In this space a few issues ago I wrote a short article about the first issue of The Varsity ever printed, and the noble sentiments expressed therein. Among those gooey, feel-good sentiments was the assertion that The Varsity was an early advocate for the admission of women to U of T. Having now read several more years’ worth of circa-1880s Varsitys, I am sad to say this is not the case.
“We are opposed, in the abstract, to any system of co-education in college training,” the editors wrote in their March 13, 1884 editorial. “The proximity and competition of the ‘softer sex’ is rarely a spur to intellectual activity…. Genuine college feeling…can grow up in freedom and perfection only among men alone, and could not be participated in or understood by women.”
This misogynist attitude, no doubt popular in 1884, is stomach-turning to most modern readers; yet these are our roots. I don’t like it, but I take comfort in the fact that a lot has changed. When running a correction in this newspaper, it’s standard to end with “The Varsity regrets the error.” In this case, The Varsity regrets its most recent error, but in a larger sense, we truly regret the egregious moral and intellectual errors of our predecessors, who aren’t around to regret it themselves.
