Hollins University is one of the oldest women’s colleges in the country but now faces a growing challenge over the use of gender as a defining characteristic. Some students and faculty are demanding that Hollins allow for non-binary individuals to apply for admission. However, that step raises additional questions as to applicants who were born female but identify (or have transitioned) as males . . . or biological males.
Women’s colleges have long struggled with the conflict of resisting gender classifications in society while enforcing gender classifications for admissions.
At Hollins, the issue previously came up as some students decided to transition to being male. The school eventually agreed that they could remain at the all-women’s school despite being male.
Now students are objecting to barring non-binary applicants who do not identify as women. According to NPR, the small Hollins University still specifically excludes non-binary applicants due to its “guiding principle” to serve those who “consistently live and identify as women.” The school’s transgender policy states:
“Since its founding in 1842, Hollins’ mission has been to provide an exceptional undergraduate liberal arts education for women. In furtherance of our mission, tradition, and values as a women’s college, and in recognition of our changing world and evolving understanding of gender identity, Hollins will consider for admission those applicants who consistently live and identify as women, regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth. Enrolled students who transition during their time at Hollins may graduate.”
However, some faculty and students have denounced the policy while acknowledging that the entire school is based on a gender discriminatory premise by only allowing women to be students. Hollins senior Kendall Sanders, who identifies as non-binary and uses “they/them” pronouns, insists that “My womanness, my femininity does not define me.” That can prove a difficult view to accommodate at a school that is defined by gender.
If gender should not define students or admission, the question is whether Hollis should maintain its identity as a “women’s college.”
For Hollins professor LeeRay Costa the answer is that the college must change. The “feminist cultural anthropologist” who teaches a course on “Girlhood Studies,” the school needs to “reject that binary” and get rid of the emphasis on “woman-ness.” Instead, she calls for opening admission to anyone “whose gender makes them marginalized in society.”
Other women’s colleges have struggled with the same contradiction in defining their institutions along gender lines while opposing gender definitions. Smith College, for example, will admit biological men who now identify as women but will not admit biological women who now identify as men:
Are trans women eligible for admission to Smith?
Applicants who were assigned male at birth but identify as women are eligible for admission.
Are trans men eligible for admission?
Smith does not accept applications from men. Those assigned female at birth but who now identify as male are not eligible for admission.
Under this newly clarified policy, what is required of applicants to be considered for admission?
Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. To be considered for admission, applicants must select ‘female’ on the Common Application.
It is not clear how the Smithsonian’s newest assistant, Q, would fare in the admissions process. Q is being showcased as the future in a “genderless world.” It is a voice “synthesized by combining recordings of people who identify variously as male, female, transgender, or nonbinary.”
Smithsonian’s purpose of developing Q was to realize “a future where we are no longer defined by gender, but rather by how we define ourselves.’”
Since Q does not identify as a female, an application to Smith would be barred since the school states “to be considered for admission, applicants must select ‘female’ on the Common Application.”
Are there any members of the ruling class in America that will denounce this lunacy? Anyone at all? Because this plebe is getting real fed up with this ****.
Someone or cabal is sure working overtime to destroy our nation.
The constant drumbeat of false anti-white, anti-American propaganda and indoctrination continues in the mainstream media.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) in America must be deathly afraid that the American Giant will soon awaken.
Selective Service registration still goes by biology. Since all male students have to prove they have registered (or, as with exchange students, are not required to) to get financial aid, Hollins should simply base their policy on this.
At least until Congress forces SSS to register women as well.
Why call it a women’s college if it admits men?
It’s an oxymoron with empathetic appeal.
These so-called academicians need to accept and live with the fact that, at some time (I don’t know when) an infant in the womb is either a girl/female OF a boy/male. That baby remains that at birth and for the remainder of her/his life. The biology never changes, so let FOOLS such as these stop the woke efforts to accommodate the mental or psychological problems of people who choose to believe and act as if they are not what they are.
A woman has 2 X homologous chromosomes, a man has one X and one Y non-homologous chromosomes. When they mate, the woman donates one X while the man donates either an X or Y. Which chromosome the male donates is random, as described in Mendelian genetics. Upon conception, if the male donated a Y, the SRY gene on the Y chromosome synthesizes a protein (Y protein) that serves as a transcription factor which stimulates the development of testes. If there is no Y protein, the fetus develops a uterus. All of this happens within weeks of conception
There are 30 trillion cells in the human body. Each cell has a nucleus with 46 homologous chromosomes, with the last set being either XX or XY. No matter what organ, tissue, location of the cell, those 46 homologous chromosomes are there, regardless of how a person “fells” about their identity. It is not something one can choose nor rearrange (30 trillion cells). You get what you get
Physiology between men and women is vastly different, e.g. neurochemistry, cardiovascular physiology, musculoskeletal proportions, metabolic, etc. The people arguing otherwise are idiots. We should never listen to idiots.
e.g.
An Issue Whose Time Has Come: Sex/Gender Influences on Nervous System Function
Journal of Neuroscience Research, January/February 2017, Volume 95, Issue 1-2
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/10974547/2017/95/1-2
Any citizen with a pen and paper can be a journalist. It’s called citizen journalism. No license, degree, or credentials required.
The big issue is money. Mills College couldn’t remain independent and some other all-female colleges have financial problems. Wokeness slightly increases the candidate pool but threatens the traditional student looking for a different experience.
What about freedom of association? Why not let individuals decide who they will associate with?
What about freedom of association
Whats the difference between freedom of association and discrimination?