While many private schools around the city seem to have demeaning nicknames made up by other students, Hewitt’s reputation of being called “Hoeitt” seems to be the most prevalent when referring to our school. The definition for “Hoeitt” on Urban Dictionary is “the nickname of the private all-girls school, Hewitt, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that is notorious for the salacious behavior of its attendees.” As a student who has attended Hewitt for the last eleven years, the behavior described in the Urban Dictionary does not at all represent the persona of a Hewitt girl and it is about time the reputation is diminished for good.
Many students may not recognize the problems with Hewitt’s reputation and hope that by just ignoring this issue will result in the school’s negative reputation to diminish over time.
The main issue with the Hoeitt reputation is that it assumes that all Hewit students are “promiscuous”, which is sexist and demeaning towards the girls who attend the school, negatively affecting their perception of Hewitt. Being referred to as “hoes” from a young age and knowing that reputation will follow them through high school does not give younger Hewitt girls the self-confidence they need to succeed. Furthermore, by using the term “Hoeitt,” it is implying disrespect towards women and negatively equates sexual freedom with women.
“I first heard about the Hoeitt name at one of the socials for all the single-sex schools in NYC. I was surprised and confused when I heard the term being used because I had never heard it before but quickly started hearing it more and more often,” Julia W. ‘19. However, these negative reputations and “nicknames” of Manhattan’s elite private schools are not limited to Hewitt, and many Upper East Side private girls schools also have derogatory nicknames. These offensive names include “Sluts at Heart” in reference to the Convent of the Sacred Heart School, and “Nightingfail” in reference to the Nightingale-Bamford School. Although these terms are very well-known throughout students in Manhattan, the reference of the Hewitt School to“Hoeitt” appears to be the nickname most linked to the identification of the school. While many students around the city and even those who attend Hewitt use this term very loosely without thinking about its underlying and hurtful meaning, that does not make it okay.
The alleged reason behind why the term “Hoeitt” has been the most prominent out of all the other schools is because of how it is more clever than any of the other nicknames. Not only does Hewitt’s nickname shine a bad light on the school, but Hewitt has also acclaimed the reputation of being an “easy” school in terms of acceptance and the workload, which are both far from the reality. Camryn L. ‘19 states, “I think the name just spread quickly but does not reflect our school or students. I do not even consider “Hoeitt” as a reputation, but just a name that does not represent our community of intelligent, strong girls.”
While the majority of the Hewitt community knows this reputation does not at all represent Hewitt students, this message has not completely reached the general public meaning that there still is time to mend the school’s reputation. People automatically referring to Hewitt as “Hoeitt” does not scream to prospective parents as a reason to send their daughter to the school. This negative reputation definitely has an effect on the decision of whether to apply to Hewitt and I have had many friends throughout the years feel discouraged to apply to Hewitt due to the way it is perceived by the public. However, the act of only one person speaking out against these flawed interpretations isn’t enough and further action must be taken towards finding a solution to this lasting problem.
Over the years the way Hewitt is perceived has definitely been improved, but by no means has it come to an end. Last year, the Upper School had an open conversation about a former Trevor Day School student who started a brand called “ManhattanKnights” where he sold sweatshirts with Hoeitt written on them. Coming together as a school, talking about how we are affected by this reputation, and feeling we are not alone in wanting to diminish the label was able to restore a bit of hope in many students’ eyes.
The next step to the decline of this name is will result by continuing to have more open conversations about this topic and expanding them to girls in lower grades who might think that the “Hoeitt” reputation is “cool,” without knowing the actual meaning. Moreover, it is equally as important to keep encouraging students to remind their friends outside of school that they would never refer to their friend as a “hoe” or another derogatory term for that matter, so why refer to their school in the same way? Although a reputation doesn’t go away overnight, there are definitely positive steps that we can take in the meantime to give Hewitt the appropriate image it deserves