“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). This fundamental aspect of our nature has been under attack more in recent history than ever before. A YouTube video about a transgender 5-year-old named Ryland, which went viral earlier this year, brought to light just how prominent this issue is. This video, which was made by Ryland’s parents, described how Ryland was born a girl and, at the age of 5, desired to be a boy. The parents relented, and have been lauded by many LGBT organizations. Ryland is not the only one to present quandaries about sexual identities to the public. Institutes of higher learning have been grappling with gender issues for decades. Recently, one institution in particular, in this new era of gender-free pronouns and political correct inclusivity, asks us to consider what it means to an “all women’s college”.
Wellesley College, an all-women institution, boasts many well-known alumnae, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madeline Korbel Albright, Diane Sawyer and Nora Ephron, just to name a few. Wellesley, which is west of Boston located in it’s own breath-taking college town, was founded in 1870 by a couple who believed that the education of women was integral to American society. Even if women were to stay in the home, they believed, their education would produce more articulate children. Well into to the mid-twentieth century, Wellesley maintained the assumption that many of its alumnae would graduate to get married and stay home with their children. The 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile portrays Wellesley College in the 1950s as being a place where women would frequently take time off school to get married as a matter of course. Today, however, even the idea of what exactly it means to be considered a woman, is being questioned at Wellesley.
While it is no surprise that Wellesley, which has become increasingly liberal since the days portrayed in Mona Lisa Smile, would embrace those who live within the LGBT community, one can easily argue that their extreme openness has compromised their integrity as an all women’s college. Wellesley’s student life web page says, “Wellesley is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex students.” The number of transgender men (people born female who later identify as male) at Wellesley is increasing. A recent New York Times article describes how Timothy, a “transgender man”, ran for office on student council, for the multicultural affairs coordinator position. However, an anonymous student, using Facebook, lobbied her fellow students to vote “abstain” for the election. Enough “abstain” votes would require the position to go a revote. The reason for this controversy was simple; the last person who should to representing diversity, the anonymous student argued, is a white “man”.
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