Peril - College girls: bluestockings, sex kittens, and coeds, then and now

Also byLynn Peril

PINK THINK

Copyright 2006 Lynn Payerl

All rights reserved
First Edition

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

Book design by Rubina Yeh
Production manager: Anna Oler

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Peril, Lynn.
College girls : bluestockings, sex kittens, and coeds, then and now / Lynn Peril.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-393-32715-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-393-32715-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-39334-994-8 (e-book)

1. Women college studentsUnited StatesAttitudes. 2. WomenUnited StatesIdentity. 3. WomenEducation (Higher)Unites States. 4. Women college studentsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 5. Education, HigherUnited StatesHistory20th century. I. Title.

LC1756.P47 2006

378.1'9822dc22 20060188906

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
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To my parents, Gene and Alice, for making sure I became a college girl

CONTENTS

It took almost as long for me to write this book as it did to get my undergraduate degree. Im not sure who was more patient during that time: my editor, Alane Mason, or my husband, Johnny Bartlett. I couldnt have written this book without either one of them.

Shirley Wajda, Mary Ricci, and Mary Ann Irwin read early, embarrassingly bad drafts, sometimes multiple timesthank you, ladies. Comments from Alessandra Bastagli and Vanessa Levine-Smith were also much appreciated.

Faye Bender has been endlessly enthusiastic. Im looking forward to our next project.

To everybody at W. W. Norton & Company, thanks from the bottom of my heart for making me look so good in print.

Thanks also go to Michael Beller and Janice Braun at Mills College, Browning Brooks and Lucy Patrick at Florida State University, Diane Cantwell, Karen Finlay, Susan Frankel, Beth S. Harris at Hollins University, the Ladies Lit List, David C. Levy, Miriam Linna, the Mills College Fires of Wisdom Oral History Project (especially Suzette Lalime Davidson and Cecile Caterson), John Marr, Jessica Rudin MacGregor, Sharyn November, Kurt and Karen Ohlen, Mimi Pond, Ron and Maria at Kayo Books in San Francisco, Chip Rowe, Scott Sanders at Antiochiana, Morgan Alberts Smith at Mary Baldwin College, J. Peter Wentz, and Michael Zadoorian. I also thank the helpful librarians and archivists at Cornell University, the Mechanics Institute Library, San Francisco Public Library (especially in the San Francisco History Room and Photo Collection), Teachers College, Columbia University, and everybody who patted my head when the going got tough.

A pair of Wellesley students practice poise and posture on the way to hygiene class, 1936.

BLUE STOCKING, a name given to learned and literary ladies, who display their acquirements in a vain and pedantic manner, to the neglect of womanly duties and virtues.

CHAMBERS ENCYCLOPDIA, 18721873 EDITION

M aybe you know a college freshman like this one: a bright-eyed eighteen-year-old girl who for the past year or so has been caught up in a wealth of glossy brochures and interactive online presentations from giant state universities and small liberal arts colleges. In the 1930s she would have been nicknamed Betty Coed, but well call her Jane Doe. Janes visited a campus or two, or talked to an alumna who lives in her hometown. She has spent countless hours worrying that her admission essay about how her summer job as a coffee-shop barista helped her grow as a human being wont stand out from those of her fellow applicants, all of whom she imagines as having spent their formative years in a combination of volunteerism and philanthropy that would make Mother Teresa look shiftless by comparison. Jane (and her parents) have struggled with financial-aid forms and scholarship applications. The sting of rejection by her first-choice school has been soothed by the balm of fat acceptance packets from numbers two and three. She has carefully considered their degree programs in her intended major, distance from her hometown, tuition costs, and overall reputations for academics versus partying, as well as certain intangible factorssuch as whether her brother goes there or how many cute boys or girls she saw when she visitedand come to a decision about which college she will attend.

Then one day in August, she kisses parents, pets, siblings, and perhaps most difficult, boyfriend or girlfriend good-bye, promises to call or e-mail regularly, and heads off to campusat long last a college girl.

Depending on the rules and facilities at that school, Jane Does home for the next year or so may be a 12- x 15-foot dormitory room, furnished with a roommate (whom shes probably never met face to face), bed, desk, chair, and dresser for each of them, and a telephonethough with the ubiquity of cell phones, even that link to the past is becoming obsolete. Janes room may be located on an all-female or coed floor or one reserved for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. She can choose to live on a drug- and alcohol-free floor, one devoted to a particular cultural group or healthy lifestyle (the wellness floor), or one with extended quiet hours. Her room may not be much bigger than a hermits cell, but it is hardly a monastic retreat: it is wired for cable TV and high-speed Internet access, though Jane must rent or purchase a small refrigerator and/or microwave if she wants to have one. At some schools, Jane and her roommate can even order snacks and toiletries, including condoms, from the comfort of their room via Web sites run by enterprising fellow students, who will deliver the items directly to their door.1 The condoms may come in handy. Depending on where she goes to school, Jane might be entitled to have an overnight guest, free of charge, two nights a monthas long as her roommate approves of the arrangement.

Our girl has a better way to spend her evening hours, for once classes start, Jane carries a full load. Comparative Politics, Perspectives in Engineering, Introduction to Feminist HistoryJane has a thirst for knowledge and big plans for her future. She wants to test the waters in as many different subjects as she can before she declares a major. If she didnt bring a laptop with her, the library probably has a twenty-four-hour computer lab, but she might not have to go that far: one may be located in her dormitory. If Jane does have to move around campus after dark, she can call the night escort service to make sure she safely gets where shes going.

For most of her needs, Jane wont have to leave the campus. The student union building provides art galleries and performance spaces, pool tables and arcade games, sometimes even a rathskeller or pub where, as soon as they turn twenty-one, Jane and her friends can drown their academic woes with the golden ale. Many schools have athletic centers where Jane can work out, swim, or play racquetball. If shes not feeling wellphysically or mentallyshe can stop by the student health center, where she can also get birth control, free or low-cost pregnancy testing, and information about and treatment for STDs (all good reasons to keep a pack of condoms handy, Jane!).