A Usable Past

Aww, check out these delightfully non-sexist and completely factual VD awareness posters!

See them all at The San Francisco City Clinic’s awesome exhibit “100 Years of Sex: 1911-2011.”

Cookbook collection at the Monash University Library!

British “Hello-girls” ready to “carry on” In case of an air-raid, 1938

Kathleen Cleaver. Black Panther, SNCC secretary, perhaps not the best choice in a mate. Regardless – gorgeous woman.

Hey ladies! Need a little junk in the trunk? Or a breast massager? Lingerie for the little one? We got you covered!

Don’t worry, fellas! We’ve got treats for you, too!

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Edited to remove the name of the student, per his request.

Smith is a women’s college. It also has a trans* and genderqueer student population. This seems to work, for some people, some of the time. But this is not one of those times.

A trans* identified junior at Smith, volunteers as a Gold Key tour guide for the college. One of his job requirements is to serve as an overnight host to prospective students. The college’s Office of Admissions has prohibited him from serving in this capacity due to his gender identity. According to an article he wrote in the student newspaper, The Sophian:

An additional meeting confirmed that the Admission’s Office felt I should not host female students because it would be “inappropriate.”… In what I thought was a conversation with the admissions liason about my comfort level, I was questioned for an hour in a way that was inappropriate for any Gold Key guide. I was asked how my identity would impact prospective students, how they might feel having a male guide, and most inappropriately of all, whether “we will be seeing any physical changes from you.”

First – this line of questioning is never appropriate to ask any student. What students don’t they see a change of appearance in? The majority of students enrolled are between the ages of 18-22. What – bodies don’t change during this period? Students never experiment with hair/clothing/tattoos? Stress have never resulted in a gain or loss of weight? Even us Ada Comstock Scholars change – we give birth, our hair turns gray, we act out our 50-going-on-22 fantasies via our wardrobe… Come on, Smith.

But more importantly, the school has no official policy on trans* students. Smith’s Notice of Nondiscrimination prohibits discrimination on the bases of:

race, color, creed, religion, national/ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, or with regard to the bases outlined in the Veterans Readjustment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

There is no language in this document about gender identity. The unofficial line about gender identity at Smith has been:

Smith admits women, and graduates people.

This is a tricky situation for Smith, as a large portion of the Smith community (including administration, alums, faculty, staff, board of directors, and students) wishes to keep Smith a women’s college. However, the student body is not 100% woman-identified.

Herein lies the problem. There are already non-gender normative students at Smith, who were admitted as women-identified, and who transitioned during their time at Smith. These students deserve the same rights, protections, and opportunities as the cisgender population currently enrolled.

Others are advocating for Smith to take on the challenge of developing an official policy that protects non-gender normative students. One of his friends and a current student at Smith, Bethy Williams, argues that,

The obvious solution, in my mind, is to HAVE a policy.  Admissions said they will handle trans issues on a case by case basis.  This is unacceptable.  Even if the policy isn’t ideal, it will prevent any trans student from being treated this “behind closed doors” way ever again.

From my friend Jocelyn:

I think that we can and should (if we purport to be an institution engaged in a feminist education) challenge ourselves to consider ways of supporting and protecting trans*, intersex, and gender non-conforming students. I gather from my time at Smith that many were afraid to take this issue to its fullest extent and require that Smith’s Board of Directors would respond with language that was more exclusive of trans* students. I think that this is a legitimate fear (not because of any particular claims against the Board of Directors) but instead because we would in essence be loosing any ‘wiggle room’ that having ambiguous policies affords. As I see it however, at the moment that the ambiguity of policy language, becomes a tool of discrimination we have to reexamine our stance.

From Brigid ’10:

Finally, the main issue in this situation is that Smith is setting a precedent of excluding certain students from opportunities and activities that are available to the rest of the student population, based solely on gender identity. This is clearly discriminatory and does not reflect the values I expect the Smith College community to hold. Trans, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming Smith students are Smith students. They deserve your respect and they deserve to have access to Smith’s activities and resources, just like other Smithies. No Smith student should ever be excluded from activities or resources at Smith on the basis of his or her identity.

I don’t necessarily have the solution. I want Smith to remain a women’s college, but I equally want all Smithies – whatever their gender identity – to have equal opportunities and support. I believe Smith College can remain the inspirational, supportive, challenging, welcoming institution that I am fiercely proud to be an alum of.

Related articles:

Kai ’10, This Gendered Life

Jenny ’03, Velvetpark

Association of Smith College Alum Blogs