Mr. Wellesley Freshman Controversy: Where we stand

Good controversy always makes great press but if you want to argue two sides of a story, it pays to start out with the correct facts. As stated by the founders of HerCampus, HerCampus "never said that these students [transgender men] would not be allowed to enter the contest; it was just that no one nominated them." I'm sure that there are many other ethnicities, religious persuasions, and sexual orientations that are underrepresented across each campus’s nominations but that doesn't imply that the students at these colleges are prejudiced or bigoted. It simply means that there wasn’t a nomination in every single ethnic, religious, or sexual category for each college.

Remember that it's the individual students of the respective colleges who nominated their chosen candidates for the contests. So if there's a vocal group of Wellesley students who are angered and frustrated by the nominations made by their peers, they should be criticizing their own classmates for their choices or should have nominated their own candidates in the first place.

Finally, and I’m surprised that this is not patently obvious, HerCampus simply set up the platform for the Mr. College Freshman Contests much in the same way that Facebook provides a platform for social communication. Readers from each college nominate their desired candidates, nominees post their own pictures and statements, and readers then vote for whomever they like best. You wouldn’t blame Mark Zuckerberg, one of the Facebook founders, for postings on your Facebook wall and you can’t blame the HerCampus founders for selections made by their student readers.

Notwithstanding the above, I'm glad to see that the founders of Her Campus renamed the Wellesley contest and reopened the nominations to address the concerns of some Wellesley students. After all, there's no million dollar prize for the winner; the contest was simply set up for readers to have fun with so I doubt if any of the other nominees will care if a few more nominations sneak in after the original deadline.

Not be belittled, however, the issues raised by some Wellesley students regarding this contest are interesting ones to explore - it’s surprising that these seem to be coming to light only now as opposed to during the hugely popular Miss America, Miss USA, and other similar competitions that are run every year.

I understand that all of the founders are currently on spring break, but Jezebel just picked up our story.

http://jezebel.com/5491942/womens-college-told-it-needs-real-men-as-reps

Best,

Galen

It wouldn't be a big deal just to take Wellesley out of this competition. What's stopping you? Who would really be mad at you at this point?

Dear HC,

You need to understand that Wellesley is a place where acceptance is limitless. To not only infiltrate OUR campus and impose a very slanted point of view, but to also disrespect our male-identifying students goes against everything that we stand for.

First and foremost, I want to reiterate that Wellesley has many, many outlets for writing and creativity that cater to our points of view, and we do not feel like we need an outside representation. We are individualistic from every other college out there, and therefore is is unfair to try to squash us under the label of "Her Campus." We don't like labels here, anyway.

Secondly, as a writer and a team player, I am not happy with your subtle blame of your Wellesley interns for this "Mr. Wellesley" contest. This is not their fault, we will not blame them, and we will stand by our sisters. Insinuating that these women dropped the ball is poor leadership - you should be defending your interns, not saying, "Oh, So-and-So sent out an email..."

We have male-identifying students here, and to force us to be represented by boys from other colleges is sexist and rude. We firmly believe that we don't need a man (or, rather, a significant other) to "complete" us, for we can represent ourselves. We value being independent and do not wish to be told otherwise.

If my comments yesterday upset anyone, I am sorry for hurting your feelings, but I will not apologize for nor take back a single word of what I wrote. You are a new magazine. Magazines get criticized all the time. Controversies arise. Take this as a learning experience, and do not make the same mistake again. We want out.

Do not label us. Do not impose yourselves upon us. Do not force us into competitions for an organization that we wish to not be integrated. Do not assume that every college student feels as you do. Do not sell out your interns, our sisters. Above all, do not trivialize our feelings and our outrage.

Just a tip for post-graduation: generally, doing 'your best' isn't good enough. No A's for effort in the workplace. People get fired for the kind of poor judgment and lack of responsiveness that HerCampus has shown, even if it was their very very very best try! So perhaps get used to not using that as a shield now - deal directly and clearly with the problem and make the changes required.

Allow our college to not participate in this contest. I came to Wellesley because it's a women's college and because I am TIRED of men taking the liberty to represent me in society. My college is a place that I am given the social agency I deserve everywhere else, and you have taken that experience from me with this contest and this website. Personally, I find it awfully offensive to attempt to alter what I want and expect from my college, even after myself and my sisters(in their many forms, both male and female, both feminist and not, both queer and not) have asked you to stop. Wellesley is a place of fiercely independent, intelligent women. To assume this would fly demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of our campus. And you can continue to blame our representatives if you want but expect even more pushing back from Wellesley students. I'll stand by my sister always.

Everyone please stop hating on Scott. His articles are well written and entertaining and are not meant to be taken seriously = PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT. Obviously many of the readers of this site have decided that sarcasm, humor, and a simple fluffy contest that many MANY women have enjoyed as entertaining are matters to be taken extremely seriously and offensively, and it seems I will never be able to write an article again about something as stupid (yet useful for many women) as the right eye shadow colors for spring without offending someone and a reader twisting the harmless article into an attack against certain communities.

However, the journalism and media industries are fueled by criticism, and I can only imagine how many hundreds of tons of hate mail magazines like Cosmo, which give lessons on how to give the best blow jobs and other extremely degrading articles, must receive a day. Her Campus is not like Cosmo, and everyone please stop labeling us with that fluffy magazine.

I can hardly imagine that the Founders forced the Wellesley representatives into doing anything they felt inappropriate or unfair, and it is likely many people got caught up in the moment without foreseeing the potential consequences. It seems the only the thing to do is to remove Wellesley from the competition, but at the same time I see this situation as a lose-lose from the get go: whether they had nominated random men from random schools, nominated Wellesley transgender students, or excluded Wellesley from the competition all together before this ever started, someone would have had something negative to say about it. The minimal responses to emails can only be explained by a flood emails that was overwhelming for the Her Campus staff.

If you feel that none of the My Campus Wellesley articles (which are written by Wellesley students) do not apply to you, then please address them, not this staff who actually do not have anything to do with the My Campus branches. The representatives have complete control over their branch (besides this competition which involved all branches), and I have no idea why you are under any other impression.