Proud Princeton alumna Susan A. Patton — the president of the class of 1977 — has a message for the
Seriously. In an editorial published in today's Daily Princetonian, Patton writes:
Forget about having it all, or not having it all, leaning in or leaning out — here’s what you really need to know that nobody is telling you...
…For most of you, the cornerstone of your future and happiness will be inextricably linked to the man you marry, and you will never again have this concentration of men who are worthy of you.
Unsurprisingly, Patton's well-intended, yet mindblowingly retro, "advice" has caused quite a stir, both for its regressive understanding of male-female relationships and its preposterous Ivy League elitism.
Patton writes:
I am the mother of two sons who are both Princetonians. My older son had the good judgment and great fortune to marry a classmate of his, but he could have married anyone. My younger son is a junior and the universe of women he can marry is limitless. Men regularly marry women who are younger, less intelligent, less educated. It’s amazing how forgiving men can be about a woman’s lack of erudition, if she is exceptionally pretty. Smart women can’t (shouldn’t) marry men who aren’t at least their intellectual equal. As Princeton women, we have almost priced ourselves out of the market. Simply put, there is a very limited population of men who are as smart or smarter than we are. And I say again — you will never again be surrounded by this concentration of men who are worthy of you.
Of course, once you graduate, you will meet men who are your intellectual equal — just not that many of them. And, you could choose to marry a man who has other things to recommend him besides a soaring intellect. But ultimately, it will frustrate you to be with a man who just isn’t as smart as you.
And for female Princeton seniors, Patton has one more "truth" that no one is talking about:
As freshman women, you have four classes of men to choose from. Every year, you lose the men in the senior class, and you become older than the class of incoming freshman men. So, by the time you are a senior, you basically have only the men in your own class to choose from, and frankly, they now have four classes of women to choose from. Maybe you should have been a little nicer to these guys when you were freshmen?
*Editor's note: An earlier version of this post had the full text of the editorial. Unfortunately, the editorial is property of the Daily Princetonian.