End-Runs

[eredien]

So, the Dean of Admissions at Bryn Mawr (whose name and email can probably be found publicly, but I won't post right here) wrote back to me. She is probably pretty busy, so I appreciate that it took less than a month for her to reply. (I still haven't heard back from Smith's group, which isn't surprising, as I now realize they are almost all in

Comments

[goddess32585]

It sounds like you are hooked into the goings-on at Smith (as detailed here). Have you also heard about the conversation at Wellesley (see recent posts by tim)? I know this has been coming up sporadically at single-gender institutions forever, but I'm curious to see if this might be the year for enough collective pressure to convince the administrations to change.

[eredien]

No, I haven't. That's a valuable resource. Thanks!

[badoingdoing]

I am so glad that alums are starting to hold these institutions' feet to the fire here. (And that, for you at least, it isn't all focused on trans dudes, though the trans dudes are important).

[eredien]

I first started thinking about this issue when a friend of mine began transitioning to male in college, but my thoughts were pretty incohate. It took me the last years to realize that the college's hiding such students under the rug, so to speak, had a flip-side of simply not admitting (or admitting they admitted?) MTF transgendered applicants

[mediumajaxwench]

So I'm LizR, one of the Smithies from TNC's place, and I caught your links over here from the OTAN before disqus ate them. Can I friend you here so that I can keep following your updates on this? The discussion under the first post was unbelievably helpful for me in thinking through the whole definition of women's colleges once they're accepting trans students thing on a level that gets deeper than creating a safe space.

[eredien]

Oh hi, LizR! Sure, please do go ahead and friend (generally people don't need to ask, but I'm glad you did, because I've been meaning to thank you for putting me in touch with the contact info for the Smith group, and this gave me an opportunity to do so). I guess I should go back and put in those links again.

[ext_226279]

For that matter, how do you decide if "it is not clear" that some individual applicant to the college may or may not "be female?"

Exactly. They're reserving the right for themselves to do panty-checks, frankly -- and that's effectively barring trans women as applicants, because no one would want to submit herself to that.

[eredien]

I see very little difference between this attitude and the attitude of the Maine legislators who want to (somehow, they're really not sure how) bar people who don't appear to meet some kind of necessarily arbitrary standard of gender presentation (they're not really sure what standard) from using a gendered resource (in the case of Maine, gendered bathrooms).

The main difference I see is that the Maine legislators haven't really thought the thing through and are getting confused in trying to, and are admitting that they're openly biased; the colleges seem to really be heavily invested in subtlety and deny their biases rather than investing in the same honesty they espouse and try and instill in their students. I find that disappointing and beneath them.

[ext_226279]

I see very little difference between this attitude and the attitude of the Maine legislators who want to (somehow, they're really not sure how) bar people who don't appear to meet some kind of necessarily arbitrary standard of gender presentation (they're not really sure what standard) from using a gendered resource (in the case of Maine, gendered bathrooms).

Yup, and if it gets that far, we'll probably see the same pseudo-scientific appeals to gender essentialism in both cases. The only different is that the women's college folks are likely to know some bigger words to use for couching their bigotry in science.

The main difference I see is that the Maine legislators haven't really thought the thing through and are getting confused in trying to, and are admitting that they're openly biased; the colleges seem to really be heavily invested in subtlety and deny their biases rather than investing in the same honesty they espouse and try and instill in their students. I find that disappointing and beneath them.Eh, well, the people who

[dalbino83]

I'm president of the queer alum network at Mount Holyoke. We're also chatting with our Admissions rep, college president and others about clarifying the admissions policy around trans students. I'd love to keep in touch with progress you make, just in case it helps our case along the way. Adding you as a friend.

Hello!

[eredien]

I'm sorry that I didn't see this post until now! I've moved over to Dreamwidth under the same username and rarely check LJ, but am recommencing my BMC gender/trans activism this very evening after being discouraged for a number of years.

Re: Hello!

[dalbino83]

Hi eredien --

Feel free to contact me at dalbino83@yahoo.com to discuss anything you'd like. I'd be happy to be an ally for your work at BMC.

Donna