I Went to Harvard. You Shouldn’t. Part II
On the Notorious Final Clubs that Wouldn’t Have Me as a Member
[TW: this piece discusses sexual violence at Harvard, and I link to two first-person accounts of it. If you find this topic triggering, please take care while reading.]
Also, this is Part II of a series. Part I can be found here.
During my time at Harvard, I was denied access to two privileged spaces.
The rejection from one of these spaces, the infamous comedy magazine The Harvard Lampoon, came on four separate occasions, each one an increasingly painful blow to my sense of self-worth.
Looking back, they were some of the most formative moments of my life.
First, let me tell you about a rejection that was ultimately a relief.
Final clubs at Harvard were given that name because at one point in their long history — the oldest one, The Porcellian, was founded in 1791 — the main objective was to rise through lesser clubs on the way to membership in a “final” one, the few most prestigious organizations.
Now, undergraduate men are generally accepted to only one club, if any, during their undergraduate years. The clubs have almost always been all-male, save for some recent mostly failed experiments by…
