Dartmouth alums are pretty much a typecast set. Khakis, bowties, and Wall Street resumés were pretty much standard fare in the halls of what has long been one of the fortresses of Ivy League prepdom. Those days are, of course, behind us (despite the best efforts of Dan Linsalata ‘07), and the Wright administration has done much to make Dartmouth appear less country club and more organic farm.

And that’s where speakers like Regina Barreca ’79 come into play. A professor of English and Feminism at the University of Connecticut, Professor Barreca looks a lot more like my Whoopi Goldberg-coiffed 8th grade creative writing teacher than the suit-and-tie set that flock to Class of 1982 reunions. That being said, Professor Barreca is no stranger to the Dartmouth lecture circuit. She is a common alumni meeting speaker and this year became the College’s first summer term convocation speaker - an honor I’m sure she’ll add to her distinguished resumé.

Being vaguely affiliated with the more traditional elements of Dartmouth life, I am naturally skeptical of any speaker who advertises herself (or himself) as a feminist. To me, the term has always reeked of an extreme irrationality rivaled only by the woman who set a dove free every time Michael Jackson was found not guilty. Ms. Barreca, I’m sure, would dispute this association. She claims that feminism is “the radical idea that women are in fact human beings.”

Not anything groundbreaking there. But this seems like a contention more aptly made by a biologist or physician than a muu-muu wearing English PhD. Don’t get me wrong. Ms. Barreca’s form of feminism is certainly preferable to the militant G.I. Jane-ism of some of her colleagues, but all of Barreca’s levity and humor don’t compensate for the fact that her ideology and message are at best vague and painfully outdated.

Professor Barreca’s message, as far as I can grasp it, is simple enough. Women, according to Barreca, are tragically constrained by the social requirements of a male dominated social order. Why else would women laugh differently in the bathroom than they do in public? I’m not so sure, but my guess is that just because a girl doesn’t laugh like Chris Farley, it doesn’t mean she’s living a lie.

Barreca also maintains that women have stories behind all their clothes while men, generally oblivious to their surroundings, think the question, “Where did you get those pants?” is some sort of trick. While this sort of banter caused middle-aged Dean Larimore and Provost Scherr to giggle like they were being fed nitrous oxide through Spaulding’s onstage I.V., Pooneet Kant ‘07 has politely informed me that his stonewash khakis were bought at Banana Republic - during the spring sale.

I guess the post-1980s preoccupation with male vanity was lost on Professor Barreca, who simply can’t help but seem like some sort of intellectual relic. While most comedians and humorists change their routine every year, Ms. Barreca’s speech was nearly identical to the one she gave at Dartmouth in 1997 - nearly a decade ago. When Barreca asserts that men like the Three Stooges, she forgets that many of the men in her audience think black and white is used in television only for dramatic effect. Barreca claims that she uses humor as her medium because it is the easiest way to reach people. Unfortunately for Barreca’s routine, a lot has changed since she arrived at Dartmouth in 1975 and social commentary that may have once been biting and edgy is just about as silly and irrelevant as Larry, Curly, and Moe.