Above: Drag actors are an annual feature of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year and Man of the Year awards. Anne Hathaway accepted the 2010 Woman of the Year award, surrounded by admirers. Photo by Tom Stohlman.
Rule (Breaking)
Artifacts like hair curlers and belt buckles discovered in the Yard prove that colonial students broke the strict campus dress codes. But one student’s break with the dress code was so taboo that the college altered the college laws as a result. In 1712, George Hussey dressed himself in women’s clothing. The act was so daring that 20 years later Harvard revised its laws and stated: “And If any shall Presume to put on or wear Indecent Apparell, he shall be punished According to the Nature and degree of the Offence ... but If he wears womens Apparell, he shall be liable to publick admonition, degradation, and Expulsion.” New England Puritan principles were averse to any act that diverged from strict social expectations.
Read more about George Hussey.
