Katie's Blog

Warning: this is a sexy blog post.  The video portrays men dressed as women, dancing together.  The links may have some sexy content.  Read, watch, and click with care if you are not comfortable with that material.
 
Sex in the South
 
This was a very sexy weekend for Hendrix College.  Friday evening, journalist and author Suzi Parker came to talk about her book Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt.  Parker, who grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, described her hometown as a very repressed, Old South town.  "What you see in the South is never what you get," she said.  That duplicity inspired her search into the very private lives of Southerners.
 
During the talk, which was hosted by the Hendrix Feminist Club, Parker read from the book and took questions from the audience.  In one of the milder passages, she described a sex toy party (like a Tupperware party, but with … you know) that took place in rural Arkansas.  The women in attendance had told their husbands they were going to Bible study.
 
Parker traveled across the South – Texas to Florida, Tennessee to North Carolina – to gather the stories in her book.  She deems Alabama "the strangest, kinkiest state in the South."  Alas, she says Arkansas is comparatively mild.

We were also graced by the presence of a special visitor, Dale Miller (a.k.a. Skirt Man).  Miller works as a computer technician at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.  He also likes to wear women's clothing.  For more truly interesting facts about Miller, check out his website.  For example, he is an ordained minister.  He also "used to belong to a Southern Baptist Church, but they had a real problem with men in skirts."
 
Miss Hendrix
 
Saturday night it was time for Miss Hendrix, the finale of the Campus Kitty fundraising week.  Miss Hendrix is a traditional beauty pageant, with Hendrix students as contestants.  The participants answer questions, show off their curves in evening gowns, and perform a talent.  The only catch is that all the contestants are male.  The pageant is one of the most entertaining nights of the year, and no one thinks twice about spending $12 to see it.  (The money all goes to charity, too.)  Students stood in line for hours on Friday afternoon to get the best tickets.
 
The raunch-factor for the shows is often high.  The students create elaborate personas for their female selves, including innuendo-laden stage names.  My two favorites this year were Britney Spear-Me and Robot Girl v. 6.9.   Spear-Me's talent section included a medley of the best Britney Spears pop songs.  The highlight of her performance was when she ripped off her bouncy blond wig to reveal – gasp! – a shaved head.  The crowd was dying laughing.
 
Robot Girl's performance was equally amusing.  For example, during the Q&A section one of the emcees asked whether RG came pre-assembled.  RG's response was pre-recorded in a spot-on robot voice.  Throughout the pageant, RG maintained perfect robot posture and moved stiffly and jerkily.  Her talent portion also featured a choreographed dance to the song "Barbie Girl."
 
The following video will give a glimpse into the charmed world of the Miss Hendrix pageant.  The Campus Kitty theme this year was "I Dream of Kitty," so the dancers have Arabian-style costumes.  You can see the magic bottle in the background.  This clip is from when the Miss Hendrix contestants first make their appearance on stage.
 
Click here to see a YouTube video of Miss Hendrix.

After the competition finished, while the judges tabulated scores and picked a winner, the Campus Kitty chairperson came to announce the total amount of money that had been raised during the week.  It was more than $41,000! 

After the winners were announced -- Robot Girl garnered 2nd place, and a Miss Mandalay won 1st -- the crowd of students headed to the Hulen Ballroom on campus for the *free* afterparty.  After a week of shelling out a few dollars for each event we attended, it's nice to get back to being a college cheapskate.

The week and a half between this past Wednesday and next Saturday will be one of the busiest of my life.  Aside from being Campus Kitty week (and-a-half), it is also one of the three weeks this semester during which all of my most important papers are due.  Plus a huge test.  This happened in mid-February, too.  I should have learned.

My classes this semester are 20th Century East Asian-American Relations, Survey of Latin American Literature, Cultures of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, and Political Economy.  It's an amazing combination of classes, because what I'm learning in one class frequently enhances my work in another class.  Cultures of the Borderlands quite often relates to the Survey of Lat. Am. Lit. class.  It also relates heavily to Political Economy.  And to 20th Cent. East Asian-American Relations, which also relates to Political Economy.  You can see they're quite interconnected.

I make the most inter-class thought connections during these super-busy weeks, when I spend all my time reviewing all the materials for all of my classes.  It's an exhilerating and exhausting process.

On top of all that excitement, it's Campus Kitty week!  CK is our big fundraiser of the year, and we raise tens of thousands of dollars each year.  The premise is that each of the on-campus events that take place during CK week charges a small fee for entrance.  (The other 51 weeks of the year, Hendrix events are totally free.)  So I paid $3 to see the Vagina Monologues performed on Wendesday, and a measly $5 to see Of Montreal rock out on Friday night.  A host of other events will continue until the huge, capstone event on Saturday night: the Miss Hendrix Pageant.

For a mere $12, Hendrix students can see their fellow classmates take place in a traditional beauty queen pageant.  Contestants show off their moves during the talent portion, and then they show off their curves in the evening gown portion.  The trick?  The curves are all fake, because the contestants are all male.  It's a hit every year.

After Miss Hendrix is crowned, the campus regroups in the Hulen Ballroom for an afterparty.  We celebrate the end of CK week and the return of free fun.  For me, after such an arduous week, it will be more like a return to fun in general.  Here's to the craziest week of my life.

I love Hendrix.  I love Hendrix so much that I spend several hours each week giving campus walks to prospective students and their parents.  I also write this neat blog, to give you guys a sense of what life is like here at Hendrix.  But I'd never tell you that Hendrix is perfect.

I have my share of criticisms of the College, especially the rather ungraceful way the size of our student body has recently increased.  On-campus housing has become more of a commodity, so more upperclassmen (and even sophomores) have begun to live off campus. 

This spring, for example, students returning from studying abroad (myself included) were not-so-subtly encouraged not to move back on campus.  I found a spot in Couch Hall, but many students were left trying to find an apartment while living 4000 miles away from Conway.  Not ideal.

Other recent lightning rods for student debate (and complaint) include the ideas to start a football program at Hendrix and to end the traditional Shirttails dance performance.  From what I've heard, students generally oppose both.

The Student Senate has been effective in addressing many of students' complaints and making students' voices heard, but it's generally slow progress.  Today, President Cloyd made it easier for students to get a pipeline to the top.  He met informally with students for two hours this afternoon.  The entire campus was invited to his "Fireplace Chat" to air their concerns and to listen to his rationale for various policies and decisions.

It became much more than that, though -- a kind of brainstorming session.  Students shared ideas about how to improve the advising process and which academic programs need strengthening.  I felt like I was really part of the idea machine that runs Hendrix.  Helen Plotkin, the Associate VP for Communications and Marketing, sat nearby and jotted down our thoughts as they poured out.

At times it became hard for us to hear each other, because the Burrow -- our student center -- can be a boisterous and busy place.  A group of students joked loudly in the far corner while another played piano.  The six or so of us who stayed longest ended up with our chairs scooted into a very small circle, just for acoustic reasons.

President Cloyd announced that he hoped to host another chat before the end of the year, and Ms. Plotkin sensibly suggested the quieter, more restrained Murphy House as a more suitable location.  The president insisted that the Burrow, with its more open and accessible location, encouraged passersby to stop and have a listen.  I fully agree.

Whenever the next chat occurs, I encourage current students to take the time to attend.  I hope enough of us show up that sitting in a circle doesn't fix the acoustic problem, because the diameter is too wide.  I'm sure Dr. Cloyd would be happy to plug in a microphone.

Hendrix had its first snow of the season this past Tuesday, March 4th.  About an inch fell early that morning, but by the afternoon it had all melted away.  Now it's back, with a vengeance!  We're expecting six to eight inches of snow by tomorrow morning.

This unseasonably wintry weather comes us we get ready to leave for Spring Break.  Tomorrow afternoon, we will all be liberated for a week -- hopefully off to warmer climes.  Personally, I'm taking a road trip through California with my brother.  Highs of 60+ every day, baby.

This weather is bringing back great memories, though.  Last spring we got about an inch of snow in Conway, and the whole school went crazy!  Students made makeshift sleds and fought nearly interminable snowball battles.  Snow angels like the one I made were scattered across campus.  To warm us up, one of my RA's baked dozens of chocolate chip cookies and mixed up a huge pot of hot chocolate, which she shared with all of the residents of Couch Hall.

The rarity of snow makes it a special blessing for Hendrix students.  But precisely because Arkansas gets snow so infrequently, the snow-removal infrastructure is pretty weak.  The next day, even though only about an inch of snow had accumulated, most classes were canceled.  A prospective student from Colorado was visiting that day, and she just laughed at us.  (She wasn't too put off, though.  She's a freshman now.)

I feel sure students across campus are crossing their fingers right now, hoping against hope that classes will be canceled tomorrow.  It's midterms week, so for many students, missing class will mean an extra week of study time.  I, on the other hand, have finished my tests and am hoping the snow doesn't stick too well.  I have a flight to catch!  I'll be back to blogging in a week, when I return to Conway.