Wear a Skirt Wednesday
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| Wear a Skirt Wednesday | |
| Day | Wednesday |
Wear a Skirt Wednesday (or WASW) takes place the second Wednesday of TIP. Its origins are unclear, but it is speculated it has been in existence for more than 15 years. Other campuses (Appalachian State University, Texas A&M, East, West, UGA) and groups (ADFers, Young Writers) have adopted this tradition.*However, in recent years at East, the other groups, especially the Young Writers, became very disturbed. *At UGA, it was called, generally, "Opposite Day." In 2013 Opposite day was canceled and changed during spirit week; TIPsters were told it was the main office's doing, on the grounds that it wasn't "considerate" to certain people (they were told this was a tip-wide rule, but it seems like every other campus has continued the tradition…). As of January 1, 2015, this tradition is no longer funny because, according to an unknown chach, we're beyond that.
Origins
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In the 80's, guys wore skirts to show that they could be masculine without wearing guy clothes (back then, they wore long skirts, and nothing else), and eventually the girls did too. A different WASW origination story states that at West, the OSC wanted the girls to dress up for the second Wednesday (called TiPquinox at East apparently), and so said at an all-campus meeting, "I want everyone to wear a skirt on Wednesday" or something to that effect. The boys took it literally and started wearing skirts.
By 1997, WASW had evolved into cross-dressing day. In term 1 of that year, they had casino night instead of the Bulls game and at the end, an auction was held where you could pool your money with anyone and bid on things. One of the prizes was a "day in your honor." This was bought and dedicated that year to Sarah [last name removed]. She didn't dress in "girl" clothing much, so all the girls wore stereotypical guy clothes in her honor, thus goes one explanation of how WaSW became cross-dressing day. |
| —Tip Lore Activity |
Duke TiP East Term II 2010, Wear a Skirt Wednesday (unofficially cross dressing day) 2018: "Wear what you want wednesday"
Some of the West Term I students, of 2011, came up with the name Transvestite integration Program. (unofficially this is what TiP stands for on Wear a Skirt Wednesday) Actually, the phrase Transvestite integration Program was widely used before West Term I 2011, most recently West Term II 2010. West Term I 2011 TiPsters were definitely not the first to coin the term. The term was created during West Term 1 2010. West Term 1 2011 continued the tradition of telling the Sports Campers in the Great Hall that TiP stands for Transvestite Integration Program. Friendly reminder that this is just transphobic and if you say that you win one free ‘get your lights punched out card’
During Spirit Week at West Term II 2012, it was referred to as "Lend to a Friend Wednesday".
It's important to note that on certain occasions this tradition has been infringed upon by the staff of some campuses. Example: in the 2012 UGA term 1, the staff changed this holiday to Monday of the second week. The TIPsters were not informed of this until Sunday night giving them little time to prepare. It was speculated by a great deal that this was a tactic used by the staff in order to limit the costumes on this day though very few of the students let this stop them.