There are no friends during Sadies Week — unless they’re the same gender you are, of course. For the past five days, campus has been swarming with silly getups — ranging from ‘80s workout clothes to pajamas.

If the only way to tell a person’s gender were to look at what color they were wearing, today would have been pretty obvious. Ladies wore pink, and men wore black. I think today was more of a success than last year for both the men and women. Last year, more than half the students didn’t even bother dressing up, and this year almost everyone was repping one side or the other.

Being shoved into a gym, surrounded by pink pink pink was surprisingly not that bad. Students from ASB handed out foam light-up sticks to girls as they walked by, and on the opposite side, the boys received some sort of blow-up black thing, which they ended up using to smack together as hard as they could to produce a clapping sound. It’s only fitting that the boys would want to hit things together as hard as they could.

As hundreds of females decked out in pink swarmed into the gym, it soon became evident it was a free-for-all. You had approximately 10 seconds to locate a friend if you hadn’t already, then fight your way to where they were or be forced to stand next to someone you didn’t know. There was no space to do anything apart from stand and scream and watch and try to grasp a basic understanding of what was going on amidst the screams and taunts.

The Sadies rally is by far the most exciting rally, because it’s not separated by grade, it’s separated by gender, and each side is unified by the colors they wear. I grudgingly admit, the boys upped their game this year. Their side was, as they referenced it themselves, a complete black hole. It was confusing, exhilarating, and loud. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if in addition to my voice, I lost my hearing.

The rally lasted only an hour, but it was clear that the ASB students put tons of effort into it. What I couldn’t take my eyes off of were the giant hamster balls, because who hasn’t dreamed of getting into one of those at least once? The only times it was quiet (if you consider just mild yelling to be ‘quiet’) were when one of the ASB students were talking. Even then, it was hard to hear exactly what was going on. Most of us went with the flow; if someone started yelling and screaming, so did we.

And of course, it wouldn’t be the Sadies rally without taunts and insults, albeit very mild ones, would it? The representative for the boys pointed out a sign of ours that said “one giant leap for women,” asking him to remind him how many women have been on the moon, with the obvious answer being none. I think that was set up, though, considering not many jokes could be made that weren’t obscene or extremely sexist (though an argument could be made that Sadies itself is sexist). For instance, last year during the Sadies rally, jokes that were made included sexist hits from the boys; they had a chant of “make me a sandwich,” to which the girl’s side responded with “go to Subway!” It makes sense why those type of jokes weren’t allowed this year. There’s a fine line between joking and just being offensive and insulting. In that respect, this year was more of a success than last year.

The men (can we call them that? More like boys with no filters on their mouths than ‘men’) were surprisingly loud, but the entire pink side rose up to the challenge.  I might be a little biased, considering I am female, but I think the ladies went above and beyond this year. A little ironic, considering the theme for Sadies week this year was space.

Maybe the ladies continue their winning streak. Maybe not. Nothing’s wrong with a little good-natured rivalry, though.

by HARMONY REILLY