To the editors:

I must admit that after reading "The Bee: A Club of Their Own" (News, Feb. 17), my opinion of the club has changed for the better. While it is clear that there exists a discrepancy between the intellectual and emotional depth of the club as reported by its members and by those women punched who did not finally join, and while one may certainly charge that the organization fosters elitism and merely pays lip-service to the importance of diversity, have not most academic institutions been accused--and found guilty--of these same things?

I don't mean to imply that this is excusable, but perhaps we're pointing our fingers in the wrong direction.

What strikes me most is the relative awareness and legitimacy of the Bee as compared to its all-male counterparts. The Bee's tradition of donating a book to the group's collection moves in the direction of an intellectualism eschewed by the final clubs. The effort (transparent as it may be) to encourage diversity betrays some vague awareness of reality that stands out in stark comparison to that held by Douglas Sears '69, president of the Interclub Council, who legitimizes the final clubs by maintaining, "Men have always wanted a place of their own where they wouldn't have to compete with women."

What perplexes me is that in the face of such rock-and-roll feminist epithets as, "It was so great to see women controlling the liquor...playing pool instead of watching men play pool," the group still aligns itself with the all-male final clubs. If Sears' comment is any indication of the historic and prevailing final club attitude toward women ("We tried to get them to understand what goes into running a club. We tried to explain to them that being a landlord is no fun at all"), why, women of the Bee, do you have tea at the Fly as a punch event?

Clearly you need not rely on a tradition that represents all that is objectionable and harmful about Harvard--a tradition whose condescension extends to doubting your ability to be a landlord and assuring you, in the tone of your most patronizing kindergarten teacher, that owning your own building would just be "no fun at all." Come on, girls, you're smarter than that. And best of luck with your club. JESSICA A. NORDELL '99   Feb. 18, 1998