The term “townie” has an underlying message and historical connotation that highlight the tensions between Washington and Lee University and the surrounding community, Lexington residents said.
“Townie” is a term often used by college students to reference community members who live full-time in the area but do not attend the institution.
“The term ‘townie’ is one I’ve heard used on nearly every college campus I’ve been to, so by no means is it unique to W&L and our region,” said Marisa Charley, associate director of the university’s Shepherd Program and the Bonner Program director. Both programs work closely with community partners.
“Generally, it is used to describe members of the community surrounding a college or university, but its connotations are largely unspoken and can be harmful,” she said.
Historically, “townie” has referred to community members of college towns and has evolved to refer disparagingly to members of a lower social class, particularly those who are uneducated and work in the service industries. Its use has been prominent in both small and large towns that neighbor higher education institutions. However, the term’s negative connotation is especially impactful in small towns like Lexington, Charley said.
“I think it’s more that the term is representative of a certain set of beliefs about our neighbors in the broader community,” Charley said.
Paige Williams, owner of Downtown Books and a Lexington resident, said the term “townie” has evolved beyond its original meaning.
Williams said many university faculty and administration members are residents of Lexington with children in the school system, and when students refer to community members as “townies,” they are grouping in those members of the community as well.
Charley sees the situation differently. “I ask students what a townie is. They typically answer that it’s someone who lives in Lexington/Rockbridge,” Charley said. “I then ask if that makes me a townie, and students say no, because I work at the university.”
“When I then ask if my children are townies, they say that they are affiliated with the university through my work, so they wouldn’t call them townies either. It’s at this point that it becomes clear that townie is a class marker, not a geographic marker,” she said.
Justin Smith, owner of Bigger Chicken Apparel, said that the term “townie” has political connotations, too. “Politically speaking, the city seems to lean left, and the county seems to lean right.” Smith said that using “townie” to refer to those living in the county could be seen as more derogatory because of the political divide between the city and county.
Six community members said that they hadn’t heard the label used to their faces in years, but that many years ago it was far more prevalent.
The Ring-tum Phi’s use of “townie” in reporting dates back to at least 1901. A keyword search on the Washington and Lee University Digital Archive flagged 75 of the Ring-tum Phi’s newspapers using the word between 1901 and 1994.
According to a search for the term “townie” on the Ring-tum Phi’s website, five articles used the term between 2016 and 2023. Two of these articles brought up the “townie” label to discourage its use.
“There are so many ways to talk about our neighbors respectfully,” Charley said. “I think we have a responsibility to avoid a term once we understand its meaning and impact to be harmful.”
