Day 144: Molokai Comes to Yale!

Today, a group of high school students from Hawaii came to visit Blue Feather at the Native American Cultural Center. These students have been saving since last year to pay for the week-long trip themselves.

Blue Feather performed for the kids, who in turn performed for us and then taught us some of the traditional Hawaiian dance moves.

Dinee and I met in London and her urging is the reason I am active in Blue Feather (the drum powwow group).

Noah and I cheerfully do Woads

October 8, 2014: 221 days to learn new dance moves and use them on my Yale friends

Day 115: Hogwarts

Home is where the spires soar, the buttresses support, and the crenelation  gives us nice cozy balconies.

Unlike Calhoun College (above), this view of Yale looks a little less Gothic and a little more colonial (hi Silliman College) 

Spa night with the girls! Not sure Yen is going to forgive me for this one…  “Pretty hurts” is a reference to a Beyonce song that criticizes today’s beauty standards and the pressure placed on women to be perfect. Here’s a link to the video. I highly recommend watching it and listening carefully to the lyrics.  It may seem extreme, but it is closer to reality than we’d all like to think.

September 9, 2014: 250 days to live in my castle

Day 114: Skinny Betches Love East Rock

This is a view from my morning walk up “Science Hill” to my science class, Dynamic Earth, which I really need to pass if I have any intention of graduating.

Jamie, Yen. and I, in a burst of fitness and energy, decided to run to East Rock. East Rock is a “mountainous ridge” with high cliffs and surrounded by a cute little neighborhood of the same name (according to Wikipedia).  The park is a popular running spot with students and New Haven residents, especially the trek up the ridge, which is wooded and surrounded by water. Interesting fact, the “workout culture” that is an essential element of my generation, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Only in the last twenty years or so has culture shifted away from hiding/covering things about our bodies (and by our, I mean the female body) and instead focused on making the body fit and healthier. An example of this is the decline in the use of things like girdles, which are the modern form of the corset. There’s even a new fashion trend that discourages the use of bras, which studies have shown are bad for female bodies and irrevocably alter our natural shapes.

First Monday night Whiffenpoof performance at Mory’s! This was a whole lot of Yale traditions wrapped into one: our Monday night dinner group, Mory’s (the quintessential “old boys club,” whose membership is available only to those affiliated with the University), and the Whiffenpoofs of Yale, the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the country.

Yen got the front seat to a lovely serenade

September 8, 2014: 251 days to steep myself in the old traditions of privilege and prestige (seriously though, I love the tradition)

Day 76: “‘Classic.’ A book which people praise but don’t read.”

So said Mark Twain. Many of us can relate–myself included. The classics are the books we always meant to read, they’re sitting on our bookshelves, awaiting our attention, yet often neglected for the shinier, the more fun. Today, I have decided to change that.  My incredible supervisor at CCJ, Emily Baxter, was astounded to learn that I had never read Salinger.  She returned from a trip with a copy of Salinger’s Nine Stories, which is an undeniable American classic and one of her personal favorites.  This gift has inspired me to begin a quest (lifelong, I’m sure) to actually read all the classics, rather than just talk about them.

The first few on my list are:
1. Salinger, Nine Stories and The Catcher and the Rye
2. Camus, The Stranger
3. Chopin, The Awakening
4. Tolkien, The Hobbit
5. Faulkner, any and all

I would appreciate any suggestions of favorite classic books!

August 2, 2014: 290 days of reading, very few of them fun, I’m sure

Day 32: Introducing Ted Bunch and the Women’s Advocates

Enjoyed quite a wet ride to work. In fact, I found the block walk from the light rail to the office quite sopping.

Luckily the weather cleared up for an amazing community conversation at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi presented about his work with Women’s Advocates and domestic violence. The keynote address was given by Ted Bunch, the founder of A Call to Men, which calls all men to engage in a new definition if manhood. He said some really cool things about men taking responsibility (instead constantly saying 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted, why don’t we say 1 in 5 men sexually assault women?) and about changing the culture of manhood. According to Bunch, sexual and domestic assault happens because of institutionalized sexism (aka patriarchy), which takes three forms: women as sexual objects, devaluing women, and women as property. Bunch’s program claims that men can stop other men from perpetrating this kind of violence. If 2 out of 10 men abuse women and the 8 other men say nothing, their silence is interrupted as acceptance. But if the 8 other men tell the other 2 to knock it off, that real men in the community don’t act that way, then they will stop. Men only abuse their partners (3/4 women assaulted knew their attacker/abuser) because society tells them that women are worth less than men and that part of being a man means acting this way. Thus men have the power to stop the violence, rather than perpetuating sexist gender norms in children and other men.

I recommend everyone check out A Call to Men and Man Prayer on YouTube!

June 19, 2014: 333 more days to officially study cultural norms

Day 14: We owe it all to you

The theme of the class of 1974’s 40th reunion was celebrating the women of the class, only the second class of women to graduate after 4 years at Yale. I was privileged to attend the class dinner and the tribute to the 250 women of the class, which was particularly poignant for us undergrads. Myself and the two other female undergrads in attendance are really thankful to the women of 1974, to whom we owe everything, and to those who finally paid tribute to them. It was also a nice excuse to dress up and hang out with all the alums, who have the MOST interesting stories and lives.

I was also lucky enough to be invited to speak on a panel at the YCBA. The alums were really interested in what the students had to say regarding sexual assault, the job market, athletics, our professors, and what we feared most about the future. The Secretary of Yale College was also on the panel and discussed the fall of the liberal arts education, at the hands of professionalism and bureaucracy. Unfortunately for us, the Yale education and atmosphere has shifted toward grooming for certain career paths (like finance and consulting) or grad school, rather than emphasizing the well-rounded and basic intellectualism of the liberal arts education.

May 31, 2014: 352 days to take the classes I want, study what I want, and ignore the bureaucracy.

Day 13: That Time Yale Reunions Were So Worth It

Casually met Harry Hamlin (’74) and his wife, Lisa Rinna today as the 40th Reunion registration table. In addition to their many other roles, I adore them from the show Veronica Mars. As a hardcore VMars fan, meeting Lynn and Aaron Echolls was definitely the highlight if my week. Not only were they super nice, but they were also interested in talking to us, as were many other alums (a big difference from the 15th reunion). One couple spent their entire dinner discussing what we students thought of as “current women’s issues.” It was a really fun, open, and genuinely constructive conversation, thankfully absent of any PC nonsense.

I also got to go up to Kroon Hall today, which is Yale’s most sustainable building and home to the oldest, continuously running forestry school in the country. It even smells fresh.

May 30, 2014: 353 possible celebrity sightings as a Yalie

Day 11: Still I Rise

RIP to the incredible, inspirational Maya Angelou. Thanks for teaching generations of young women the strength, humanity, and simple common sense necessary to make the world a better place.

In addition to this sad news, I’d like to share a Slate article regarding the recent Santa Barbara shootings. This event has been a major topic of conversation among my friends and I thought I’d offer some thoughts from the perspective of a young, female college student. The fact that men still believe that a woman’s body (apparently the rest doesn’t matter) belongs to them is evident of the rampant misogyny in society. As the article points out, men simply don’t know what women go through personally and on a systematic level. Humoring unwanted attentions from a man is not weakness but a means of self-defense–something all other women are aware of. I try to turn down men with the littlest possible effect on their feelings, both because they deserve respect (especially if they have the guys to ask a girl out, respectfully), but also because men are perceived as dangerous to a young woman and it falls on us to minimize that threat. Instead of eliminating societal misogyny, the ultimate root of the perceived threat of the male predator hunting for females, we tell young women to protect themselves and not to act too forward or in ways that attract that unwanted attention. Still we place the responsibility on the woman, emphasizing her body as the subject of uncontrollable male lust, rather than demand as a society that men behave respectfully. I don’t deny that women should know how to protect themselves (by more than just excuses and evasiveness), yet why do we make it their responsibility while men are allowed to act as sexual predators and it is perfectly acceptable? That is the societal standard. As a female college student, I feel confident in saying that is what leads to rape and sexual violence on campuses. Boys will not just be boys and we, as a society, need to begin holding men to higher standards. So, to the next boy who hits on me at a bar or at a party: these are my standards and I plan on explaining them fully in case there’s any confusion.

Now, to the actual pictures!

May 28, 2014: 355 more feminist rants to come #fuckthepatriarchy

 

Catherine and I have been spending a little too much time together…