{"id":80,"date":"2021-05-06T11:37:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T15:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/arx340-cswaimfox\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:15:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T00:15:06","slug":"queer-history-at-smith","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/queer-social-worlds\/queer-history-at-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Queer History at Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smith College has been queer from its very beginnings. Queer, of course, has many meanings, and although Smith hasn\u2019t always been explicitly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, the theoretical form of \u201cqueer,\u201d which stems from the LGBT experience, certainly applies to Smith from its very conception. Queer can be used to describe actions and people that transgress the social norms of gender and sexuality. 1<\/a><\/sup> Founded as a women\u2019s college at a time when women\u2019s primary roles were caretakers and homemakers, Smith\u2019s queerness and gender transgression began with its very creation. From there, the students of Smith have continued to explore, challenge, play with, and transgress gender and sexual roles in a variety of ways. Though not all of these examples would be thought of as gay or trans by today\u2019s standards, as people of the 21st century, we can learn about this behavior, acknowledge that it might not still fit into our modern categories, but still appreciate the ways in which our modern experiences might intersect and mirror these histories in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

One of the early manifestations of queer history at Smith were the \u2018romantic friendships\u2019 of the late 19th century. In various archival documents such as student letters, photographs, scrapbooks, and other memorabilia, traces of close friendships between friends with romantic intensity are present. Whether or not these relationships were sexual, these romantic friendships were very important to the women within them, showing the strong homosocial ties between women at Smith. A whole culture of romantic friendship arose during this time at Smith and many other women\u2019s colleges. 2<\/a><\/sup> A variety of student publications reference \u201ccrushes\u201d which was a word for a freshman who romantically admired a senior. Seniors would invite these younger students to dances or chapel. 3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Crossdressing was also a feature of Smith\u2019s early history, in a variety of arenas. Smith\u2019s theater productions allowed women to dress in \u201cmasculine\u201d attire and play male roles. President Seeyle tried to place a ban on this practice in 1881, but Smith students found ways around the ban, and eventually the ban fizzled out or was lifted. 4<\/a><\/sup> Smith students also explored dressing in pants and suits through dances, such as \u201chalf-man\u201d dances. All of these practices, and more, allowed for students to explore gender, sexuality, and their feelings for each other in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n