Word: closet
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fault, I think bitterly as I board the plane to head home for a weekend. "Hi, Bonnie," my mother's singsong voice greets me at the airport. Inescapably, I smile back and hug her, feeling guilty for my transgressions. And somehow, despite my rigorous regimen at school, my closet Obsessive Hygienist still runs free at home...
...Harvard especially, we know the value of the ivy closet. Many of us are conservative politically. Many of us believe that getting ahead is most important. A Harvard student may choose not to write a term paper with a queer theme to accommodate a professor's homophobia. A Harvard student may choose tactfully omit a pronoun to avoid revealing the gender of a lover. A Harvard queer knows when and how to pass as straight--we know what to say, how to smile and how to dress. We can slip in and out from subculture to mainstream and back again...
...have resorted to the closet. I sacrificed my radical politics for ambition. In a scholarship interview last year, the interviewer asked if I had a boyfriend, and I said, "Yes." I lied. I feared losing the interviewer's support. As lesbians and gay men, we have internalized the homophobia of this society. Had my interviewer been Schaefer or Garoon, I might not have gotten the scholarship. And I didn't want to risk it. That $3,000 was more important to me. Perhaps it was an issue of class. Since I am a student financing her own education, the money...
...eager to achieve mainstream success. Such an attitude is widespread here--and especially disturbing among queers. To be frank, I believe that Harvard queers--like myself--lose sight of the lesbian and gay movement when thinking about personal success. But I do not have the luxury of the closet anymore. I can no longer write a resume that does not shout out lesbian. I am marked for life...
Only one year ago, I slipped quietly into the closet at the prospect of $3,000. That makes me wonder what other Harvard queers are doing for money and success. I will be graduating in June, and like many seniors, I am overwhelmed by the options available to me. One thing I have learned from my Harvard experiences is that I am not willing to be closeted in the workplace. The closet may be beneficial in the shortrun, but it is lonely, musty and dank. I have no other option for myself than...