Cross-dress Day
Cross-dress Day, known as Drag Day or Gender Bender Day, depending on site (and, in fact, not known as "Cross-dress Day" at any site), is a set day that occurs once per session on which it is traditional for students (and sometimes RAs) to cross-dress. It occurs on different days at different sites, and is often associated with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Normally, students exchange clothes with a friend of the opposite gender, although some bring their own clothing.
Recently, some sites have been trying to put an end to Cross-dress Day, usually resulting in protests.
Contents
Lancaster
At Lancaster, Cross-dress Day is always on Second Saturday. The term "Drag Day" (or any other term) is rare at Lancaster; Second Saturday is prevalent. Second Saturday is also Rocky Horror Picture Show Night, when nomores act out "The Time Warp" and "Sweet Transvestite."
Pictures
LAN.05.1: Drew-Brian as Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Eric
Crossdressers at LAN.06.2 (l-r: Lowell, Kib, Colin, Vin)
Carlisle
At Carlisle, Cross-dress Day is referred to as Drag Day, and occurs on Second Tuesday.
Generally, Drag Day is the most-participated in day of all dress-up or theme days. Often, the night before, during Meet Market, a guy and a girl exchange clothing. The next day, they put on the clothing of the opposite sex and strut their stuff while some of the ballerinas accidentally flirt with the convincingly cross-dressed girls. They have also been known to secretly take pictures.
Origins of Drag Day
The origins of Drag Day actually have nothing to do with Sound of America; in fact, there were several years where Drag Day and SoA overlapped. In 97.2, Pierre(?), for one reason or another, dressed up as a girl. The administration promptly cracked down, forcing him to change, on the grounds that they had heard angry complaints from parents via the Baltimore office about cross-dressing at CTY. Although it was not known at the time, this was actually an excuse fabricated by the Dean of Residential Life.
After this incident, a mass protest was held by the students (protesting during a dance is actually now against the rules) (see Hall of Fame:CAR). In subsequent years, the theme spread, and Drag Day was born. During the few years when their time on campus overlapped, the Washington Redskins found Drag Day particularly amusing.
Saratoga Springs (Skidmore)
At Skidmore, Cross-dress day is referred to as Drag Day/Gender Bender Day, and occurs on Second Wednesday.
Los Angeles (LMU)
Cross-dress day is called Drag Day or Drag Wednesday at LMU. It occurs on the second Wednesday. Boys often swap clothes with girls during Social Time the night before. As other summer camps are usually going on at the time, students at the site have the pleasure of telling the Kobe kids or other sports camps the various reasons why they've decided to cross dress.
Baltimore
During 07.1, Drag day was virtually nonexistent. Only five or six kids participated (one of them on the wrong day).
Baltimore had its very first Drag Day during 08.1. It was impromptu, seeing that JHU never had a cross dressing day before and that the administration was very against it at first. But in the end, Drag Day came through and many students participated in this spectacular event.
JHU 08.1: Elise, Nicole, Alice, and Olivia
JHU 08.1: Derek, Eugene, Byron, Kevin, and Brian
Easton
At Easton, Cross-dress day is on the last Wednesday.
Notable Cross-Dress days 08.2 On this cross-dress day, legendary Easton CAAmpers Brian Herrera, Haydn Dufrene, and Octavio Roscioli were reprimanded for their dress. Haydn Dufrene, and Octavio Roscioli were forced to change into normal male's attire because they were "disrespecting Lafayette property". Apparently, sexually pleasing a Lafayette golfcart (while nevermore girls Nadya Spice and Steph Dunn take advantage of the photo-op) is inappropriate, and results in the removal of the privilege to dress like the opposite gender. Brian Herrera, however, was punished for being just too sexy. Apparently, his outfit was too revealing. He was forced to change just like Haydn and Octavio. Brian, in fact, did not comply. He instead wore his cross-dress day clothes underneath men's clothing and took off the cover-up during Rob Lovering's most amazing Bioethics class. BIOETHICS ''B.A.M.Fs''
Loudonville (Siena)
At Siena, Cross-Dress day is seperated into two distinct events; Fairy Princess Day and Macho Man Day. The first occurs on second Tuesday, and is when guys cross dress, while the second is on second Wendsday, for girls.
For 08.1, Siena felt the need to hold its orientation at the beginning of July, resulting in large groups of über-Christian college freshmen being present for Fairy Princess Day. Needless to say, the cross-dressing teenagers attracted significant notice, mostly in the form of mostly blank, slightly horrified stares.