These emails all got disseminated over the Yale Law School list-serv, known as “The Wall” (so named because there once was an actual wall along the main corridor where members of the YLS community could post whatever they wanted to share with each other). These messages came to us with the senders’ names already redacted, so we can’t tell you who wrote what. We have tried to place the messages in rough chronological order, but because we didn’t have full time and date information for every message, we might have made some errors. Happy reading!
Date: 06/17/2015 10:42 AM
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http://gawker.com/fuck-forever-shirt-throws-yale-club-into-mannered-tur-1711931806
One member wrote in a letter to the club, “A horrifying example of this denouement, this sad decline in the atmosphere and spirit of the club, occurred on September 5 in the men’s locker room. A young man (a Yale law student) was wearing a tee shirt emblazoned in large letters with: ‘F – – k Forever.’ I was shocked and told him that it was offensive and inappropriate; that this was a club for ladies and gentlemen. He smirked. Why was he allowed through the front door? Why did those on duty at the desk at the locker room allow him to enter? Why was he allowed to walk around the club dressed as such? Is there no decency at the club anymore, no class? Will the management be held accountable (and members)?”
On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 11:57 AM, wrote:
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And this from the proud institution that went to court to defend its right to exclude minorities. In 1983.
When can we expect a return to some fucking old school decency and class?
Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S® 5, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 12:09 PM, wrote:
Bravo to whoever did this.
Also, from the article: “Where did this young ruffian attend school—Penn? Unspeakably boorish.”
I can’t…
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 5:55 PM
As much as I’d like to judge all of an organization’s actions solely through the lens of their actions in 1983, is this really that egregious? It’s just a dress code. If they wanted to keep the man out because of who he was, then we could be righteously upset.
“The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people.” Can we not extend that liberty to a bunch of old guys and gals that want to dress fancy.
(The Penn quote is Gawker being funny, not an alum.)
On Wednesday, June 17, 2015, wrote:
So while I wouldn’t usually agree with exclusionary tactics, I must say I have to cosign [] here. People have just become too common nowadays; I swear I’ve seen people with jeans and Cosby sweaters on at the opera! There is a time and place for everything…and if ppl at a Club of high caliber would like to instate a certain sense of decorum, then I raise my glass and say “hear, hear”. As long as you are not excluding ppl based on who they are intrinsically (e.g. Based on race) or transforming the ban into a punitive measure due to external circumstances (e.g. were we to find out this was the young man’s only shirt in the closet), I say bar who you’d like.
#keepinitclassy
[Note from tipster: This student often shows up to class with no top other than a sports bra. #keepinitclassy, indeed.]
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 7:28 PM
While I think that that sort of shirt is stupid and immature, I do think that when we’re talking about traditionally exclusionary institutions like the Yale Club, there’s reason to be skeptical about the motives behind dress codes, especially mandatory ones. What are the odds that the guy who wrote in to complain is a wealthy, WASPy legacy who attended Yale when women were barred and admissions were overtly discriminatory?
I like it when people dress well, but I’m very dubious about the motives of people like that who want mandatory dress codes. To me, it looks like someone’s offended that a mere peasant has dared to enter the manor house.
The whole point of mandatory dress codes is to be exclusionary, often based on socioeconomic status (and often at least implicitly, race or culture). That’s why they usually deserve a healthy dollop of skepticism.
It’s also why I’m skeptical of private clubs generally. It’s telling that the Yale Club has a well-stocked library that’s apparently accessible to members all the time even as NYPL branches are forced to close early due to budget shortages, leaving kids without a safe place with internet access to do their homework. It’s also telling that the Yale Club has plentiful guest rooms even as New York is in the midst of a catastrophic housing crisis.
Date: 06/17/2015
Your analysis is incisive, and your points well-taken as always, [], but I do also wonder if we need waste our protectiveness on a young man who seems to have been flouting tradition merely to flout it.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
[Ed. note: The defender of tradition has a BlackBerry. Of course.]
From: YLS F**ker
Date: Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: [TheWall] “Fuck Forever” Shirt Throws Yale Club Into Mannered Turmoil
To: The Wall
I was the young man in the locker room wearing the contentious shirt that afternoon. In lieu of defending my actions, what I’d like to point out is that my interloper, a refined looking gentleman in his mid to upper 60s, conveniently omits from his letter the fact that he himself eventually walked out of the locker room in a fit of indignation wearing form-fitting bike shorts with a colorful image of Calvin sledding down a hill with Hobbes emblazoned across both of his butt cheeks.
Needless to say I’m quite bewildered by this recent turn of events.
Date: Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 3:03 AM
Totally understand that this may not be a case where the rule is particularly odious, or the victim worthy of much defending. However, what bothered me was the sense that the complainant’s main argument was to hearken back to “good old days” where the club was “decent” and “classy”. It seemed hypocritical not to recognize that in those days the club was also deeply exclusionary, and held on to its openly discriminatory ways much longer than almost any other institutions around. If there’s a good reason for enforcing a dress code or code of conduct, in my opinion it should be something better than nostalgia for a time when everyone in the room shared the same cultural assumptions of what conduct and appearance is acceptable…
Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S® 5, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
“Fuck Forever” Shirt Throws Yale Club Into Mannered Turmoil [Gawker]
Sex Pistols “Fuck Forever” T-Shirt [Full Breach 77]
Earlier: Have Yale Law Students Gotten Too Big For Their Britches?