Entering a top college in the United States can be a nightmare for a decent girl, but there are some notable exceptions, according to a recent graduate. Ashley Samelson, who entered Tufts University in 2003 as “a reserved evangelical from Colorado Springs”, was shocked at the way women treated other women. Drunkenness and indecency were the order of the day in sorority parties and the pressure was on to conform. “Contrary to the feminist narrative about men being responsible for the oppression of women, nearly every instance of female misery I encountered at Tufts seemed to be instigated initially by another woman,” says Samelson.

However, helping her 18-year-old sister settle into Hillsdale College in Michigan last month provided a welcome contrast. The school is known for attracting conservative and religious students. Here and at similar colleges it appears that girls stick together to resist sexual involvement, gossip and cattiness. They are encouraged to keep up religious practice and to pursue innocent hobbies and charity work. “The institutions of higher education that endorse the vision of ‘modern’ feminism as the key to women’s happiness -- namely, the sexually aggressive female -- could learn a lesson from these more conservative schools,” says Samelson.

She is not alone in commenting on the raunch trend; in recent years women graduates of top schools have written books titled Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood (2005), and Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2005). ~ Wall Street Journal, Sep 26