Women’s Center Plan Should Not Draw On Final Clubs

To the editors:

Re: “True Equality,” editorial, Feb. 16.

I agree that it would be a great investment for the university to create social spaces that do not force women to be judged like meat in a butcher’s shop. The editorial erred, however, in suggesting that women’s groups and the university seek the advice of our very own female social geniuses, women’s final clubs and sororities. I need not reiterate the incident of a few months ago, in which it was revealed that the Isis club judges its punches based on their level of “vanilla-ness”. The editorial is asking women’s groups to seek help from groups based upon a social ideology that they are trying to combat: exclusion. As penniless and homeless as the sororities and women’s final clubs are reported to be, they thrive on their exclusivity in selecting female members. Male final clubs thrive on the exclusivity of both sexes: women based on their appearance, and men based on their non-membership in the clubs. Non-Harvardians believe that Harvard is an institution of elitism and exclusivity, and the Crimson editorial did little to prove them wrong.

AMANDA L. SHAPIRO ’08
February 20, 2006