Bwah! My alma mater is in the news. From the local paper:
As Hood College celebrated its second annual homecoming last month, the naming of a female student as Homecoming King elicited both criticisms and praise.[...]Santo Provenzano, 21, who was also on the ballot for king, said, "My first thought when I heard she won was the obvious — she's a girl — Certain traditions are supposed to be a certain way."
Singleton Newman, 22, is a Hood senior who was nominated for queen. "She is not a man," Ms. Newman said. "It is a gender issue, and she is a woman."
Ms. Jones, who is openly gay, attempted last year to run for Homecoming Prince. Although she had the required number of petition signatures, the school's homecoming committee ruled against listing her name on the prince ballot.
You see, it only recently went coed, and apparently is experiencing a few growing pains (thank goodness!). I guess I don't have anything else to say about this, other than that I'm so glad that Hood continues to be a place where this kind of thing can happen, and where there are a lot of people who think that it should.
(Getting about half of the 169 ballots cast at a school of about 1000 also seems to indicate that not very many people voted, and thus that the campus as a whole just didn't really care one way or the other. Which again, as far as Homecoming goes, is also just fine with me.)
Posted by Heather at March 8, 2006 08:12 AM
Comments
maybe this is a good moment to ask this painfully stupid question that's been nagging me ever since i went to the us for the first time some twenty years ago: what's all this homecoming business about? really, i should know and all, but could someone please make me a smarter person? thank you.
Posted by: rrho at March 9, 2006 07:15 AM
As noted above, I don't have any personal experience of homecoming (my high school didn't have one either, though I think they do now--it has also gone coed). But most places here, high schools and college/unis have homecoming as a sort of alumni weekend (in fact at Hood we had "Alumni Weekend") at which graduates can come home to watch a game and hang out with their classmates, and don't forget! donate money to the school. But homecoming's also for current students, and it often involves a big football game and a dance, at which there's a "court" with a king and queen and so on taken from the student body. Kind of awful. I always thought of it--at least the "court"--as just a way to continue acting out adolescent fantasies. But I guess the idea of mini-reunions might not be so bad, if you live nearby.
Posted by: Heather![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.hemmungen.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 9, 2006 07:50 AM
Did I read that right - there's a girl there whose first name is "Singleton"? Or is that just one of those over-abbreviated journalism conventions (in which case, why mention that she hasn't got a boy or girlfriend?)
"Singleton" is a name for girls? Or anyone?
Posted by: Bowleserised at March 20, 2006 06:13 AM
Yes. Yes you did. That person's name is Singleton, no doubt in memory of some side of the family or other. Somehow I missed that: Singleton New Man. Poor dear.
Posted by: Heather![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.hemmungen.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 20, 2006 08:05 AM