Oh My God, You Guys, Lawyers Are Actually Totally Mean!

“Could you BE more stupid?” A poster called “Madcat” asks on the recently controversial admissions blog xoxohth.com. The bloggers certainly seem to be trying. This burn-book-style blog has received plenty of attention, with articles in The Washington Post and a segment on NPR. With all the hype, you’d think the blog was a cornucopia of juicy gossip about the future Sam McSenators who populate Harvard Law School.

Reality disappoints. Scrolling through posts, the most viewed posts includes a YouTube video of an unidentified Harvard Law student with a 40 oz. duct-taped to her wrists that she unsuccessfully tries to remove for a good three minutes.

The blog also includes derogatory comments on the gender, sexuality, and appearance of various law students, including some from Harvard. But Law School student Adam R. Sorkin thinks these harsh remarks represent the feelings of only a minority of the student body. “It’s easy, if you don’t have friends, to sit in your dorm or your apartment and do your homework and write these nasty things,” says Sorkin, the president of the school’s gay rights group.

The aforementioned girl with the 40 and the duct-tape makes a drunkenly insightful observation in her YouTube movie. “This is going to go national,” she says, “Harvard Law student cannot remove beer can from wrist.”

In fact, the Harvard connection seems to be the most interesting part of these pathetic online rants. “Things that involve Harvard Law are likely to interest their readers. People who aren’t very familiar with Harvard may have an image of Harvard students that is exaggerated,” says Law School student David S. Wirthim.

In other words, it’s fun to watch Harvard students knock themselves off of whatever pedestal the world may have put them on. As student Sandy E. Pullman ’02 puts it, “Nobody wants an article ‘Harvard Students Respectful of and Kind to One Another.’”