<p>I was referring more to the concerns over language I.e. not using the male gender pronouns or referencing the student body in a more inclusive way language wise. But your point, Pizzagirl, is clearly the key one. It is an all women’s college. If you are male, or closer to male than female, the school need not bend over backwards to make you feel included. </p>
<p>I think the analogy with the Christian school is on the money.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I am an alum, and this article was upsetting to me in the sense that I loved my single gender education at Wellesley, and don’t feel the changes described are positive ones for the many young women who attend and chose it for that attribute. </p>
<p>To those of you with daughters at Wellesley right now: How much space does this take up in a student’s daily life? the article focused on the problem and made it seem like this is a really big deal. But is it? Do most students and faculty go along and continue to use words like sisterhood and women to refer to the student body or is there continual pressure to change?</p>
<p>And, has anyone every hard a more PC word than “siblinghood?”</p>
<p>There is a small, but extremely vocal group who looks for reasons to get offended. I think there is also a lot of pressure on the “regular” girls because no one wants to be the jerk who marginalizes a fellow student, because oppression. And because, you know, being excluded in a casual pronoun choice is the kind of Big Issue a Wellesley student should worry about. </p>
<p>I’m your classic liberal on many things, but it gets a bit much at Wellesley. </p>
<p>I went to an all-girls’ high school. The benefit of being at such a single-sex school is that all the leadership positions are held by females (which was a problem back in the 70s). If we had had born-female-identify-as-male students it would have been an issue. If those students sat in the leadership positions, that would have defeated one of the school’s purposes.</p>
<p>I don’t know what an all-women’s college has in the way of bathrooms. We didn’t have many boys’ bathrooms around campus. We had one in the faculty area and one in the gym. I guess all-women’s colleges do have more male bathrooms around because of more male faculty. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t see how an all-women’s college can refuse to admit males if they are admitting born-female-identify-as-male students. Either they don’t really believe those students are males…or they do. And if they do, then they can’t justify keeping born-males out.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be “a big deal” nor does it matter if it’s takes up space in a student’s life. As said, young women choose that college because of that attribute. If you don’t identify as female you really should make another choice. As far as the college goes it is alittle disconcerting that the feeling is you have to bend over backward. After all the students self selected a college that is all about women…not about women who want to be men. Those women will have decades of dealing with men, working with men, living with men, perhaps giving birth and raising little boys to men. Let them have 4 years without worrying about what pronouns they use or worrying about being jerks. Who asked for that when they signed on? I really do not think it’s politically incorrect if you self select to be with people “like you” and I don’t think it’s politically incorrect for a university to treasure the difference. By virtue of the fact that it’s a women’s college it is in essence not “inclusive.” There’s a big huge sea of colleges outside this college. Frankly I must have been omniscient to want to live with all girls in college, little did I know that I’d spend a huge chunk of my adulthood dealing with testosterone and beard hair in my sink.</p>
My son ended up feeling that way about Tufts. He felt that especially on language issues revolving around gender it would be a lot easier if everyone would stop taking offense all the time. </p>
<p>Language is interesting. I guy from Lebanon told me that his Turkish mother in law had a terrible time with pronouns because in Turkish everyone is an “it”. I could never get used to German calling girls “it” because the diminutive ending made everything neutral.</p>
<p>^^^absolutely permitted, first, encouraged second. My D was accepted at Wellesley, and seriously considered going there because she thought she would thrive in a female-only environment with girls “like her.” After going to a few functions, she realized that the hyper focus on gender issues at large would probably negatively impact her experience, and she decided it wasn’t for her.</p>
<p>^^I’d probably be alot like your D in that regard Gourmetmom. Odd that one would go somewhere theoretically where there were NO gender issues only to arrive on a campus where gender issues are politicizing.</p>
<p>What about hermaphrodites? There was an article about female track stars who were found to be hermaphrodites - they had both male and female reproductive organs, but cryptorchidism. </p>
<p>means that the idea of gender being set is antiquated.</p>
<p>I liken gender-reassignment surgery to any other kind of plastic surgery. I couldn’t breathe right through my nose, so I had septoplasty. It was a choice that made my life easier.</p>
<p>That being noted, I cannot believe you can complain about a school not allowing blacks or Asians or whites or Native Americans or Hispanics, but then an all-female or all-male school is okay? It boggles the mind.</p>
<p>(and I don’t feel that men are unsafe any more than I feel blacks are unsafe - that’s just as offensive)</p>
<p>Why does it boggle the mind rhandco? No one is being “excluded” from attending college, just perhaps being excluded from a specific college. That’s where it falls apart for me. If you aren’t being excluded from something in totality to me that is not discriminatory. Now if every college said, we don’t want to admit a student that is transitioning from identifying as one sex to another that would perhaps be discriminatory because it shuts that person out from obtaining a college degree. </p>
<p>Liberty U excludes non-Christians. They are within their rights to do so. </p>
<p>One of the things I’ve heard is that the ability to maintain all-women’s colleges is kind of on shaky legal ground, so the colleges have to be very careful what they say and how they treat this, for fear of triggering some kind of overall lawsuit or decision that might topple the whole idea of women’s colleges. I have no idea if this is true or not, and I don’t know the legalities. </p>
<p>“I liken gender-reassignment surgery to any other kind of plastic surgery. I couldn’t breathe right through my nose, so I had septoplasty. It was a choice that made my life easier.”</p>
<p>Sure. And when you go through such surgery, you are, in essence, “picking a side.” </p>
<p>This gender fluidity feels silly to me. I’m still a woman whether I wear frilly dresses and pink ribbons in my hair, or whether I cut my hair short, wear muscle shirts and sit with my legs apart. I don’t see what’s so “fluid” here. </p>
<p>Actually, there’s some controversies about them doing so and other related issues because they receive Federal funding for financial aid and other purposes:</p>
<p>It’s fine for them to exercise that “right” if they’re not accepting Federal funding which theoretically comes with certain conditions such as not having discriminatory policies against protected classes under EEOC and other laws. </p>
<p>Incidentally, transgender people are now legally covered under those laws so colleges, including Women’s colleges need to watch their legal step to ensure they’re not running afoul and risking not only bad PR, but also possibly the pulling of Federal funding for FA/other purposes if a legal challenge is mounted. </p>
<p>Wellesley used to have a couple of master’s programs–one in art history, which has been a particularly strong department for a very long time, that stupid movie to the contrary–and they gave them up right around when I was there. I seem to recall that the reason was some legality surrounding remaining a women’s college.</p>
<p>I agree. I don’t think our gender identity goes wherever the wind blows. It isn’t seasonal, and it doesn’t change each decade.</p>
<p>I think by the time a student is applying to colleges (age 17ish), he/she knows his/her gender identity. Those that I have known to change their gender (and I admit that I’ve only personally known 2), they knew that they were female at a young age. They never felt like boys.</p>
<p>As for shared room assignments, during this transition period, I would guess that these schools would make an effort to deal with preferences. Other than freshman year, all of my kids were able to pick their roommates/aptmates/house mates anyways and they have been a mixed batch genderwise. It would just be freshman year in most situations where it would be an issue. </p>
<p>The thing is, the way it often works, is that a student goes to college as one gender and announces the transition when there. That’s often the way it works. So, yes, it is possible to get a transgender roommate. I would not want a gay roommate as a personal preference as I would prefer any possible sexual attraction of self from roomie kept to a minimum. Yes, I understand that any given female can be a closet lesbian and decide to come out at any time, and that it could so happen, but I just happen to prefer to share a bedroom with those who do not have a sexual attraction to my gender, and keep those odds low I would not want to share a bedroom with a male roommate for the same reason, even if he’d swear I’d have to be the last female on earth for him to have any interest in me and probably not even then. Don’t even care to share with a homosexual male Sexual preferences can be transitional things. I would prefer, very much prefer a hetersexual female. </p>
<p>When I was there, almost all freshmen had doubles, and almost everyone else had singles. I don’t know what the situation is now, since there are more students and more buildings converted to dorms. But there should not be any big problem giving someone a single if they need one. I doubt that’s an issue.</p>
<p>The dorms that had what we called “coeds”–ie, male exchange students --managed just fine.</p>
<p>Parent of a Mills student and Mt. Holyoke alum. I’m very proud of both schools’ admission policies. I think it’s unreasonable to expect seniors to have figured out their gender identities at the time they apply to college. Some of my Holyoke classmates didn’t trans until after college. Some many, many years later. Both schools are small enough to get to know their applicants quite well, and I particularly appreciate Mills’ policy of talking to trans applicants to help them decide whether Mills is the right choice for them. </p>
--managed just fine.</p>