Who could have seen this coming? Harvard has dropped the hammer on male-only clubs. Not by outlawing the clubs, as final clubs* were already de-institutionalized in the last wave of feminist hysteria, but by blacklisting members of the clubs from the benefits conferred by the elites.

Starting with the class that enters Harvard in fall 2017, members of single-sex clubs will be prohibited from holding leadership positions on campus, according to a statement released by the university’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust. This would include athletic team captains; many club members have historically been captains. Members will also be barred from receiving the official recommendations required for prestigious postgraduate fellowships and scholarships, such as the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, the statement said.

One might point to the hypocrisy of Drew Faust’s having enjoyed the benefits of an all-women education at Bryn Mawr, or point out that freedom of association is a right protected by the Constitution, but such criticisms detract from the banal truth.

The all-male final clubs at Harvard University have long been bastions of money, power and privilege. But on Friday, 225 years after the oldest club was founded, the university announced restrictions on the organizations that could ultimately be their undoing, or at least significantly change their character by forcing them to become coed.

This is the neutering of males as part of the feminist recreation of America, where the only good guy is an ally.  And Faust, with her sidekick, Dean of Harvard College, Rakesh Khurana, is on board.  The notion is that the historic existence of these Final Clubs, along with fraternities, perpetuated male privilege that oppressed women.  The ideology is clear: end the institutions that perpetuate male privilege and you end male privilege.

The She-man Dude-haters Club gave the official justification.

Two months ago, a sexual assault task force said the final clubs raised “serious concerns” that required attention from Harvard. Surveys conducted for the university, as well as interviews with undergraduate women, had found that some final clubs fostered an atmosphere of misogyny, sexual misconduct and entitlement.

Whenever you see the word “misogyny,” it’s a dead giveaway. It’s a conclusory word, telling nothing. Its definition is “stuff feminists hate about men.” It’s an ugly word, which is why it’s hurled about, because young men abhor being called misogynists. Most are willing to neuter themselves to avoid the dreaded epithet, as if being male was an offense against humanity.

The offense here is that males have clubs where they get to hang out with other males. Call it male bonding. Call it freedom of association. Call it enjoying the benefits of male privilege, to be a member of an elite club within the most elite college that ever existed. It’s so unfair, Khurana says. Yes, yes, Faust agrees. It must be destroyed because this is the 21st Century and we must end this blight upon equality.

Except there are women’s Final Clubs too, and they spilled the beans before Faust dropped the hammer.

Basking in the praise of the national press for its efforts to make all-male final clubs go co-ed, Harvard has left out an important piece of the story: female final clubs.

Someone is feeling a little left out of this eradication of misogyny?  What do female final clubs have to do with ending sexual assault?  Well, not a damn thing, actually.

But we are deeply worried about the way Harvard is going about this change.

In the past few months, the female clubs have tried to work with Harvard’s administration to ensure that both men’s and women’s clubs transition safely and that women do not become collateral damage in the transition. Harvard has given us no indication it understands these concerns.

If the male clubs unilaterally go co-ed—as the Spee and the Fox already have—new female members will be at a significant disadvantage vis-à-vis new male members. The leadership structures and alumni bases of these clubs are still all-male, and will remain predominantly so for the next few years, if not decades.

They never actually come out and say it. In fact, they never actually come out and say anything, beating, beating, beating around the bush (take your puns where you can).  They don’t want the male final clubs ended. They want them merged with the female clubs. They want the women to be put into “leadership structures” and to force the “alumni bases” to give them the same benefits the guys got. It’s not that they hate the elites within the elites; they want their piece of the pie.

These new women members, selected by a pre-existing all-male membership, will lack the benefit of women in leadership positions, who could help develop a truly gender-inclusive culture. They will also lack a female alumnae base. We have concerns about whether such conditions will be safe and beneficial for women.

Safe is the excuse. Beneficial is the key. The problem is that the power flows to whomever the powerful want it to flow to. You can’t demand that someone play with you, give you access to their power because you want it really, really bad. Because you’re oppressed. Because you’re female.

But the women then do something foolish, in an apparent effort to extort Faust to give them what they want to shut them up. They reveal the underlying reason why Harvard has suddenly decided to go full-feminist tilt.

Harvard is facing a barrage of media attacks concerning its abysmal sexual assault statistics, as well as an ongoing federal investigation and at least one lawsuit alleging Title IX violations.

In all, circumstances are ripe for quick-fix solutions that could actually run counter to the substance of what Harvard seeks to accomplish: reducing sexual assault and creating true equity for women.

This is all a public relations stunt, to make Harvard look deeply sensitive to feminist needs. And it comes pretty cheaply, as the elimination of off-campus, un-Harvard, associations of males isn’t likely to piss off anyone who shares progressive values. After all, all the enlightened intellectuals are totally on board with elevating women at the expense of men because females have been historically marginalized.

Who is going to stand up for misogyny? Who, that matters, will stand up and say that guys are allowed to be guys, allowed to hang out with other guys, and the fact that they have power and prestige is because they earned it.  And even if you make a woman head honcho of Fly Club (don’t blame me, I didn’t make up the name) by brute force, she will never enter the male realm of vast wealth and power. Because, Drew Faust, you don’t get to force it down the “alumni structures” throat. They will pass it down to whom they want, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Power, prestige, wealth and all the accoutrements of the elite are unfair. They are discriminatory. They will be given to the anointed few, and those who don’t get it will cry. Just like those who were denied admission to Harvard.

But being male is not a crime. It’s not a sin. And it doesn’t have to please your sensibilities. Is this punishment unlawful, unconstitutional? Maybe. But regardless, if you think you can ram women down the throats of elite power, Drew Faust, you should have stayed on the Main Line with the girls.**

* Most of you will wonder, what the heck is a final club?  Ah, you sad pathetic groundlings, who will never be worthy of matriculating at an institution that entitles you to a future of wealth and power. The Harvard Crimson has been kind enough to provide a ‘splainer so you can catch a glimpse at how the elite live.

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