A hard lesson in PC madness at Bryn Mawr
When I went to Bryn Mawr, over three decades ago, there was only one woman connected with the school who really impressed me, and that was Kate Hepburn.
I was in awe of the greatest American actress of the 20th century, and could not believe that I was following in her footsteps around campus. I perfected my impersonation of her, so good that they asked me to perform it in a May Day sketch (and as you scratch your head and try and figure out what exactly a May Day sketch is, I can confirm that many a woman would trade her Emmy and Oscar to appear in one of those.) My impersonation of “Dextah, Dextah, Dextah, the callAH lilies ahr in baloom, the callAH lilies ahr in baloom” is something that no alumna who was privileged to hear it will evAH, I mean, ever, forget.
It wasn’t until my second or third year at the old Ivy-covered homestead that I realized the true heroine of Bryn Mawr College was its founder, M. Carey Thomas. The “M” stood for Martha, she was born in Baltimore and she was one heck of an iconoclast. To Thomas, it was important to provide women with the same educational opportunities as men, and not simply provide glorified “finishing schools” where they could pass their time learning the domestic arts that would make them suitable brides. She was a fierce suffragette, a feminist of the early part of the last century and a woman who truly cared about educating female minds.
She was also, by some accounts, a racist and an anti-semite. There are comments attributed to her that, seen through a 21st century lens, show that she was not exactly the paragon of virtue I was led to believe in those halcyon days on the Main Line. And yet, she was heroic when it came to fighting for women and their educational opportunities.
Of course, we are now supposed to erase from the corridors of history the footprints of anyone who did not wear a progressive halo. By that I mean, if there is a hint of political incorrectness in your past, you do not make the final cut into the Hall of Socially Approved Fame. As we have seen in Philadelphia over the past few weeks, Frank Rizzo wouldn’t have even been nominated for inclusion, and Robert E. Lee, some of those other confederate generals, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and even Abraham Lincoln himself would have been eliminated before the swimsuit competition.
I get that it’s a brave new world where the concept of “intersectionality” is all the rage and we cannot honor a person who was a great feminist if she happened to also support the rights of the unborn (Susan B. Anthony,) or if she happened to hold some unfortunate views on race relations. The multi-cultural litmus test is unforgiving, and unless you pass muster by each social metric (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and philosophical purity,) you are not worthy to take your rightful place in the annals of “history that matters.”
Recently, my alma mater acquiesced in the demands of current students and agreed that it would no longer refer to the most important building on campus, “Thomas Great Hall” as “Thomas Great Hall.” According to a statement from President Kim Cassidy: “While Thomas had a profound impact on opportunities for women in higher education, on the academic development and identity of Bryn Mawr, and on the physical plan of the campus, she also openly and vigorously advanced racism and anti-semitism as part of her vision of the college.”
And in reaction to the uproar in Charlottesville and other cities where the population is pulling down statues that offend and trying to excise from the public consciousness the existence of people who did not measure up to present-day standards of tolerance, Cassidy has decided to ban the use of the name “Thomas” from campus, for the foreseeable future. As she noted, “We will make a concerted effort to remove as many references to the name as is possible for this year.”
So let me put my alumni cards on the table: I’m disgusted with the way my school has decided to handle what is absolutely not a difficult issue. There are ways to criticize Thomas, and that includes doing exactly what Bryn Mawr has always (at least up until recently) done: Allow for open and respectful debate about an issue of fundamental importance to everyone who has ever walked across that gorgeous campus. What the school has decided to do is pander to some extremely narrow-minded young women who believe that they now own the soul and spirit of the school, and that there is no place for dissent. In Facebook forums and elsewhere, alumna who have suggested that placing a moratorium on the name of Thomas borders on the ridiculous have been harassed, attacked and treated with incredible disrespect. A friend of mine, a Jewish woman, was compared to a Nazi for opposing the moratorium.
Let that sink in for a minute. A female Jew was called a Nazi. By Bryn Mawr students. When I heard that, I took my class lantern, the one with the green glass panes that I so deeply cherished, and threw it down the basement steps. It was actually quite cathartic.
I watched over the past year as college students on other campuses became overheated and emotional when they were faced with the prospect of having to listen to a campus speaker who “triggered” in them feelings of anxiety and despair. Whether you liked Charles Murray, Ann Coulter or Milo, or you simply wanted to shove their heads into a meat grinder, there was no excuse for the infantile way these babies vomited all over the First Amendment. And smugly, I said to myself “this would never happen at Bryn Mawr.”
Well, this hasn’t exactly happened at Bryn Mawr, not yet. But when you have the school acquiescing to some students who think that an imperfect hero is unworthy of recognition, even when they wouldn’t even be getting an education if that hero hadn’t moved heaven and earth to will their (and our) college into existence, you know that it’s time to make other plans for reunion weekend. It’s also time to realize that we have created a generation of victims.
Or as the great Kate would have said “We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.”
I can’t be the only who’s happy she’s around to see this. one not