 | Stuff Lesbians Like Part 22: Wellesley College (And your college? Seeking reader submissions!)By Grace Chu |
Lesbians like Wellesley College. Despite being a small “liberal arts institution” (a term often synonymous with “expensive training ground for witty cocktail party banter and resume rejections”), Wellesley is known for producing women who end up with jobs after graduation. Like Secretary of State and – oh – Secretary of State. Wellesley College is also known for producing lesbians.
This somewhat sensationalist article entitled “The highly charged erotic life of the Wellesley girl,” which originally appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in 2001, portrays Wellesley women as highly intelligent nymphomaniacs who are all too eager to rip the pants off of professors and cafeteria workers… and each other.
The article mentions that Wellesley has downplayed the prevalence of lesbians on campus. After all, lesbians flock to *sniff* *wave of the hand* those other schools, like Smith and Mount Holyoke.
While other women’s colleges in Massachusetts, such as Smith and Mount Holyoke, have come to be known for large lesbian populations, Wellesley has sought to avoid that image. “In the admissions tour, parents ask. I know tour guides have said before that Wellesley doesn’t have an exorbitantly high amount of people who are gay,” says ’99 grad Betsy Hanna, “It’s just that people who are feel more comfortable being out.”
The article then suggests that lesbianism is contagious, especially if you touch a rugby ball while in the presence of other women.
Jess’ story is fairly typical. When she arrived her freshman year, she had a boyfriend. But she saw women involved with other women all around her. She joined the rugby team and, she says, “The team was at least sixty percent bi or dyke last year, and this year it seems like it’s ninety percent.” Even so, she says that at first, she “wasn’t getting into the homosexuality thing.” But eventually, her attitude changed. At the beginning of her sophomore year, she broke it off with her boyfriend – by then her fiance – and started dating a woman.
Cynics may point to the lack of male dating options as the reason driving Wellesley women to turn to each other. Every weekend, the Wellesley College Senate Bus (colloquially known as “The Fuck Truck“) burps up male Harvard and MIT students, many of whom spent their teenage years studying instead of socializing, at Wellesley’s doorstep. After a few disappointing weekends attempting to connect with these socially awkward males, a Wellesley student may ask, “Why wait for the Fuck Truck if everyone here is simply less painful to be around?”
But we find this argument faulty. After all, Harvard and MIT women have to deal with them on a daily basis, so wouldn’t they turn to lesbianism en masse? We know that this isn’t the case.
We will not opine any further on the cause of all that Sapphic activity going on at Wellesley. All we will say is that Wellesley has a lot of lesbians. Here is a screenshot of part of our web stats from yesterday:
Need we say more?
Last evening, after we posted a bulletin asking the Wellesley students why they were swarming our site, we received an e-mail from an anonymous Wellesley student, who informed us that all the traffic originated from a private message board for queer women at Wellesley. We have received approximately 200 unique visitors from Wellesley in the last 24 hours, which is around 10% of Wellesley’s student body. We are curious to see what happens if a link to us is posted on a public message board for queer women at Wellesley. (Will our server crash?)
She also stated the following:
I find the fact that you’re so amused by our interest amusing. Honestly- this warrants a more extensive post on the Seven Sisters. Or at least power dykes. Or women’s softball. It’s not a lie- we really do do everything(/one) here.
Love, Wellesley College for Women
We have concluded that Wellesley is indeed a good college for lesbians and is currently the front runner for being Stuff Lesbians Like’s Best College for Lesbians in the Entire Universe.
Based on our utterly unscientific method of determining the best colleges for lesbians by looking at our web traffic, honorable mentions are as follows: Princeton, McGill, Northwestern, NYU, George Washington, The University of Iowa, and The College of St. Catherine. We would give Harvard an honorable mention as well, except most Harvard visits are being directed here by this post on Stuff White People Like about Asian Girls, which has nothing to do with lesbians. (The only thing I can say in response is that you need to stop obsessing about Asian women. They’re just people. Get out of the basement of Dunster House, look around and just talk to one!)
We understand that our method of determining the best college for lesbians, i.e. looking at which .edu domains appear most often in our web statistics, is arbitrary and inaccurate, so we are giving readers a chance to explain why your college should receive the honor of being Stuff Lesbians Like’s Best College for Lesbians in the Entire Universe.
If you believe your college should win this award, please nominate your college and give a compelling argument as to why your college is the best college for lesbians, and we will announce the results in the next week or two. We are taking nominations via e-mail and in the comments section.
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April 17th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
You missed one major bit of evidence in Wellesley’s favor for the “best lesbian college in the universe” prize:
Dyke Ball.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Awesome! Wellesley rules!
April 17th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Note – Simmons College is running a close second, however. We are getting quite a bit of Simmons love today.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I’m pretty sure that Barnard/Columbia blinds their ISP. You could be really popular there and never know!
April 18th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Just a note on the non-lesbianism of women at Harvard and MIT: though it’s true that they’re not converting at the rate we’d like them to, it’s a well-known fact that students at these institutions rarely get laid. So something’s not working out over there…perhaps someone should start busing in Wellesley students to Cambridge and help those poor girls out…
April 18th, 2008 at 7:24 am
My sis-in-law went to Smith. All her friends were lesbians. There must have been something in the water there.
Of course, she did a 180°c take right after that and forced my poor SO, who had a peroxide upright short do which was largely built on enormous quantities of hairspray, in the late 80s, into a Laura Ashley dress for her wedding along with a gaggle of perfectly blonde bombshells. My poor gf ended up having to hire a make-up artist to take care of her tattoos and ripped the bow of the back of that floral monstrosity.
These days my sis-in-law is that perfect example of a soccer mom, albeit one with several engineering patents to her name. Go figure.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I went to Grinnell College in central Iowa and it was chock full of lesbians. It is a very small liberal arts college with a very active queer community.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Just a note on the non-lesbianism of women at Harvard and MIT: though it’s true that they’re not converting at the rate we’d like them to, it’s a well-known fact that students at these institutions rarely get laid.
We take judicial notice of the fact that women at Harvard and MIT rarely get laid.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Vikki – Whoohoo! I thought this thread would devolve into a bunch of women in Massachusetts swinging lacrosse sticks at each other.
Yes, ladies. There are lesbians outside of New England!
April 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I would like to point out that Harvard spawned Quench, possibly one of the queerest blogs ever. And me. And perhaps some authors of this blog.
Harvard lesbians are a force. And we should totally take this.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I see you’ve got McGill in the runner up list… but I think you’ve missed out on Concordia, the other English language university in Montreal. Just as big as McGill, but it’s actually got a queer studies program and the Simone de Beauvoir institute… and you know that’s a recipe for lesbian action!
April 18th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Well heck i would like to nominate my college but i think there was only like three of us there…that were out. But what the heck! I wanna through in some of the Colorado State University-Pueblo lesbiana love, after all it is a hispanic serving institute with all three of us who were out being Chicana (or of latin descent)
April 18th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Things lesbians like: obsessively checking their email history and, apparently, web stats!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
thanks for sharing your sitestats that is pretty funny
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
April 18th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
@ Genkigirl – <3 <3 <3 Canadians!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:02 am
I’m glad to see the College of St. Catherine on that list. Another small liberal arts women’s college with an abundance of lesbians!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:59 am
Oh my. I remember the Dyke Ball. I took a bus from NYC for that. I don’t really remember who I knew or why I went there. Cuz there just weren’t enough dykes in NYC. I think I must’ve met someone at the Queer Jews conference…? I dunno. At any rate, it was fun, lots o’ girls, and, of course, drama, which ended up with one girl hitting her head on the runway, causing her gf to “take care” of her after having flirted with others that night (possibly causing the head hitting in the first place). Or something like that. I think Suzanne Westenhoefer was there, too. Somewhere. Maybe not at the Dyke Ball, but on Wellsley’s campus that weekend. It’s all hazy now…
April 21st, 2008 at 11:00 am
Oh, and I would’ve nominated Columbia College except, 1) I was always downtown at Women’s Action Coalition or Lesbian Avenger meetings, and 2) my confession that I went to Wellsley’s Dyke Ball I think may nix my pro-Columbia vote. But we had some fun times at the monthly queer dance at Earl Hall!
April 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am
Just a quick point about the Rolling Stone article. That article was pure sensationalism. [Here] is a more level-headed article about Wellesley. (We realize that we’re not helping at all, but we hope that our readership understands that we’re just being silly.)
Drama and hedonism is present in ALL college events. For example, I witnessed a female performing fellatio on a man in plain sight at a college dance called “The Last Chance Dance.” At one of our annual formals, I saw several people carried out into ambulances due to alcohol poisoning. Getting blitzed beyond recognition at events is something all college students do – straight or gay.
Okay, enough of that. Let’s go back to being silly!
April 21st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
yeah… every year the crimson writes about the dyke ball. i found this story in the crimson archives. here’s a quote -
—————–
“Still, while our campus may not be host to celebrations of gender-play and queer sexuality, Mangu-Ward said that for her, Wellesley did not live up to its hype. “I didn’t feel that Wellesley was this blossoming haven of lesbianism that Harvard isn’t,” she said.
So what do Wellesley students think of this year’s increase in the number of Harvard Dyke Ball-goers?
“We enjoyed the dance a lot more,” Nelson said.
—————–
point for harvard.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Wow, I really *am* the wrong kind of lesbian. The first time I’ve heard of Dyke Ball was via the first comment in this thread. I didn’t come out until after college though, so there’s my excuse.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
This is cool. Even though I’ve already been to college (and back again) I wouldn’t mind studying over the pond. How does one apply to be a mature student at this Wellesley place?
On the subject of stuff lesbians like – do lesbians like LOLcats? Pussy?
April 21st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
k moving on from my last comment, I just went and had a browse around your other bits of blog and found the LOLesbians. mwau unbelievable! Shrieked so much at ‘OH HAI! WHY I NOT DEAD?’ that I had to explain to my blog-hating lover and even she had to smile. so it must be good. kthxbai
April 21st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
As for SUNY (State Univeristy of New York) schools, New Paltz is lesbian hippy land.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Small, liberal arts (OF COURSE!) & lots of lezzies. Awesome school and beautiful campus to boot!
May 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am
You just forgot Sarah Warn, the creator/editor of afterellen.com, she attended wellesley college
May 30th, 2008 at 1:20 am
And last weekend in SF, Malinda (the managing editor of Afterellen, also a Wellesley grad) told me Sarah Warn created Dyke Ball. So yes, our instincts were correct about Wellesley.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Sarah Warn CREATED Dyke Ball?
Damn.
She’s so gay.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I don’t even GO to Sarah Lawrence, but can’t help but figure out how it wasn’t mentioned?!
On that note..i’m pretty sure if you can affix the words “small liberal arts college” before your school’s name you can probably be a contender. If that small liberal arts college is also a private school and in Mass you’re definitely a contender. Smith, Mt Holyoke, Hampshire, Wellesley, Clark, etc etc etc. Lord, we are all such cliche’s.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Representing Ithaca College, right here.
And of course you have to mention Sarah Lawrence.
I thought that whole lesbian experience stereotype was an exaggeration until I visited their Teahaus, and was served a steaming blend of organic somethingerother by some girl with a fauxhawk and manjeans at a triangular table with pictures of the L Word characters modge podged onto it.
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:38 am
I am SO glad that Northwestern got a shout out. Of course, all the traffic was probably just from me.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
RMWC, hello!!! I know it only has 500 people, but come on. It seemed that 75% of the class of 2008 were gay! But yeah, definitely Sarah Lawrence, RMWC, Hollins, Wellesley, and Smith…dyke heaven haha.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
right now i’m looking for a college and wellesley sounds like a good one so should i go here or not
August 14th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
speaking of the seven sister colleges, you are forgetting Bryn Mawr College, which is absolutely awesome.
April 4th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Jessica — I know it’s way late compared to your post, but you will LOVE Wellesley if you attend. (…You know, as a completely impartial observer who is president of Spectrum — the hosts of Dyke Ball.) ^_^
June 15th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Goucher College….
the unofficial tagline is No One Here is Straight….
plus, it’s 70% women…