Pumps, Lipstick & Swagger: Gender & Sexuality at Morehouse

Pumps, Lipstick & Swagger: Gender & Sexuality at Morehouse
by Stephane Dunn | TheLoop21

I realized I’d walked into an unusual hot, personal debate soon as I approached my 1:00 p.m. afternoon class. I hardly cleared the door before my excited students begin practically yelling at me indignantly, "Have you seen it? You see how they representin’ us?" “It” was a new story in a former iconic outlet of hip-hop journalism, Vibe magazine.

Can a man of Morehouse be gay? Absolutely. But can he be a woman? Meet the plastics.

That’s one of the leading lines in the latest, almost infamous expose on Morehouse College’s gay and cross dressing “subgroups.” It immediately made my blood pressure rise. I am a woman, who works and walks around campus whose professor status and sometimes deceptive appearance grant me a degree of invisibility. Words like “bitch” are not rare in the passing conversations of men in reference to some of the Daisy Duke wearing women they see or in general reference to the Spelman women across the way.

Just yesterday, I overheard two students having a familiar conversation about the wayward, materialistic, cunning ways of these “hoes” out here. Other times, I’ve seen young men shoot a killing look at some high heel wearing, sashaying fellow diva student or even heard them mutter "faggot"—loudly, as if the very sight was a personal affront.

So I immediately thought that the opening tagline [of the Vibe article] absolutely personifies what’s wrong with not only this sensationalist story, but with too many of the recent public discussions regarding issues of sexuality within African American communities.

Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com