|
1st
In a Series
Fistgate at Wellesley College
Where Are the
‘Adults’?
By Sally Pawlick ’57 and Ed Pawlick
March 8, 2001
Read
#2 in series:
Wellesley
College has lied before
When
Wellesley College’s “erotic life” was examined in Rolling Stone
magazine last week, it reminded many of "Fistgate" which
shocked the state a year ago.
After
all, many students at Wellesley are 17-years-old.
|
Feminist
Propaganda Exposed
As
part of the feminist effort to convince students at Wellesley
that men are the enemy, the students are continually told
that it was believed a century ago that intellectual pursuits
would damage a female’s health.
A
large pull-quote in Rolling Stone stated the canard this
way. “In the school’s early years, exercise was emphasized
because of a widespread belief that rigorous study was harmful
to a woman’s health.”
This
is apparently attributable to a speech at Wellesley in 1899
by the then President of Harvard which was recently summarized
in this squid in the alumnae magazine. “[President] Eliot
then struck the knife home. Women’s colleges
should concentrate on an education that will not
injure women’s ‘bodily power and functions.’”
But
the article did not mention the next sentence where the
President said the same thing applied to men. In effect,
he was saying no more than that fitness and exercise are
important to anyone.
The
full quote of
President Eliot was as follows: “It remains to show how
an elaborate intellectual training may be given women without
affecting injuriously any of their bodily powers and functions.
This has not been accomplished for young men; for in past
centuries the elaborate education of young men has too often
resulted in serious impairment of their physical vigor.
Indeed, to this day there are many cases at universities
for men in which bodily excellence is sacrificed to intellectual,
or intellectual to bodily.”
But
somehow this old wives tale about men fighting women has
become so ingrained at Wellesley that it was even repeated
by the reporter for Rolling Stone as a college truism, undoubtedly
as a result of the alumnae magazine article.
|
Just
like Gov. Cellucci, the president of Wellesley couldn’t deny the
truth of what was reported. So she said the article was “grossly
distorted” and then hunkered in and hoped that it would go away.
But
she couldn’t deny the lurid pictures of her girls in various states
of undress at lesbian parties that dominated the magazine article.
They are just like the audio tapes that parents made of Fistgate.
The are pretty tough to deny.
The
door had been opened wide enough for the public -- and parents
-- to see the rot that existed, as it did in Fistgate.
The
official reaction to Fistgate was to deny it had ever happened.
When that became impossible, they sued the whistleblowers who
had exposed it.
A
common denominator in both scandals was the homosexual presence.
The demand by homosexuals for their sexual expression caused the
decorum of everyone to vanish. The morals of all deteriorated
to the conditions that existed before the attempt to protect children,
women and families with our Judeo/Christian civilization thousands
of years ago. What has become known in recent years as the sexual
“revolution” is not a “revolution,” but a “reversion” to sexual
paganism.
The
president of the college, Diana Chapman Walsh, was very adroit
in shifting the controversy away from her and the other adults
who are in charge at the school and onto the students. She said
that the article was “an appalling affront” to the students. But
it was actually an appalling affront to her
values, character and leadership.
Not
New at Wellesley
The first knowledge of the authors that the values and
spirit of Wellesley College have deteriorated since Sally graduated
in1957 came to light about ten years ago.
Sally
had volunteered to be a hostess to Wellesley girls from overseas.
One was a 17-year-old from India, an only child who had never
been away from home. She was excited about coming to America,
an experience that her loving parents knew would be a wonderful
one.
Very
quickly this young woman learned that if your roommate at Wellesley
had a boyfriend with whom she wanted to sleep, you had to find
another room for those nights. Our young friend slowly dropped
out of our sight. Then we heard rumors that she was on drugs,
not attending classes and living at a fraternity at MIT. When
Sally heard this, she was perplexed about what to do. She finally
decided to seek the advice of those in charge at Wellesley, but
they curtly informed her that this 17-year-old was a femme sole
with her own rights and no one at the college would even attempt
to talk with her – even though she was no longer attending classes.
That would be against her “rights.”
Needless
to say, the girl returned to India at the end of the year very
knowledgeable about drugs and sex but little else. This innocent
girl who had been entrusted to the adults at Wellesley College
had gone home in disgrace.
Not
As Bad As Holyoke and Smith
Back in the late 1970s, students at Mt. Holyoke informed
us that women who liked men and dated them were treated at Holyoke
with scorn and disdain. We were incredulous and took it with a
grain of salt. But now it’s apparent that it is true.
We
attended a lecture at Wellesley by the “conservative” lesbian,
Camile Paglia, a few years back. While she was speaking, members
of the college rugby team lounged around the stage just like football
players in their colorful team jackets. These were obviously the
“in” people on campus who knew how to push their weight around.
We
felt sorry for the straight girls we knew because they had apparently
switched from domination by men (if you believe the feminists)
to the bullies of the rugby team. These big and tough women would
keep all the others in line. This was corroborated by a member
of the rugby team who told Rolling Stone that the team is 90%
lesbian.
Most
people are reluctant to talk about this subject for fear of being
labeled a “homophobe” or “judgmental,” the two mortal sins in
our world today.
What
Do Citizens Think?
Massachusetts News discovered in a telephone poll last
year that the vast majority of Massachusetts citizens believe
that teenagers should not
be encouraged to be sexually active, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
The
response was surprising.
The
600 respondents revealed to the pollster, WirthlinWorldwide, that
92% are against encouraging sexual activity by teens. Of those
600, 47% said they were liberals. The liberals voted 91% against
encouraging sexual activity among teens.
Most
of those respondents would undoubtedly agree that students who
live in dorms that ban alcohol and smoking are less likely to
binge drink or fall behind in school work as a new study by the
Harvard School of Public Health shows.
And
they’d also agree that teenagers who are thrust into an atmosphere
of drugs and sex at Wellesley are more likely to experiment in
order to avoid being different.
This
is seen in the Rolling Stone article where one member of the rugby
team says she was straight until she arrived at the school. “I
call it the prison effect.” she said. “You know how once you’re
around the same thing for so long, it starts to appeal to you?
That’s sort of my theory on Wellesley College. After a while,
you start finding women more appealing.”
She says she saw the women involved with other women all
around her and at the beginning of her sophomore year, she broke
off with her fiancée and started dating a woman.
At
least half of the students are still teenagers. Yet there sits
Ms. Walsh in her beautiful, large campus home with full knowledge
of what is going on with those young people who have been sent
to her for their education.
What
we hear from her is the standard Bill-and-Hillary line that “everyone
does it.” We were told that at least the school isn’t as bad as
Smith or Holyoke. But this doesn’t protect Ms. Walsh.
It
was only a few years ago that the police and district attorney
would have been investigating the corruption of morals of a minor
in these circumstances. Perhaps we have “advanced” since those
days, but many are questioning the judgment of the adults in charge
of our institutions of higher learning.
Walsh
Puts Burden on Students
alsh has been very successful in putting the burden on
the students. The headline on an AP story was, “Wellesley students
fighting back after Rolling Stone sex story.”
Channel
5 said, “Wellesley Students Outraged at Article.” (It was interesting
to note that Channel 5 displayed the salacious pictures of the
undressed Wellesley girls many times in its coverage.)
The
lead sentence in the AP story was, “Both enraged and amused by
a Rolling Stone article that depicts them as a group of sex maniacs,
Wellesley students claim they spend more time hitting the books
than hitting the sack.”
The
lead sentence in the Channel 5 story was, “Students at Wellesley
College said that they’re outraged over a magazine article that
paints them as sex-crazed.”
Both
news stories featured quotes from outraged students.
Walsh
was highly successful in drawing the attention away from herself
and the other adults at the school.
Was
It Fair?
Although we are not enthusiasts of Rolling Stone magazine
and will hopefully never have to read it again, it is totally
unfair to say the article was not accurate. Most of it appears
to be fairly reported. Of course the names in the article do not
mean anything to us, and it is difficult to know whether the quotes
are from reliable sources. Since the college and the students
did acknowledge the article but did not choose to tell us which
were not accurate, we must assume that they all were.
The
college did not deny that alumna Nora Ephron ’62 told the graduating
class of 1996, “While I was here, Wellesley actually threw six
young women out for lesbianism.” Or the quote from a member of
’71 about the total change of values during the four years she
was there.
Or
the fact that they often have a male student. No one has explained
the purpose for this person. The male for this year is Ross Franklin
who is taking a year from Wheaton College. He was heavily quoted
at the beginning of the article. He disappeared from campus for
a while after the article appeared, but he is now back and has
sent an email to all the other students explaining how he was
manipulated by the magazine.
Despite
the attacks against it, the Rolling Stone article did point out
that not all students are corrupted by the milieu of the school.
It cited a Mormon student who reported the school reinforced her
“conservative upbringing” because of the fact that her dates have
to come pick her up, which makes it “more of a traditional dating
experience.”
|
