Freshman and Junior Weddings (Group 2)

Junior-Freshmen weddings were a type of mock trial in which the Woman who attended the Florida State College of Women hosted these events to pass performances on gender. This annual tradition was played by only women for both Bride and Groom roles. This Progressive Era exemplified how women were suppressed and the students who attended the University through 1909-1925 wanted to show how they as a whole challenged the concept of masculinity and the ideology that made it “superior” and was more associated with power. The women were fighting the Victorian Era gender ideology in which many people believed to be absolute in which women were seen as only a wife and once married to their husband they would take part in their husbands interests and business and before marriage practiced all household duties such as weaving, cooking, washing, and cleaning. The women who attended the University came to receive an higher education no other women were capable of accessing along with higher knowledge to know that their roles as women were not just to be second command within their marriages and that marriage was not their only calling.

The first Junior and Freshmen wedding took place at the Florida State College of Women in 1909 and the tradition was described as “comforting practices… that in a strange and, at times, frightening environment… drew on traditional female expression of affection… and eased the way (Smith-Rosenberg).  These weddings were one of many things on campus that helped women transition through their academic careers and feel more involved within the University. As seen from our group’s pictures, an Newspaper clipping from the Florida Flambeau talking about the Freshmen was a very important aspect to take into consideration within the University. The freshmen were referred to as the babies of campus along with being ignorant and naïve with no legitimate purpose yet, just as a baby within a family. Extracurricular activities such as the Junior Freshmen weddings were vital rituals in which the tension that arose from the influx of freshmen students dwindled and in turn they were accepted by their surrounding peers. Not only this, but the weddings performed by the Juniors gave somewhat of an outline on how the Freshmen could act within the campus. This University was a safe ground for the young women to go outside of societal norms and swith up gender roles. This was taught to the Freshmen at the weddings “through literal body language and through physicl, metaphor and image, the body provides a symbolic system through which individuals can discuss social realities too complex to be spoken overtly” (Smith-Rosenberg).

The junior women were the ones to take the masculine approach within the wedding while the Freshmen took the role of the bride and bridesmaid. This already set up a power structure in which the Juniors were dominant over the young freshmen and showed how they at first were not to be forced or feel immediately pressured to start transforming themselves to fit in within the campus because this too was all to new to them and more of a social shock. As seen from another Newspaper clipping “The Beautiful Junior and Freshmen Wedding” you see that the freshman has the “privilege” to marry a junior who is the man within the wedding. The Junior is the first one to say “I do” and then the women, just how it is seen traditionally but it also outlines the freshmens role as a first year student and how the Junior is now seen as a mentor for the Freshmen because she will be responsobile of making sure she sees the campuses new social structure.