How would you feel if your school had a Homecoming King that was a female? Students at Maryland’s Hood College are dealing with that right now.
I was quite surprised when I read this article on MSNBC.com. While some members of the campus at Hood College are supportive, the recent announcement of Jennifer Jones, a lesbian, as Homecoming King has sparked some debate on the campus.
Now, y’all know I love me some Carolina. My alma mater does a good job of being diverse and accepting of all people, regardless of their background, beliefs, and preferences. While it still has a ways to go, I can only imagine what would happen if we were at the Homecoming game, and Mr. UNC turned out to be a “Ms.”.
On the Hood College website, it says it’s “A Great Place to be Smart”. Well, I’m sure it is. It’s a college. Apparently it’s just not a great place to be a lesbian. Especially if you plan to run in the Homecoming races.
So…readers of this blog, what do y’all think? What are the real issues here? My sociological background would say that it doesn’t matter if her biological gender is a female because gender is socially constructed anyway- so she (Jennifer Jones) could have been socially constructed to be more of a man depending on the environment that she grew up in. I know it sounds far fetched, and I don’t agree with it…but, I’m just telling you what a potential argument could be. Other thoughts and comments welcome…
life beyond the well... 
March 11, 2006 at 8:29 am
It’s not like she applied for it — she got the most votes. If people didn’t like it they should have gotten more people to vote for someone else. Would have been an easy remedy to the “problem”.
In a side note — at UNC it’s actually Homecoming King and Homecoming Queen, not Mr. and Mrs. UNC. Usually the only people who call it that are the BSM candidates. It was just one of my pet peeves when I was Homecoming Chair because it confuses the voters when half the candidates are holding signs for Homecoming Queen and the other half for Ms. UNC.
March 11, 2006 at 1:49 pm
sorry…wasn’t aware of the change. when i was there it was called something different seemingly every year. but that could just be my BSM background.
March 16, 2006 at 11:30 pm
i think the bigger question is: what’s the point? is she trying to make a statement? what is she trying to say? what’s the message here? or is she just trying to be uberlesbian?