Female Athlete

The student at Franklin and Marshall College discusses gender roles and power hierarchies in party culture. They talk about their involvement on campus, including being part of a team, a sorority, and the table tennis club. They describe the typical weekend activities, such as playing games, attending mixers, and going to bars. The student also mentions the role of social chairs in planning events and the differences between mixers with sports teams and sororities. They reflect on their experiences as a woman in male-dominated spaces and the importance of feeling safe at parties. The student shares that their party scene at FNM is unique, as all parties are registered with the school. They express a desire for more meaningful connections and friendships to be formed at parties. Hello, my name is Rachel Rubens. I'm here interviewing a student at Franklin and Marshall College. It is November 14th, 2023. We are recording in Shattuck-Sackinsville Library. We will be discussing gender roles and the hierarchies of power in FNM party culture. So to start, could you please introduce yourself and your involvement on campus? Sure. I am part of a team on campus. I'm also a sorority. I'm part of the table tennis club. I feel like I do other things that I can't remember right now, but that's what I got. If you feel comfortable, could you share your gender identity? Yes. I identify as female. She, her pronouns. Now walk me through a typical weekend at Franklin and Marshall for you. So a typical weekend, it kind of depends on whether I'm in-season or out-season. In-season, we usually play games Fridays and Saturdays. So from like kind of a social perspective, I guess, more would be like a Saturday night thing. So we usually get together as a team, do a kind of pre-game situation, and then go to like a mixer of some sort and then go home or go somewhere else. Or maybe if you're 21, go to a bar downtown, something like that. Could you walk me through what a pre-game is typically like? Yes. Pre-game is like, they're usually pretty chill. It's like kind of a hangout with the team. We play games, like silly games that relate to one of our cheers that we do actually on the court too, which is funny. Our coaches know it's a drinking game, but we say it anyway. And then like play music, dance, whatever, all those kind of things. And when you have mixers, who is that typically with? It's usually sports teams or fraternities. And do you guys ever host mixers? We do not. No, the male sports or like I guess like male groups are usually the hosts. Has the team ever had their own loft or space to do parties? No. Like people live in lofts, but we don't have like a volleyball loft or anything like that. Like it's just a place that people live, but it's not somewhere that we would like to host anything. And there's no male volleyball team, right? No. So who plans the mixers for the volleyball team? We have a social chair, so that person reaches out or gets reached out to to plan things for the weekend. And that duty is usually like passed down throughout. Just like whoever's current social chair would be like, oh, I think you would be good at this. Are you interested? And then someone else takes it over the next year. Okay. And you said you're also in a sorority. Does that function about the same way? Yes, I would say so. Social chair, it's like kind of the same structure. It's like a little bit more structured because we have to deal with like national kind of requirements of safety and things like that, which obviously is always important. But like when it's a national organization, there's like more steps, I think, to go through, especially in the last few years. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but so it's just like a little bit more structured. But it's the same general idea. And what is, out of a mixer with another team, how is that party structured? So a small team, so there's usually us and some other women's group, whether it's a sorority or a team or something else. Usually you go into a men's loft and they are like playing music and things like that. And maybe there's like games or something. And then usually people eventually stop playing games and then it's just like dancing and chatting and those kind of things. And is it about the same for being in a sorority as well? Yeah, I would say it's the same. Are there any distinct differences you notice when you're with your sorority versus with your team? I think with my team, we spend a lot of time together, like all together. So I think all of us are closer as a group than the whole sorority is as a group. And so obviously you're friendly with everyone in your sorority, but you're not going to be best friends with all of them. And so I feel like sorority stuff kind of more easily turns into smaller groups. Whereas of course we all kind of like peel off and do things with like people, but it's not always the same groups, it's not always the same people. And a lot of it is like all of us together too. And are there any notable party experiences you've had in which you really noticed your gender as a woman? Yeah, actually. I think, well, thinking about your project has kind of made me reflect on this a little bit. And I think it's interesting too that you're always walking into like a male space. There's been experiences with certain teams where like you walk in and all the men are just like lined up around the wall. They're not like involved, they're just kind of observing what's happening, which I think is very odd. Especially if it's people you know, which sometimes it's not, which is maybe is also very strange. But especially if it's people you know, you're like, why don't you come talk to people? Like, I don't know, it's just a weird environment. Yeah, and like it's just funny because the term is like mixer, right? But a lot of times you're not actually mixing. You're just like talking to your friends and they're talking to their friends and everyone's like in one shared space, which I think is interesting. Are there any different teams that you feel more comfortable going to than others? I would say yes, but not because of any like particular reason other than just like there's teams that I know better than others or like people that I'm closer with on certain teams rather than other teams or like fraternities and stuff. And do you in general feel safe when you go out to parties? Yes. Is there anything that makes you feel unsafe at parties? I think if you ever get like left behind or you end up alone, like that's maybe not necessarily like unsafe, but kind of when you would, I guess, feel like unsafe or at least like kind of lost and like lonely, which I think like women, especially on this campus, I think do a good job of like going in groups, like not leaving people behind and like being like texting when you get home and all those kind of things. Like I've had very good experiences with that, which I think has helped me feel safe on campus, but I know that other people have not like had the luck of that kind of experience. So I think, yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with like who you're with and not being alone and things like that, especially like you can be alone if you're with like men that you know, but I feel like it's people you don't know. Also depends on like how drunk you are and those kind of things. Like are you aware of what's happening? Like all those kind of things. Can you, I don't know, like respond properly to the situation too. Yeah. And when, are there certain things that hold you back from going to some parties and not others? That's a good question. I think sometimes you're less inclined to go if it's people you don't know or if you've heard from other people who have maybe like mixed with them and been like, oh, they play bad music or like I had a weird experience doing this. Like those kind of things stick with you and you're like, oh, I remember my friend like did not enjoy being here, blah, blah, blah. Or if you're like I have a bunch of homework, like I, I guess that's not about who you're with, but you might be more likely to use it as an excuse if it's a group that you don't necessarily want to, yeah. And when you talk to your friends who are at other universities, are there any big differences between your experience and their experience? Yeah, I think FNM is actually very unique kind of in the way that we do social life, particularly in the fact that everything is registered. So like the school knows what parties are going on, what is happening, which is very different, I think, than what happens at a lot of schools. Like I don't think a lot of things have to be registered and people just kind of do whatever they want to a certain extent. I think it's similar, like friends who are on sports teams, I think they go out with their teams a lot. Sororities, same thing. Like my other friends who are in sororities end up with their sororities. But I don't know. I think the whole like you go to the pregame and then you go to the mixer and then you go to another mixer or you go downtown or you go home or something, it's like a very structured night plan that replicates itself over and over and like doesn't have a lot of variety, I don't think. And I feel like that's not exactly the way that happens at other places. I don't know if you agree, but yeah. And so if there is one thing you could change about how our party scene is here at FNM, what would it be? I think this is kind of like an idealistic turn on things, but I think it would be nice if you actually got to know people at parties. Like I remember when I was a freshman, well freshman year, it doesn't really count, because COVID changed everything. Like there was not really a social scene at all. So I guess I'll go sophomore year. Like I still didn't know anyone because, again, pandemic, like everyone had been separated. We all lived in singles. We weren't home or we were all home second semester. So we didn't have a chance to really meet people. And so coming sophomore year, I was like, oh, social scene, like I'll get to meet all these people. But you don't really meet anyone. You talk to people that you know and you might see people that you don't know and be like, hey, blah, blah, blah. But then if you see them like a week later, you're never going to, like it doesn't make you friends. It doesn't make you like someone they're going to say hi to, really, unless it turns into more. Like I feel like you see people that you know and you're like excited to see people that you know out. If you see people you don't know, that doesn't come back to real life. Like if I see classmates out, I'll be like, oh my gosh, hey. But if I see someone out and then I see them like in the library, I'm not going to be like, hello. Like we're friends now. Like I don't know. It's just not a way to actually meet people. And I feel like that is what I expected. But that's not the way it is. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today. Of course. I really appreciate it.