Last Tuesday was Club Night at the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and I attended the performance as the guest of a close friend who is a member of one of the female social organizations on campus. Club Night, a long-standing Pudding tradition, is open only to members of Harvard's social organizations, many of which are gender-exclusive final clubs.
I have problems with the Pudding show's exclusion of female cast members and I have objections to the socially elitist, gender-exclusive final clubs. But I also knew that the show would be rowdy. So I decided to put aside my concerns for what I hoped would be a fun, relaxed evening of entertainment. What I did not know was that the event would devolve into a tasteless and blatantly offensive display of heterosexism and homophobia.
Several minutes into the performance, a person sitting three rows behind me yelled "fag" as a performer in a flamboyant peacock costume came on stage. My friend pressed my leg with her hand, knowing the anger that was welling up inside me. Other heckling eventually drowned out the offending comment. I sat there hoping that nothing more of that nature would be said. Instead, a barrage of homophobic remarks started spewing forth from those seated behind me, and to my total dismay, these comments met with applause and laughter from the audience.
What was so disappointing was that, when I looked around the auditorium, I saw so many familiar faces: classmates, acquaintances and even many close friends all laughing along with these jokes. The girl from my art history class burst into loud laughter. The guy who sat next to me on the shuttle to New York started clapping every time he heard the word "fag." I even saw a friend from high school scream, "Take it up the ass."
I am sure that some people in the audience felt uncomfortable with the remarks, but no one had the courage to say anything or do anything that might register that discomfort. I felt completely isolated: As far as I knew, I could easily have been the only gay--or, more appropriately, the only un-closeted--audience member that night. And, except for the squeeze from my friend next to me, I felt no support.
After several of the girls sitting around me decided that the shouting was more than they could handle, a group of us got up to leave. As I left the theater, a friend of mine stopped me. He looked me straight in the face and said, "You should have known there would be homophobic humor, and you shouldn't have come." I simply turned to him and said "I didn't know, but since you did, then it is you who should not have come."
There are two important lessons to be learned from Club Night at the Hasty Pudding. First, and most obvious, is that it has long been the time to terminate the legacy of patriarchy and heterosexism embodied and perpetuated by final clubs on this campus. We must force members to take responsibility for their participation in organizations that promote intolerance and perpetuate an out-dated and unacceptable social order. And it is time for non-members on this campus to stop taking part in this system. In particular, the Hasty Pudding should end the vulgar and socially unacceptable tradition of Club Night. Enough is enough.
The second and more profound lesson is about the danger of silence in the face of intolerance. The responsibility to stand up and fight against intolerance in our community should not always fall on the victims of bigotry. Every student who sees bigotry and injustice has an obligation to fight against it. When we hear a gay joke--or a black joke, a Jewish joke or a joke about people in wheelchairs--we have an obligation to address that comment and express out outrage. When we shirk that responsibility, we support an environment in which bigotry is deemed socially acceptable. We make nights like Club Night at the Pudding possible.
Read more in Opinion
Ivy Council Not Worth the TripRecommended Articles
-
Hasty Pudding Graduate Board Bans Alcohol From ClubThe Hasty Pudding Club got its name from a stipulation in its 1795 constitution that two members should bring a
-
Class Marshal Candidates--1966First Row JOSEPH P. BLANCHARD: Year-book, business manager; Krokodiloes; Senior Associate; Glee Club, provisional member; Delphic Club; Hasty Pudding; Lion
-
Liz Taylor to be Honored In Pudding Parade TodayElizabeth Taylor will lead jugglers, antique cars, fire engines, bagpipe players and a horde of curious stargazers around Harvard Square
-
Class Marshal CandidatesWALTER SLEETH Freshman Football, Track; Eliot House Committee; House Basketball; Crimson, Business Board; Speakers' Club; Hasty Pudding; Dean's List. BALDWIN
-
Candidates for Senior Class MarshalsTHOMAS C. BAGNOLI '60 Winthrop: Varsity Soccer; Freshman Soccer; Freshman Baseball, Captain; J. V. Baseball, PBH Hospitals Committee; Pi Eta
-
Pudding Manuscripts DueAll manuscripts for the Hasty Pudding Club production must be handed in at the clubhouse by 12 o'clock Tuesday, October