N.Y. Scene April 2010: All Ivy/Seven Sisters Women's Mixer, Proposition, "Go Magazine" Readers’ Choice Night

N.Y. scene is a monthly column that chronicles lesbian nightlife and events of interest in New York. Grace Chu has come out of lesbian scene retirement to navigate the vast and ever-evolving New York City scene, so you don’t have to.

This month in The New York Scene, we learn that New York City lesbians will refuse to stop partying even in the face of denim-hating doormen, uncontrollable Icelandic volcanoes, and NYPD stings.

All Ivy / Seven Sisters Women's Mixer at the Yale Club of New York, April 16, 2010

At first I hesitated to write about this event. There appears to be an unspoken rule — amongst those in the hyper self-aware New York City media crowd at least — never to speak about Ivy-related events or people except from a snarky-bordering-on-nasty standpoint, and this rule appears to apply doubly for anything having to do with Yale. AfterEllen, however, is generally a civilized forum, except (oddly) when it comes to Katy Perry or Ilene Chaiken, and neither of them went to Yale. Furthermore, Jennifer Beals and Jodie Foster did go to Yale, so, taking everything into account, we really can’t get behind all the Yale bashing.

But still, I paused for a moment and asked myself the following question, “Should I preserve the last shred of my anti-elitist online persona, or should I say ‘screw it’ and go for the open bar and the three foot high liquid chocolate fountain that was advertised?”

As you can see, I care more about my stomach than my reputation.

Besides, what is gayer than a lesbian mixer whose invitee list includes all lesbian and bisexual alumnae of the Seven Sisters colleges? Answer: Absolutely nothing.

There was a snag when I tried to enter the Yale club, however. The doorman would not allow me to use the front stairwell, because I was wearing jeans. Now, these weren't mom jeans. These jeans were fly, dammit! Isn't the Yale Club aware of the first dot com boom and Web 2.0? Also, since this was a New York City lesbian event, a good number of the attendees were also wearing jeans, but it didn't matter how fly our jeans were. A bunch of us were directed to the side elevator to ensure that the silver-haired segment of Yale Club members would not suffer from short circuiting pacemakers as a result of being exposed to the ghastly sight of denim.

As soon as I reached the third floor, where the reception was being held, I used the opportunity to incite some rivalry between the Ivies and the Seven Sisters, because I am a lesbian, and lesbians like causing drama.

I asked one of the guests, author and Ivy grad Trinity Tam, what differentiates Ivy lesbians from Seven Sisters lesbians, and she replied, "Ivy lesbians don't know that they are lesbians, even though they are, but Seven Sisters lesbians believe that they are lesbians, even though they are not." She continued, "Seven Sisters lesbians are lesbians until graduation, but Ivy lesbians are lesbians after graduation."

Another Ivy grad and admitted "lesbian after graduation," filmmaker Casper Wong, agreed. "I think that's a pretty accurate statement," she said.

Thereafter, I circled the room and attempted to find a Seven Sisters grad for a rebuttal but was unsuccessful. There were simply none to be found. It appears that Trinity's theory may be correct.

Any Seven Sisters grads out there wish to rebut Trinity's statement? If there are no AfterEllen.com readers who graduated from a Seven Sisters college or who are currently enrolled in a Seven Sisters college I will eat my shoe. (P.S. Sarah Warn and Malinda Lo, you also went to an Ivy, so you can't participate.)