At Annual Drag Show, Explicit Acts Anger Some

Pforzheimer House administrators met with a group of students Monday to complain about their sexually suggestive performance during the Miss Pfoho competition, an annual House drag contest.

The group, comprised of Matthew N. Abelson '02, William G. Bain '02, Michael Y. Lee '02 and Joshua Levin '02, lip-synched and danced suggestively to a song called "Pussy-Round."

The performance Sunday night culminated with a group member pulling out a purple vibrator and "doing various obscene things with it," said one Pforzheimer resident who was in the audience.

After hearing that their performance had offended some audience members, the group e-mailed an apology Monday night to the House community over Pfoho-open, the House e-mail list.

"It was far from our intent to subtract from anyone's enjoyment of the evening or to offend anyone," the e-mail message said. "We are sorry if that happened on account of our performance."

House Co-Masters James J. McCarthy and Suzanne M. McCarthy were in the audience of about 150 students and tutors. Audience members said the masters left during the group's performance and returned near the end of the show.

Lee said the group met with the masters and Allston Burr Senior Tutor Dirk M. Killen '82 Monday night after they had sent out the e-mail message, during which they "came to an understanding of each other's perspective."

"They basically let us know about the tradition of the contest, how the tradition is generally kind of less raunchy stuff. And they talked about how our act was not within the traditional type of performances," Lee said.

Last minute planning may have contributed to what some called the offensive nature of their performance, Lee added.

"We basically came up with our dance routine literally 15 minutes before the show," he said. "In the midst of that kind of urgency and excitement we didn't really think about other possible issues in terms of being too raunchy."

Contestants in the Miss Pfoho competition, which has been held for the past five years, are judged on appearance, talent and their performance in a question-and-answer session.

Contest winner Matthew A. Romero '02, whose stage name was "La Femme Romeo," said he thinks the competition might be headed toward becoming less obscene.

"Two years ago the person who won Miss Pfoho [did so by] deep-throating a banana, but last year Miss Pfoho won by singing 'The Rose,'" Romero said.

Romero's winning act included lip-synching and dancing to a song from the musical Rent. Although his performance contained "pole-dancing," Romero said that he heard his was among the less explicit performances. Contestants were not allowed to view the other acts.

Bain refused to comment, saying the matter had been dealt with within the House.

Although the group's performance stirred up controversy, some students said they had enjoyed the ribald act.

"I think most of the students thought it was pretty hilarious, but I could see how some people could have had a problem with it," said Pforzheimer resident Myung H. Joh '02.

The House co-masters were unavailable for comment yesterday.