University of Virginia Library

Charles Bryan

Honorable Seduction

The subject of co-education at
the University has been so worked
over by about everyone that I
thought anything worth saying had
already been said. Then this all
but incredible letter, whose writer
wishes to remain anonymous, came
across my desk.

"Dear Sir,

"Mumbling along the colonnades-Dissatisfaction
amongst the
purple shadows-knowing coed invasion
wrong. Not knowing why
wrong.

"Picture it: seated next to you
in class, goddess in long blonde
hair-sensual hips, oozing sexuality-long
legs extending
through microskirt, sending waves
of excitement.

"A quiz. Lo and behold the
blonde goddess is cheating. What
to do? You speak: 'Pardon me,
miss, but I couldn't help noticing
you cheating your head off a few
minutes ago. Me and my friend
Herman both saw you, and you
have 24 hours, etc. etc.'

"See duty. Do it.

"Is she rattled? Oh no. 'Sir
(quoth she) if you would only
overlook this little incident I am
sure I can provide a gift which
will more than compensate.'

" 'How about my friend Herman,
what seen it too?' 'Oh,
I am sure I can accommodate
both of you.'

"Shades of James Bond! What
to do? Accept the gift and then
turn her in? Double cross? Shades
of Chester Titus!

"Gentlemen, the issue is clear."

Well, despite the seductive appeal
of this letter's argument, it's
probably safe to dismiss it as a
joke. I still favor coeducation.
"All the way with the WSA,"
and all that.

But they can carry this coeducation
bit too far, too fast-in fact,
they already have. It was all right
to let women on the Honor Committee
and the Student Council
and even to double the female/
male ratio, as happened this year.

But now even the last bastion
of male supremacy. The Cavalier
Daily itself, has been assaulted,
stormed and captured.

As careful by-line watchers have
noticed, there's now a coed on
the staff. Miss Flora Johnson, a
first-year graduate student, is presently
listed as a "trainee," but
this forebodes young ladies in
higher positions later-the seeds
have been planted.

Miss Johnson is not a bad
writer; in fact, she's better than
most of the males on the staff.
(Mr. Bryan's opinion is hardly
that of most of the staff of The
Cavalier Daily. We think we're
pretty good-ed) Though there
is a trace of floweriness in her
style, this is doubtless a vestige
of her experience as a literary
magazine editor, and it will soon
disappear.

But to complicate matters, Flora
is rather a pretty young lady. The
effect on our staff, all of whom
work too hard as a rule to have
time for honeys, is easily imaginable.
A couple of our city editors
are most readily , though
I suspect the ill effects extend
somewhat farther up the hierarchy
as well.

Perhaps it's inevitable. Any year
now, I expect to see our name
plate change from The Cavalier
Daily to The Fair Damsel Daily,
or, considering the feminine inability
to put out anything on time,
the Virgin Weekly.

GIVE THE UNITED WAY