#kmc428

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Yule Log

Last night I went to Yule Log. It really reminded me of my high school's ring ceremony, which is when the seniors give juniors their class rings. It also reminded my mom of when she joined her sorority. Not just the candles and the singing (although we were very big on the candles and the singing at Stuart Country Day), but the general feel of it--the history, the sisterhood.

Yule Log has changed a lot since it first began. It's a mark of how far the DRC has come, both in terms of size and inclusivity. In the beginning Yule Log was tiny, funded by the students themselves. It was also exclusively Christian, attended by only white women, because white women were the only ones admitted to the college. Last night there was a passage from the Koran, one about Kwanzaa, one about Chanukah, and more, and the stair seniors were far from entirely or even mostly white. That's not to say the DRC is perfect (pride, fall, goeth before, etc) but we are so much better than we were. We honor what came before, but we're always improving it, too.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Karla Jackson

I really liked Karla Jackson’s talk, especially the part about boundaries. Too often, everyone acts like “I don’t want to” isn’t a good enough reason--of course, sometimes it isn’t, but you shouldn’t need to justify your reasons for not going to a party or a date or trying a new food or hanging out with someone. Just because you’re compassionate doesn’t mean you need to let everyone walk all over you. I think she did a good job articulating the balance between being a kind person and maintaining self-care.

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Lauren Rankin plenary

One thing I really liked about Lauren Rankin’s talk was her insistence on repeatedly using the word “abortion”. There’s this tendency to downplay it, to act like it’s an ugly word, to make the driving argument in support of Planned Parenthood “oh, they don’t do that many abortions, most of what they do is other kinds of necessary healthcare!” And I understand the need for that, when faced with scaremongering misogynists who would have their constituents believe hideously inaccurate things. But abortion is necessary healthcare and there’s nothing wrong with having one. So I liked that she didn’t shy away from saying its name.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Bionic bra

Today in class we talked about the bra that shocks attackers and other methods of prevention. While it’s a good idea (or it will be, once it gets out of beta testing), it’s massively unfair that women are made to feel so unsafe they need things like this. I feel this same conflict whenever a new “anti-rape” product comes out, from roofie-detecting nailpolish to those cute plastic cat-face keychains that can be used as knives. (The fact that they’re cute is a whole other post, but shall we say I am not pleased with the pinkification of women’s self-defense.) On the one hand, anything that protects women is something I’m in favor of. But on the other, why don’t we go straight to the source? Why don’t we train boys not to roofie people? Why don’t we train boys that they’re never entitled to grab women?

In the end I suppose it’s the difference between a medication and a vaccine. Nyquil works fine, but I’d rather not get the flu in the first place.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Pam Fessler plenary

I liked this plenary a lot, especially the way she used audio clips of her work to augment it. I also thought she did a very good job answering questions. However, I feel like she spread herself too thinly. It could have been two talks--one on poverty, and one on sexism in journalism. Because she tried to do both, I felt like she didn’t cover enough of each; she had interesting talking points, but because there were so many, she was only able to cover each lightly instead of digging in. For example, she could have really elaborated on her Girls at Fifteen project, and gone into how poverty and gender intersect, but she didn’t get the chance.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Miss Representation and Women in Media

This is a topic that’s pretty important to me, since I’m a writer. Especially because I’m a genre writer--and let’s be real, here, science fiction and fantasy has a real problem with elevating white guys and ignoring everyone else. For example, did you know that Marvel has had more white male leads named Chris than it has female leads or leads of color? And that they pushed back Black Panther in favor of yet another Spiderman reboot? (May Stan Lee save us all from the boredom of Uncle Ben’s eight millionth death.) Neil Gaiman famously pulled out on a television deal for his novel American Gods because the producers wanted to make the main character white, on the grounds that “black people don’t watch fantasy”. I could go on! In fact, I could go on so long that my interview assignment is about this very thing.

My point is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s like a Fibonacci spiral of terrible--the deeper you go, the more you see. And new voices that refute this stuff don’t get as much attention as they really should. But they’re there, and they’re awesome, and, despite the aforementioned spiral, things are starting to change.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Commercial beauty standards

This is something I recognize in myself, in that I’ve internalized the living heck out of them. I don't care what other people eat, or how they look, but when it comes to my own body, I care a whole lot. Sometimes when I think about what I eat, it's because I'm trying to be healthy--did I have enough fruit? Have I eaten anything that's naturally green today? Did I eat something for lunch? Lunch is important.

But sometimes it's more worrying about what I eat because it might make me gain weight--did I eat too much bread? Do I "deserve" that bowl of ice cream? Have I been "good" or "bad" about dessert this week? Which is manifestly stupid. Food doesn't have a system of morality. Food is food. Obvious, right? And yet! Something that might, in the future, result in a little extra tummy chub is "bad". For some reason Nice job taking societal fat hatred to heart, self! I can get rid of it when it comes to everyone else--but when it comes to me, that's an ongoing project.