Musings on Lesbianism, the Workplace, and Other Topics.

Rather than paraphrase, I'm going to give you some musings straight from the source:

adiuvame: oh well.. teddy was talking about i think maybe her nephew? i dont really remember but some one that graduated from haverford this past year
Avalon2004: oh, yay haverford.
adiuvame: (to preface... we were talking about bryn mawr/haverford relations-- along with just having gone to bryn mawr, her dad was a prof at haverford and her mom worked with the collections at bryn mawr for a while and teddy went to school at Shipley, of all places)
Avalon2004: my god, that's a lot of connections!
adiuvame: but anyway she was apparently talking to said nephew and i guess the topic of bryn mawr women came up and he commented that a very large portion of the Bryn Mawr was lesbian -- like at least a third and she was saying how she was so surprised and how that seemed like so so many and how there never seemed to be that many when she went
adiuvame: i mean.. it wasnt that she was saying anything bad
adiuvame: but the awkward thing was that it was very obviously assumed that i was straight by the tone of the conversation you know?
adiuvame: so i wasn't completely sure how to respond
Avalon2004: ahh... yeah, sometimes that's a problem. at least, it's a huge, huge pet peeve for me when people assume i'm straight. i think it irritates me because almost all strangers do.
adiuvame: yeah
adiuvame: and *then* we were talking about where i'd lived so far and where she lived
Avalon2004: oh, there's more?
adiuvame: and she was talking about how one year she'd pulled into a really beautiful room in rock i think it was but then for some weird reason that she didn't quite remember she suddenly got freaked out about it and really didn't want to live there (and realized it was very stupid of her a little later and moved back onto campus (she'd been living at haverford for a semester and hated it)) and said that she thought she remebered that it might have been something to do with thinking that there were a lot of lesbians right there or something
adiuvame: and i mean it was all told in a "wow, that was stupid of me, huh" kind of way
adiuvame: but it was just .. weird i guess
Avalon2004: whoa, that is really weird....
Avalon2004: how uncomfortable.
adiuvame: yeah
adiuvame: i mean it hink it was less uncomfortable than it sounds in the retelling
adiuvame: but it was certainly a little strange on my end
Avalon2004: and to backtrack, that's interesting that her nephew or whatever said one third... that's what becky and i estimated once, too, and lots of people say more, but i don't think it really is.
adiuvame: yeah she said he said it was between 1/3 and 1/2
adiuvame: i think 1/3 is a pretty safe bet
adiuvame: if you're talking about the queer population in general and not just specific groups
Avalon2004: yeah, i figured out that there were 3 lesbians in my 10-person customs group, and also 3 in becky's 10-person customs group, or maybe not 10 exactly but thereabouts, and i think maybe 4 or 5 in night owls, which was about 20 people, i think, at the time...
adiuvame: wow 3 in mine too!
Avalon2004: haha! clearly it's a trend.
adiuvame: i'm the only gay one in lblue though
adiuvame: no not true.. if julie comes back i mean
Avalon2004: hmm, yes.
adiuvame: and i feel like that ratio might also be correct for spt as well
adiuvame: at least currently
Avalon2004: i think groups are harder, because that's social, and not completely random. not that night owls are prone to being gay and lblues are prone to being straight, but it's still a social.... grouping of people.
Avalon2004: but it still mostly works out, even in social groups.
adiuvame: yeah
Avalon2004: maybe i'll talk about all of this on athena's web, it's fascinating!
adiuvame: hehe
adiuvame: its sort of funny when things like what happened today happen i sort of think to myself "you know... if i were really butch i would not have this problem.. other problems maybe... but not this one quite so much"
adiuvame: haha
Avalon2004: haha, yeah. that's why it's a pet peeve of mine, i think, because it's a problem i often have.
Avalon2004: probably if i were really butch, i'd be irritated when people assumed i was a lesbian.
adiuvame: haha that's true
adiuvame: i think it's the assumption either way that's aggravating
Avalon2004: yes, i think so.

There you have it. What are your thoughts, faithful readers?