A panty raid is a prank in which male students steal the panties (undergarments) of female students by intruding into their quarters. The term dates to February, 1949.
History
It was the first college craze after World War II, following the 1930s crazes of goldfish swallowing or seeing how many could fit in a phone booth.[1]
The first documented incident occurred on February 25, 1949, at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Around 250 men entered the women's building (Carlsson Hall, since remodeled for classroom space) through heating tunnels beneath the school. Once inside, they unlocked the door for the remaining raiders to enter. Although a few panties were taken, the goal was to cause commotion. Police arrived. Although no pranksters were charged, news traveled, making the headlines of the Chicago Tribune, Stars and Stripes, Time magazine, and the New York Times.[2][3]
The next incident was on March 21, 1952, when University of Michigan students raided a dormitory. This led to raids across the nation.[4] Penn State's first raid involved 2,000 males marching on the women's dorms on April 8, 1952, cheered on by the women, who opened doors and windows and tossed out lingerie.[5] By the end of 1952 spring term the "epidemic" had spread to 52 campuses.
At a number of colleges, panty raids functioned as a humorous, ad hoc protest against curfews and entry restrictions that barred male visitors from women's dormitories. This was particularly the case at colleges that had recently started admitting women in large numbers for the first time after World War II, where the role of female students on campus had not yet been worked out. At some colleges the large, leaderless crowds which gathered around panty raids were co-opted by student politicians into protest and activism against dorm curfews and parietals. These stirrings of student protest against restrictive campus rules fed the sudden emergence in the late 1950s of liberal activist parties in student government, such as SLATE at Berkeley.
Generally, the girls welcomed the raiders and in some cases raided men's colleges such as Georgetown University. At the University of Washington, though, raiders broke windows, and coeds at Christian College and Stephens College fought raiders from the University of Missouri.
Raiding continued, such as the raid by Princeton University men on Westminster Choir College in spring 1953.[6] The University of Nebraska was credited with the first panty raid of 1955, when hundreds raided the women's dorms, resulting in injuries and seven suspensions .[7] The University of California, Berkeley had a 3,000 man panty raid in May 1956, which resulted in $10,000 damage.[8] At the University of Michigan panty raids were associated with fall football pep rallies in addition to being a spring ritual in the 1950s and early 1960s.[9][10] The spring ritual continued in the 1960s. Three students were expelled from the University of Mississippi for panty raids in 1961.[11]
By the 1970s, mixed dorms, less inhibited attitudes to sex on campus led to fading of panty raids .[citation needed] In 1969, the Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, decried permissive attitudes to protesters on the Berkeley campus during the People's Park riots, saying "How much farther do we have to go to realize this is not just another panty raid?"[12]
References
- ^ "Epidemic.". Time (magazine). June 2, 1952. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857203,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. "The newest and noisiest college craze — the pantie raid — reached the epidemic stage. Night after night from coast to coast last week college boys leaped and howled like Comanches under the windows of squealing coeds; by week's end, despite arrests, expulsions, editorial blasts, and the best efforts of police riot squads — a few of whom even used tear gas — panty raiders had made night raids at 52 different colleges and universities."
- ^ "Americana". Time magazine. March 7, 1949. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853628,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. "Apparently stimulated by the approach of spring, 250 male students of Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., raided a women's dormitory, tipped over beds and pushed screeching coeds into cold showers. The girls seemed delighted. 'It was more fun than anything else,' said Senior Lois Taylor. 'In fact, we had an inkling they were coming.'"
- ^ "Students Don Masks; Raid Co-Eds' Dorm". Chicago Tribune. February 26, 1949. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/488721592.html?dids=488721592:488721592&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&date=Feb+26,+1949&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Students+Don+Masks;+Raid+Co-Eds'+Dorm&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- ^ Winling, LaDale. Student Housing, City Politics, and the University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ [1] Bezilla, Michael, "Penn State: an illustrated history." Pennsylvania State University Press(1986) ISBN 0271003928 ISBN 978-0271003924 (retrieved August 3, 2007)
- ^ "The Rites of Spring.". Time (magazine). May 11, 1953. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935349,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. ""We want girls!" some of the boys yowled, "we want sex!" "We want panties!" screamed the rest. Not quite in the spirit of things, the girls threw shower curtains and pillows from the windows."
- ^ "Report Card.". Time (magazine). April 25, 1955. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861374,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. "At the University of Nebraska, hundreds of spring-feverish men students poured out of their rooms one day last week, rushed into a coed dormitory and sorority houses. There they snatched up as many flimsy garments as they could, paraded about the campus in this year's first manifestation of that modern collegiate custom, the panty raid. Net result: seven students suspended."
- ^ Sann, Paul, "Fads, Follies, and Delusions of the American People." Crown Publishers, 1967. page 294.
- ^ [2] "This Week in Daily History." Michigan Daily 11/6/02. Described efforts by officials to prevent panty raid following pep rally of November 8, 1956. (retrieved August 3, 2007)
- ^ [3] "On campus." Michigan Daily Oct. 13, 2005. Describes panty raid of Oct. 13, 1961, following football rally. (retrieved August 3, 2007)
- ^ "Life on the Campus.". Time (magazine). November 9, 1962. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829308,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. "But last week life at Ole Miss began turning really rough again. The university's white students had cause to think they could get away with violence. After all, eight students arrested during the bloody September riots were merely placed on campus probation (last year three students were expelled from Ole Miss for participating in a panty raid). University officials were mild and mellifluous in their rare admonitions against more student violence."
- ^ Don Mitchell (2003). "From Free Speech to People's Park". The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. Guilford Press.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
