campus together, the
general student population
never assumes that the two may be involved in a relationship.
Where they are
Where are they? Lesbian women at Harvard clearly exist. Most lesbian
women stay unaffiliated
with any BGLT group, so theyíre just not seen, says Callaghan.
At Harvard, a number of lesbian
and bisexual women can be found enjoying the Boston nightclub scene.
Thursday Gay Nights at
ManRay Night Club in Central Square are particularly popular among
Harvard students. The club
features two main dance floors and a bar, complete with televisions
broadcasting male porn from
the corners of all rooms. The smaller dance floor, mostly populated
by dancing women, features a
raised platform occupied by two professional male Chippendales in thongs,
one red and one blue.
The Great School of the East even has its own unofficial dancing area
on the main floor, where
students tend to congregate. Whenever I see Harvard people dancing
here, theyre usually dancing
with each other, Vulpillieres says. Theres a spot on the dance floor
where they usually are.
Harvard students enjoy clubbing regardless of sexuality. However, due
to the smallness of
Harvards gay community, clubs are very hot spots to meet and greet
other gay people. Lesbian
and bisexual students flood ManRay, Avalon and Axis gay nights. Theres
a decent-sized
community here, Vulpillieres says. But when it comes to personal dating
preferences of what you
like, there arent that many people to date. It can get incestuous.
This seeking out of relationships outside Harvard grounds further explains
the lack of visibility
lesbian and bisexual women receive, in that many carry on relationships
off-campus. Seeing the
need to broaden the campus gay and lesbian populations, last year Vulpillieres
founded New
England Queer College Organization (NEQCO) as a multi-campus network
of gay and lesbian
organizations. With a quarter of a million college students in the
greater Boston area, theres quite
a sizable area gay and lesbian population. Through NEQCO, students
on different campuses have
been more aware of lesbian events in the area, the most popular of
which is Wellesleys famed Dyke
Ball, which annually attracts around 1,000 area students each spring.
A few female students also take towards advertising, posting online
personals at well-known gay
sites, though this method of finding others is significantly more popular
among gay men. A
Tuesday evening search of the gay.com and planetout.com sites revealed
seven Harvard students
perusing chat rooms and 16 personals advertising their traits. Only
two were from Harvard
females.
A number of closeted women can be found on sports teams. Cracking into
the athletic women is
impossible, says Herrick, referring to the substantial number of lesbian
women playing sports at
Harvard. There is an underground lesbian world, and many female athletes
are only out in that
underground world, says Jones of her observations of Harvard lesbian
athletes tendency to stay
amongst themselves. But where else would they be? she adds. Lesbian
athletes appear to be
disconnected from each other by sport there is not one large conglomeration
of lesbians or
bisexuals who identify as athletes. Still, multiple interviewees joked
about the Harvard Female
Athlete Dodecahedron of Love, touching upon the same level of incestuousness
the gay and
lesbian worlds feel due to small numbers. Sometimes the behavior doesnt
fit the identification,
Hanseth says. The behavior is clearly lesbian, but the identification
is not.
Oldrich agrees, A lot are in the middle of the spectrum. Its not black
and white, and college years
are where you experiment with that. The team helps people accept their
own identity, though its
always easier if someones set a precedent.
Both on and off campus, very few athletes are out of the closet. (There
is currently one out male
varsity athlete and very few openly lesbian or bisexual athletes in
an athletic department of 1,592
students.) For example, producers of HBOs Real Sports, a show that
takes a monthly look at all
aspects of sports, spoke with upwards of 100 suspected queer female
professional athletes for their
recent segment on gays in sports. In the end, only one lesbian athletes
agent would speak. He
spoke with his face covered, for fear of losing his clients endorsements.
Athletics is a place where invisibility is perpetuated, says Jones.
Its very irresponsible for a known
gay athlete to allow him or herself to be portrayed as straight by
the media. Its not just a Harvard
problem, because its accepted by society to not have integrity about
this issue.
While an incentive to coming out on a sports team is an increased level
of comfort, there are many
disincentives that generally keep gay athletes quiet. Its hard to come
out on sports teams because
theyre heteronormative, says Callaghan, who recently came out to the
Womens Water Polo team.
On a diverse team, boys are often the only bonding point aside from
the sport itself. Also, I was
tentative to come out because what if they didnt accept me? I can always
get new roommates or
new friends, but I cant go play water polo by myself.
Beyond clubbing, sports and the political scene, some students make
roads into Harvards gay and
lesbian community via more support-oriented organizations such as the
First-Year Sexual
Orientation Discussion Group, Girlspot, BAGELS (a Jewish group) or
Cornerstone (a Christian
group). Created in 1995 amongst claims that the BGLTSA was too misogynistic,
Girlspot is the
only official organization for lesbian and bisexual women on campus.
The group maintains
friendly relations with BGLTSA, sharing members, though Girlspot is
a much more social in
orientation. This past year, Girlspot, which maintains a 100-person
email list, ran a how-to
workshop on ways to pick up women. They also hosted transgendered speakers
and representatives
from Parents, Family, Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
The FDO-sanctioned First-Year Group is widely praised in gay and lesbian
communities for the
support it offers students at a time when the new college lifestyle
is stressful enough without the
added complication of sexuality concerns. Im not really in the main
gay social scene at Harvard,
says Thomas N. Saunders 02, a bisexual student. But I know a whole
bunch of people from the
first-year group.
With around 20 members and usually around 10 per weekly meeting, the
First-Year Group fosters
a bond among gay and lesbian students, although, as with the BGLTSA,
there are very few women
present. Usually lesbian or bisexual women will stop by for a couple
meetings, Vulpillieres says. I
think its nice for them to know that support is out there. Everyone
needs a support group, straight
or not. Just getting together and talking about being scared and pouring
your heart out is a great
thing.
Though small, the group is successful enough that members of QUEST,
the First-Year Groups
upperclassman outgrowth, often return to the group to talk to freshmen
and build support
networks. Maureen Jones and her partner, head softball coach Jenny
Allard, are like den mothers
to the group from their proctor suite in Matthews, often taking friendly
calls from students. Before
our meeting for pre-frosh, the pre-frosh will often come up and tell
me, Im not like them, Jones
says. After the meeting they say, Hey, theyre just like me. And two
years later, theyre coming back
to tell their stories to prefrosh.
But Jones and Allard are more than just a support system they serve
as role models for gay and
lesbian students who may be questioning the feasibility of living a
happy and healthy gay lifestyle
in a heteronormative world, emphasizing that not only is the lesbian
and bisexual population
rather invisible to the general population, theyre partially invisible
to each other. Very few gay
people have a positive role model a person in a stable relationship,
a loving and committed
relationship, says Jones. Its empowering for freshmen to see that it
can be done, and that all those
stereotypes arent necessarily true.
Lesbian women at Harvard have a lot to deal with: small numbers, invisible
ranks and flat-out
ignorance. Sexual choices at Harvard run the gamut, and most agree
that being a gay woman can,
but does not have to, be the centerpiece of ones existence. According
to Jones, Your sexuality
doesnt mean youre marching in Washington in a G-string. Its a personal
preference. There may
not be one lesbian lifestyle to be stereotyped, but lesbian and bisexual
students do exist at Harvard
just not quite where one would expect to find them.