Being from Little Rock, many of my high school friends and acquaintances decided to go to Hendrix after we graduated. Hendrix, much like Rhodes, is a small liberal arts school 30 minutes north of Little Rock, located in the small town of Conway. When people ask for the differences in the two schools, I usually oversimplify and say that Rhodes is a little bigger and has Greek life. However, a glaring difference was just pointed out to me. Our discussion on queer friendly versus queer tolerant campuses got me thinking about the status that the small LGBT community is granted on Rhodes campus. Hendrix is generally known (at least in Arkansas) as a mecca for hipsters and hippies. A lot of pot is smoked and a lot of people don't shower for whatever moral reason they have, but people are also much more receptive to anything out of the norm. I guess that goes with being a modern day hippie. As a result, Hendrix hosts "Ms. Hendrix" every year, a cross dressing competition for the men of Hendrix. And it's a really big deal. Guys are elected on campus to dress up and compete, and front row seats for the event have sold for $400. The guys that compete are usually heterosexual, and I've heard it been described as "an honor" to be elected to compete. Hendrix is also one of few colleges that has gender neutral housing. Evidently, Hendrix is very open to anyone who identifies outside of the typical female/male dichotomy. Students can live with whomever they want in certain on campus apartments, regardless of the biological sex of each roommate. Hendrix also has many seminars and events about sex, AIDS, and other topics that Rhodes usually avoids (unless it's V week).
Trying to find what makes Rhodes and Hendrix so different is hard. What makes LGBT people feel more comfortable attending Hendrix, rather than Rhodes? The city of Memphis offers so much more than Conway, the schools cost about the same, the campuses are both beautiful, and the course difficulties are essentially equal. The only thing I could think of was Greek life. Is the prevalent heterosexual norm surrounding fraternities and sororities (that so obviously dominate the social scene) scaring away potential students that could add diversity or change to this school?
And then I thought, what if Rhodes just attracts a certain type of person? What would happen if I randomly selected a group of Hendrix students to attend Rhodes for a semester? Would they conform to the norm of Rhodes, join Greek life if it was an option, turn their back and begin ostracizing the few LGBT friendly people on campus because that's what everyone else does? I think many would. Not because they're bad people, but because it's hard to stand by your views on this campus without receiving backlash or being ignored, particularly if your views are seen as being radical. Without Greek life at Hendrix, there are fewer cliques, more fluid groups of friends, and more accepting attitudes concerning basically everything (personal hygiene included).
I think it is safe to say that Hendrix is most definitely a "queer friendly" campus, whereas Rhodes could hardly be called a "queer tolerant" campus.
I agree with you that if you took people from Hendrix and put them on campus at Rhodes, they would act differently. I think that it is not only difficult to keep beliefs that people think are unpopular, but people have a desire to fit in. Most people want to go along with the group, to make friends, and to fit in wherever they are. At Hendrix, it seems that the normal is much more tolerating and LGBT friendly situation, so therefore it is much easier to fit in with these beliefs. People become more open to the idea and knowing that no matter how open to that idea they get they will be accepted, they are free to do what they want. In places like Rhodes where it is not as tolerable, they are not given the option to feel free and open to ideas and therefore they won't be able to express them.
ReplyDeleteCool post. I think about this subject a lot, primarily because I am a non-Greek that has been living in a dorm/house with members of KA for the past two years. My general stance is that Greek organizations have had a negative net-impact on the happiness of students (all students, both initiates and GDI's) over the history of it's existence. That analysis has mostly had to do with what I perceive to be the exclusionist tendencies of fraternities and sororities. On the Rhodes campus, race seems to me to play a large role in that phenomenon, but now, as I learn about the heteronormative nature of our society as a whole (and the condensed, exaggerated role that heteronormativity plays on our campus specifically) I can see how those pressures may be an even larger factor. Also, again speaking within the Rhodes campus, it seems as though there are some correlations between gender performing and frat or srat performing, depending on the stereotypes of whatever organization you belong to. Even non-Greeks seem to have some common performed traits as well.
ReplyDeleteThe question that you pose about whether or not it's one's environment that allows or encourages behaviors outside the "gender norm," rather than intrinsic qualities that lie within certain people's identities interests me as well. I grew up at a high school that had a very unique dynamic regarding sexuality. There actually was large group of people who were "popular," and experimented with their sexuality quite openly. Would they have felt that this was permissible if they had gone to another school? However, at my high school (and perhaps at Hendrix), people can get stuck in the "progressive" mindset, without continuing to examine their values and beliefs. Sometimes, it encourages complacency, and things like gender, sex and sexuality, are all concepts that are so complex, they need to be constant subjects of awareness.
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