Men shouldn’t wait for women to do all the work of protesting sexism

As a 2017 graduate of Harvard, I have seen firsthand the blatant sexism the Hasty Pudding Club perpetuates, and I support the criticism Yvonne Abraham voiced in her column “It’s time for change at Hasty Pudding’’ (Page A1, Jan. 18). However, too often the responsibility to push for gender equality rests solely on the shoulders of the women condoning sexist behavior, instead of everyone involved. This is why we must also criticize the Hasty Pudding’s recently named Man of the Year, Paul Rudd, for accepting his invitation as well.

While Rudd hasn’t been as vocal about gender equality as Mila Kunis, who was named the Pudding’s Woman of the Year, both celebrities are condoning the Pudding’s male- only actors policy by accepting the award. Even worse, Kunis and Rudd are now uniquely positioned to influence the Pudding, but instead neglect to pressure the organization toward progress.

As Abraham recognized, the alumni of the Hasty Pudding are the dissentients against casting women in the production. A public rejection of their organization by two prominent and proudly invited celebrities could potentially spur a change of heart — or, at the very least, a punch to the production’s pocketbook.

Gwen Thomas

Cambridge

Performances in drag don’t have to be a drag themselves

I completely agree that female stereotypes need to be expunged from Hasty Pudding’s annual campy revues. With three sisters, a wife, and two daughters all benefiting from the growing trend toward equality among the sexes, I’m all for barriers for women and for men being taken down. But that doesn’t mean every activity must be co-ed, or the honorable tradition of men playing female roles in drag needs to be wiped out as well.

Shakespeare had male-only casts playing female roles, a practice that was revived recently by a celebrated all-male production of “Twelfth Night’’ on Broadway, with Mark Rylance as the best Countess Olivia I’d seen in more than 30 productions.

If women want the same access as men to exciting acting roles, they are welcome to start their own tradition of having only women playing all male parts, a la “Victor/Victoria’’ with Julie Andrews.

I saw only one Hasty Pudding revue as an undergraduate at Harvard, the year Faye Dunaway was awarded the female prize. The lead “actress’’ in that production was gorgeous and very funny, not because of mocking female stereotypes, but because “she’’ played the role so well. And remember, this is supposed to be satire and comedy.

Some activities can remain single-sex, as when one of my sisters played a male gangster in “Guys and Dolls’’ at her all-girls high school — wearing my clothes. I don’t know which of us was more outraged when our friends said she looked just like me.

James S. Berkman

Boston

Single-sex situations in our midst

Re “It’s time for change at Hasty Pudding’’: Perhaps the trigger for the “old guard’’ at the Hasty Pudding Club to allow women in the annual Pudding show should be when the old guard at Wellesley College allows men to attend.

Steven Leese

Newton