<p>Sex and God at Yale by Nathan Harden, which went on sale last Tuesday, is a stomach-turning account of university-sponsored debauchery. Yale, it seems, has sacrificed its once-considerable moral purpose at the altar of power and prestige.</p>
<p>The message is an important one, and Harden documents it well (perhaps a bit too well, but more on that in a minute). Anyone concerned about the state of American higher educationand certainly anyone who is considering sending a daughter to Yaleshould become familiar with what Mr. Harden describes.</p>
<p>As a parental observer, I think Yale has tried to please too many masters and as a result has no definable culture at all. It sanctioned Sex Week at the same time that it punished verbally sexually-explicit males. It has oppressed traditional male activity (athletics, fraternities), and promoted gender-neutrality thus discouraging traditional gender-roles, which leaves its women with frustrating hook-ups as the best thing they can find in relationships, and its men without knowledge of women’s emotional needs.</p>
<p>Despite all this, I do still think it is a fantastic college, but it can do better.</p>
<p>The book review is such unmitigated crap, that it’s impossible to evaluate whether there is anything interesting in the book. But, honestly, Sex Week is mostly fun, and funny. The two authors are right to identify a strain of elitism in it – epater les bourgeoises – but it’s hardly like Sex Week is the acme of elitism at Yale. I guess it’s comforting to know that there are still a few people around with sticks far enough up their butts to get all upset when their peers talk dirty to one another and the “parents” don’t freak out.</p>
<p>Anyway, it doesn’t seem like Yale is any different from any other elitist college in this regard. Chicago, which is more conservative than Yale both politically and in terms of manners, has its Lascivious Ball (although students are no longer encouraged to come nude), an officially sanctioned student soft-core porn magazine, an S-and-M student organization, and a women’s group that regularly hawks vagina-shaped cookies at the student center – you can guess what the slogans are – as a fundraiser on Valentine’s Day.</p>
<p>And, Bay, a bunch of men standing in formation chanting “No mean yes; yes means anal” were not being punished for being sexually explicit. (I’m not sure that even qualifies as sexually explicit.) If anything, they were punished for overly aggressive public political incorrectness. There’s lots to say about that on either side, but it’s beyond silly to suggest that suppressing it relegates women to “frustrating hook-ups”.</p>
<p>I agree with you JHS. I’m old enough to have a daughter at Yale and back in my day (this means 30 years ago) at an “elite” LAC we had similar events that I (shockingly) even participated in. I roll my eyes at anyone thinking that Yale is in any way pushing the envelope here.</p>
<p>OP - does your comment mean you think it’s fine for a son to engage in “debauchery” but not a daughter? How comforting to know the double standard still thrives.</p>
<p>Maybe not, but that doesn’t make it appropriate or worthwhile.</p>
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<p>You misread my post. I was attributing to the hook-up culture to the emphasis on gender-neutrality and the Yale’s overt de-emphasis and even demonizing of traditional male endeavors (athletics and fraternities). My opinion only, but this has led to the devolution of male-female relationships, where it is now unpolitically correct to be aware of the existence of a woman’s (and some men’s) need for courtship rituals.</p>