What Decade is This?

We have been reading Lynn Peril’s College Girls for our independent study, a fascinating and often hilarious look at the social construction of female college students. Her examples of the kinds of media that the new Coeds were exposed to seem like total relics to modern college students. I, for one, would be appalled if the mainstream media implied that my worth is measured in the skills that will make me an awesome housewife when, inevitably, I get a man to wait on.

So, suffice it to say, I was more than a little shocked/perturbed when I discovered that The Virginia Informer, part of the mainstream media right here at the College of William and Mary, was publishing a column that does just that! The headline of Jennifer Souers’ first entry of the year in her “Finer Side” column, “Happiness can come from refinement,” seems to be out of place anytime after the Johnson administration, at least. Souers notes that her column was “created especially for The Informer’s own ‘finer side’: its female reading base.” She later states that she focuses on “three main areas in this column: consumer-related advice, manners and etiquette, and fun fashion stories” and that she “wanted to offer the tools to help people be successful in their future lives.” Now, sure, everyone is a consumer, should have a basic grasp of how to behave themselves, and must, at some point, get dressed. I don’t specifically take issue with the existence of a column about these things. It’s the fact that Souers states repeatedly that she’s writing for a female readership and the implication that they (and not males) will need to know these things to be “successful” in life that is a direct throwback to the early years of women at the College, when everyone was presumed to be getting their MRS. I seriously question the logic that only women want to know “this history of the popped vs. unpopped collar trend,” “what to wear to an interview,” and “what Master Craftsmen offers at Christmas.” After all, men shop for the holidays, go on job interviews, and wear polo shirts.

Our independent study’s activist element aims to critique and change the College’s male-centric culture, which celebrates the men that came before us, but rarely the women. Fortunately, we hear stories of today’s “college girl” in leadership positions in all parts of campus life – we are moving forward, however slowly. It is, however, essential that our college media recognize and reflect these changes in their writing, lest we reinforce the old idea that women are primarily consumers.

-Cate Domino

"The Finer Side" column discussed can be accessed here