Notre Dame Students love to define each other by the dorm to which they were randomly assigned freshman year. They use stereotypes that make little sense (and are usually very unfunny) in an attempt to clump all other Notre Dame Students into groupings based upon their residence. One of the key elements of this occurs when students call members of the opposite sex by the name of their dorm
This naming device is most prevalent when students are making plans for a night or weekend. If a group of guys is looking to have a pregame they will invariably debate between inviting the Howard girls, the BP girls, the Lyons girls, or maybe even the Saint Mary’s girls*. Guys will do this for two reasons: 1) because the girls typically only hang out with other girls from their dorm, and 2) it would be a travesty to stage an event in a small, intimate setting with girls from two different dorms.
It is the same way for the ladies. On any given night a group of girls will consider their options of hanging out with the Keenan guys, the O’Neill guys, or the Dillon guys (but probably not the Holy Cross guys). They will rarely use the name of an individual guy in the group because what is that one individual without his group?
*Note: Men will only use the word girls as the noun when referring to these groups. They will never say Howard women, BP females, Lyons ladies, or Saint Mary’s sweethearts. While they might refer to a group of girls in person as ladies, or a single girl as a sweetheart, they will never do so with the name of the dorm. Girls, on the other hand, will use the words guys and boys interchangeably.
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the dorm identifications still apply when people move off-campus, because they usually maintain the same dorm groups
ReplyDeletecan we add that instead of saying zahm guys we just say "eww"
ReplyDeletehowever, when referencing saint mary's girls, guys will frequently say 'smic chicks' hence an alternate noun...
ReplyDelete"bitties" also is common
ReplyDelete"trick" is another oft-used noun for females.
ReplyDeletethis makes me want to throw up
ReplyDeletebut we also never say "men"
ReplyDeletefrats and sororities do the same thing
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that the dorm assignments aren't completely random at ND. There's a pretty strong correlation between how much money dad has and has donated and assignment to one of the older, classier dorms.
ReplyDeleteZahm owns the North Quad!
ReplyDelete