Yes, I went to Vassar. No, I can’t admit to having engaged in any pornographic filming or ventures while a student there (although the opportunity was surely present). While reviewing some of the referrers to my site yesterday, I came across a Google search that suggests otherwise: vassar porn.
Vassar was a wild place and I have fond memories of my experience there. We had Founder’s Day, parties in the woods, Serenading, the Draft Shaft (my yearbook photo, incidentally), Busch, more Busch, and even a neon sign, which I just gave away last weekend. The one campus event (now banned since the year after I left Vassar, 2000, things got way too out of hand) that probably came closest to epitomizing the phrase “Vassar porn” was the Homo-Hop, the biggest event of the year (along with Founder’s Day). Jess Baron sums it up best in her 1994 piece from The Miscellany News:
“Techno music pounded in the Villard Room where dominatrices and elegant drag queens gyrated in the smoky light. Several New York City runway dancers strutted their stuff and played with large leather bullwhips on risers around the room. Scenes from music videos and ’70s movies flashed on the ceiling. The dance floor became a sea of interconnected body parts. Genders and sexual orientations were virtually indistinguishable among the sweaty pulsating masses. Arousal was in the air — whether stimulated by the multitude of liberated libidos or chemically induced with doses of ecstasy. It was no secret that many of Vassar’s pleasure seekers had turned to artificial joy of any sort they could get their hands on from alcohol to hallucinogens.”
Ahh, the memories. I only wish that at the time, I had been as obsessed with taking photos and writing in a journal as I am now.
Other Vassar alums or current students: If you have photos from any of the events I’ve mentioned here (or others) that you’d be willing to share, please let me know.
