LikeAWillow
04-01-2010, 01:31 PM
So now that I have your attention, I have a favor to ask. A few weeks ago, a controversy errupted my college, Wellesley, when HerCampus.com, an online magazine started at Harvard to cater to and represent women on college campuses nationwide, initiated a contest to find "Mr. College Freshman." Men from colleges all over were entered by their female counterparts for the chance to represent their schools and win $500 if they were voted the winner. Sounds fun, right?
It should have been. It would have been. If Hercampus had not decided that Wellesley College, despite having no biologically male students and asking as such not to participate in the competition, would be forced to join in by having men claim to be the face of Wellesley. When my school's Hercampus interns then suggested that we be allowed to nominate members of our transgender population to serve as our Mr. Wellesley, we were told the competition required "real men," and that our boyfriends/brothers/male friends at other institutions should step up and represent us.
Excuse me. Since when does the institution that graduated Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albight, Diane Sawyer, Cokie Roberts, and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek need a man as its champion?
After one of our alums at Jezebel picked up the story (found here: http://jezebel.com/5491942/womens-college-told-it-needs-real-men-as-reps-updated
) and shined a national spotlight on the issue, HerCampus agreed to alter their rules to let us nominate our own students to participate. One of our Wellesley women is now just a few hundred votes away from becoming Mr. College Freshman. Please, take a few seconds out of your day to vote for Christianne and show HerCampus that a women's college will never need a man to represent it.
Vote here:
http://poll.pollcode.com/Pj5F
It should have been. It would have been. If Hercampus had not decided that Wellesley College, despite having no biologically male students and asking as such not to participate in the competition, would be forced to join in by having men claim to be the face of Wellesley. When my school's Hercampus interns then suggested that we be allowed to nominate members of our transgender population to serve as our Mr. Wellesley, we were told the competition required "real men," and that our boyfriends/brothers/male friends at other institutions should step up and represent us.
Excuse me. Since when does the institution that graduated Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albight, Diane Sawyer, Cokie Roberts, and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek need a man as its champion?
After one of our alums at Jezebel picked up the story (found here: http://jezebel.com/5491942/womens-college-told-it-needs-real-men-as-reps-updated
) and shined a national spotlight on the issue, HerCampus agreed to alter their rules to let us nominate our own students to participate. One of our Wellesley women is now just a few hundred votes away from becoming Mr. College Freshman. Please, take a few seconds out of your day to vote for Christianne and show HerCampus that a women's college will never need a man to represent it.
Vote here:
http://poll.pollcode.com/Pj5F