They all posed publicly in drag unafraid to flaunt it. They are Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, Presidents Franklyn D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Of course, don’t forget the countless number of actors and entertainers through out the years like Robin Williams and Jack Lemmon with Toni Curtis who displayed their skills in heals in the movie “Some Like it Hot.”

I am concerned with the bullies lately. Growing up there were always bullies in every class in every year. Yes, if you were lucky you were able to avoid them but as with any predator they do manage to get some vulnerable creature within their grasp. So ,do you fight back and get beaten? Or do you just commit suicide from the embarrassment of being so exposed? Then there are those who flaunt their secrets and have fun with it.

We all thought of how different our lives would be if we were the opposite gender or sex from what we were born. And until recently it was a secret. Now we see more and more people being able to be what they feel inside more comfortably in public. Yes, men who are effeminate, woman that are butch some just like to dress up like their other gender. Well, the guys from Harvard have been doing it since 1848. Really.

Each year there are boys from Harvard that put on the “Hasty Pudding Show.” It is a tradition at the school and has been one for 164 Annual years where all the actors are men and students and are students at the school while maintaining majors in other subjects like economics, philosophy and neuro-biology. There is a language student in this years show who speaks 7 languages fluently.

Even actor Fred Gwynn best known for his TV portrayal of Herman Munster, the ugly Frankenstein has gone drag at Harvard making a pretty ugly woman. It really doesn’t matter what you look like if you are having fun. The Show even made actor Robin Williams the Man of the Year in 1989. Every year the show honors a man and a woman.

The cast and crew stage more than 40 performances on a box office generated budget of close to a quarter Million dollars. There are 2 producers this year that happen to be women who say that some of the guys do a better job at being a woman than they can do. Ok, I disagree with that one but who knows? I guess by the end of the show’s run the guys can run in heels better than most women.

A Harvard degree can cost more than $50,000 a year. The hardest part must be the son telling Mom and Dad that they are spending their time at school doing a drag queen show. Well, the son can inform them that the show is as deep in tradition as the school. It is the oldest collegian theater group in the country. Founded as a social club in 1792 The group got its name from a dish served at meetings made up of a dry oatmeal and molasses.

At the time, the school was all male so someone had to play the female roles. Now every year the show honors a man and a woman. Many stars go to Cambridge to be celebrated, more like being roasted. This year’s woman of the year was Claire Danes . She received the well desired “Pudding Pot” as her award. She is sure that her award will get her practically nothing in status towards her career.

The people at Harvard take themselves very seriously. The show is an opportunity to seriously not take life too seriously. Sing , dance and man put on a bra and shake your goods if you think that will be fun. One guy said that he did some acting and singing in high school but said he couldn’t participate in the show because obviously he was a girl.

It may not be the reason why they are going to Harvard but it is fun and non judgmental. It is a form of expression that we can all learn from in treating others of whatever gender they now can choose to be and not necessarily was born to be.