Sexual Harassment in Drag
Safety and Learning
Sexual Harassment in Drag
Half-naked, cross-dressing men and women caked with makeup and packed into a suddenly claustrophobic Wilder - it could only be Drag Ball. This off-beat event is the most celebrated of the academic year, and sets Oberlin apart from just about any collegiate institution. This free-for-all carnival where anything goes serves as a defining characteristic for the college. A celebration best explained by experiencing it, Drag Ball allows liberal individuals to push the bill that much farther in a single grandiose event. Drag Ball brings out the child in all of us. Like a sophisticated game of dress-up, students experience different personalities not often revealed. It reminds us all of Halloween costumes of yesteryear, except with a slightly more sexual tinge than the cowboy and princess costumes that mom pieced. At Drag Ball, ladies pretend to be cowboys, and gentlemen princesses. It's a carnival - complete with masked participants who hide their faces with makeup and wigs, leaving the rest of their bodies on display. The males usually suffer the most in this costume party - shaving unsightly body hair and slipping on a pair of pumps. Meanwhile some ladies go for the more reserved male-look, hiding breasts and hair in a suit and hat. But most women opt for the "slut" look, leaving little to the imagination in hiked up skirts and ungirdled bosoms.
While cross-dressing is the dominant theme at Drag Ball, sex is an intimate competitor. Scores of naked flesh create an orgiastic atmosphere. Coupled with the cross-dressing, the gender lines are blurred and all participants become sexual individuals. Although this experience is at its heart a celebratory experience, sexual etiquette sometimes can get lost in the carnival. Most women can relate a story or two of pinched bums and uninvited fondling in the cramped quarters of Wilder Hall. While freedom reigns at Drag Ball, sexual harassment is not an acceptable component of this experience. Oberlin's progressive atmosphere certainly does not condone some of the more than casual exchanges that occur during Drag Ball. Drugs and alcohol, undeniable element of these festivities, create a dangerous atmosphere. The sexually charged atmosphere, drugs and alcohol and lots of bare flesh may add up to some compromising situtations.
Play it safe on Saturday night. Security does a commendable job of staffing the event with sufficient personnel who can control most situations. Despite the open atmosphere of Drag Ball, nothing excuses sexual harassment in even the smallest form.
Safety and Learning
What kind of school do we want to attend? The kind where television watchers in Zeke get bothered by security because some RC thinks they look threatening? The kind where nonstudents who fall asleep in South lounges waiting for their student friends lose their jobs because people sleeping in lounges somehow puts us at risk? On the other hand, what kind of school do we really want to attend? The kind where people can slip in through basement Fairchild windows and assault sleeping students? The kind where people can wander the halls of Noah looking for an open room door and assault its occupants? Security has a tough situation to handle - it must keep our campus safe while maintaining our friendliness and openness. It's not a thick line on which to walk, it's a thin one. And the repercussions of wavering too far on either side can be hazardous.
We exist in the context of our classes, as underclassmen in our dorms, but we also exist in the context of the Feve, the 'Sco and numerous parties where non-students often abound (only with proper guest status at the 'Sco, of course). "Townies" are not dangerous, they are not threatening, they are usually not even thinking about you. There are also situations where students feel like their safety is truly at stake, and these incidents need to be addressed in a serious manner. But there are many students who feel just as threatened by some of our sketchy College students as by the stereotypical townsperson. Maybe we've just been taught to ignore those fears.
We, as students, have a right to feel safe on this campus. But we also have a right to learn about the world - the world that is bigger than our small campus. With Commencement coming right around the corner, many thoughts are on the value of a degree, an Oberlin degree in particular, and the value of sitting in King or Kettering for a few years. The point of college is to experience all that we can and, maybe more importantly, all that we want in a relatively structured environment before entering the non-structured world. The judgments we make as students, and those we watch our campus authority make, ultimately reflect back upon ourselves in the future. The status of being an enrolled student, a townsperson, or a campus employee should not differentiate, because really, who is to say we're learning the most from this school alone?
Copyright © 2000, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 128, Number 16, March 3, 2000
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