Dragfest is a dance held once a year where everyone comes dressed in drag. It is a Whitman tradition, like Ren Fair or the Beer Mile, and it champions our social liberalism as a campus. Thus, needless to say, it is fairly popular event on campus.

Yet, dressing in drag certainly does not mean boys must dress in skirts and high heels and girls have to wear boxers and big shoes. No.

Get one thing straight: dressing in drag does NOT require dressing like you have a vagina if you really have a penis or vice versa. It is a personal definition. Maybe you are a girl who usually likes to wear soccer jerseys and jeans. Dressing in drag could mean wearing a sundress and sparkles. Maybe you are a guy who never takes off his skinny Sevens and pink Lacoste polos. Dressing in drag could mean wearing ice and oversized sweatpants. Or maybe not. Maybe it means wearing booty shorts. Or a muumuu.

Dressing in drag means wearing clothes and a personality that does not socially match the body you were born into: testicles, breasts, whatever: or the gender role that is originally assigned to you at birth: male, female, whatever. It is a means to challenge the contained, rigid box that society builds around each of us. It is a way to fight that box, to question the rules that society places on you and to loosen the reigns of the societal definition of what it means to be “YOU.”

But of course, we are Whitman students, so we must protest even a good thing. Some accuse Dragfest of being just a cruel spoof, a night to get drunk and mock an uncommon lifestyle. Some call it a “celebration of diversity” only in name, when in reality it is just cold-hearted slander. Some say that it only re-enforces stereotypical gender roles when, in order to attend, guys must wear heavy makeup and low-cut shirts and girls must sag their pants and become the grinders instead of the grindees for a night.

Give me a break. We are extremely lucky that we attend a school where a drag dance is an annual, campus-wide event that is well-attended every year. At Whitman, you are considered pretty uptight if you can’t put on a bra or draw on a moustache and get your groove on: and I will venture to say that this, as a campus-wide attitude, is pretty unique.

Consider the alternative of banning Dragfest altogether for its extreme political incorrectness. Let’s attend a campus where we do not push any boundaries, where we remain scrunched tightly inside our boxes so as to not offend anyone. Let’s make Whitman a school where we keep subjects like dressing in drag completely taboo.

What happens then when these Whitman students graduate and go into the real world where people DO dress in drag and where a man and a transgendered person hold hands and kiss on the subway? These new Whitman alums are probably more likely to act uncomfortable and uncertain than the old Whitties who, after four years, are quite comfortable with the concept of drag. Heck, they would say, we all did it. It’s not that weird.

Dragfest is simply an opportunity to challenge a social institution. For one night, it is socially okay to step outside your comfort zone and experience what it feels like to be someone else. College is a time to learn, not only inside, but outside the classroom. Dragfest is another occasion to do just that.

Last year, one of my best friends (clad in a sparkly black cocktail dress) said, “How do you wear this? It’s FREEZING!” And another in stilettos; “These are NOT comfortable.” And another; “Can I get some more orange eye shadow?”

If there were no Dragfest, how would these boys ever know what it means to get “dressed up” as a girl? How could they ever even BEGIN to understand the experience of that drag queen on the subway unless they become her? And without understanding, how can we ever begin to achieve real tolerance?

If nothing else, it is the chance to step into the shoes of the opposite sex, to see the world through the eyes of another identity. It is an occasion to increase awareness for other people and the way they live.
If Whitman is truly devoted to diversity, Dragfest needs to stay.