Fuck Yeah, Gender Studies!: Huh.

freedominwickedness:

fuckyeahgenderstudies:

So on Monday i wrote to the admissions office at Wellesley to enquire about their admittance rules for trans applicants, posing as a trans woman. I just got a response:

Wellesley College considers applications from women.  In the event that an applicant applies to Wellesley and his/her gender is unclear to the Board of Admission, the Board will review the student’s application in context and make an admission decision on a case-by-case basis.  If you have further questions, please feel free to call me directly at the phone number below. Sincerely, Joy St. John

Joy St. JohnDirector of Admission Wellesley College 106 Central Street etc etc etc…

Yeah, that’s the official line at this time. The unofficial line is the Board hasneverto anyone’s knowledge actually approved any application by a trans woman. Several potential applicants, including two people I know personally, lost interest after campus visits specifically because they perceived the social atmosphere to be distinctly hostile to trans women.

Yeah, it really reads like lip service. But it does mean Wellesley might get more people’s application fees…

The people in the queer community at Wellesley are aware of this. The admissions office and the queer community have a strained relationship, at best. Many people feel that the queer community is swept under the rug during the admissions process, so many queer people choose other schools or come to Wellesley without knowing that we’re here. I myself did the same thing. I have no doubt that if a transwoman were to come to Wellesley, there would be some backlash, but there would also be a fairly large community of people that would support that person.

50 Things To Do Before You Graduate Wellesley

1. Get 12 hours of sleep in one night.
2. Go stepsinging.
3. See the campus from the top of Galen Stone Tower.
4. Walk around Lake Waban with a friend.
5. Have a party in your room for no reason and invite everyone you know. (Hair cutting party!!)
6. Skinny-dip in Lake Waban.
7. Read a book that isn’t required and that doesn’t have anything to do with your major.
8. Pull a non-academic all-nighter.
9. Go traying on Severance Green.
10. Write a letter to the editor.
11. Attend one sporting event for each Wellesley athletic team.
12. Admit you don’t know everything.
13. Have a little too much to drink at a department party and start a singalong with your favorite professor.
14. Eat nachos at the Hoop.
15. Get a Little Sister.
16. Eat in all the dining halls in one day.
17. Send an e-mail to someone who is sitting in the same room.
18. Buy candy in El Table to eat during class.
19. Let a prospective sleep on your floor.
20. Become the ultimate fan of at least one Wellesley sports team.
21. Stay for Wintersession.
22. Be the subject of a psychology experiment.
23. Nominate a professor for the Pinanski Prize.
24. Swing next to the Chapel.*
25. Attend Senate. Say something.
26. Go tunneling.
27. Try dorm or class crew on the lake.
28. Visit the observatory.
29. Become a regular at CVS.
30. Go to a Shakespeare Society production.
31. Go ice skating on Paramecium Pond.
32. Declare your own personal Lake Day.
33. Go trick or treating at the president’s house.
34. Nap in the library.
35. Start a dorm war.  (We tried, anyway)
36. Stage a protest.
37. Join an organization.
38. Go to a frat party.
39. Write a paper in 13-point New York.
40. Learn to fake a Boston accent.
41. Attend an on-campus party.
42. Voluntarily attend a lecture.
43. Take a day off and be a tourist in Boston.
44. Primal scream.
45. Cheer at the Boston Marathon. See if you can get a runner to kiss you.
46. Go to a commencement other than your own.
47. See at least one a capella concert.
48. Listen to WZLY.
49. Ride in a Campus Po Car. (Lights and siren are a bonus.)

* The swing near the Chapel is no longer, so replace number 25 with a “graduation requirement” of your own!Hrm… Maybe… Have a janitor ask if I’m homeless because they found me sleeping in common spaces so often. Or go skinny dipping with a GUY from Babson. Or play Spin the Bottle at a WZLY party. Check.

Done with my first year, and I have 22 of these done. :) I’m a champion.

So while I was out getting drunk last night, the Wellesley-verse on tumblr blew up or something…

Sorry I missed it. These are my comments about it.

The fuckyeahwellesleycollege moderator, although apparently not considering herself a moderator, just a blogger, purports to not represent the ideas of the majority of Wellesley College students. Unfortunately for her, she does. By running a blog with no personal posts or comments (until yesterday), it looks official, and people in and outside of Wellesley are going to take it as such. She should know better.

The flame war that occurred yesterday would not have happened if only the mod had kept her opinion about the dumb-blonde stereotype to herself. (I’ve been blonde, and I don’t give two shits about the dumb blonde stereotype, and neither does the rest of my Scandinavian-blonde family.) I have never, repeat NEVER, seen the moderators for OverheardatWellesley, WellesleyFML, or ISawYouWellesley give their personal opinions on their blog. Since I am assuming that this moderator might want to keep this blog going past her four years here, she will have to hand over the reins to someone else, at which time I would hope we are not treated to such a flagrant display of personal, non-majority opinion.

I would venture to say that the majority of Wellesley would see something at least vaguely problematic about what she said in relation to the video. Therefore, it had no place being on a blog that isn’t personal, and definitely no place on a blog that appears, in many ways, to be part of the “official” Wellesley internet universe.

To speak to 2016-ers about being nervous: flame wars are a fact of life at Wellesley. No different than surges of politics resulting from things like KONY 2012, they are typically ineffective and at times ludicrous. I happen to enjoy them, because you get to see people be passionate about something (even people who aren’t using passionate about anything). Many people who participate in flame wars are eloquent and respectful, just gently forceful about wanting others to take their side. But there are some people who hide behind anonymity, people who lash out in hateful ways, and people who just generally represent some of the less-positive parts of human nature.

I can tell you this: what you saw yesterday is something you will see more than once during your time at Wellesley. But it will by no means define your experience, or probably even affect your memory of your time here. And I have never once felt that it detracts from the sense of community that I feel here.

I guess it’s my responsibility to note here that these are my personal opinons, and do not, in fact, reflect the opinions the Wellesley administration, student body, or alumni body. They also do not reflect the opinions of any of the blogs I’ve mentioned or tagged in this post.

you make it real for me.: I heart my liberal arts education.

anniepology:

A family friend came over for a late-night chat and was asking me about college. I told him where I went to school (Wellesley), what I was studying (Art History & CAMS), and what I was planning on doing with my degree (film school).

Jokingly (but not really joking in the way that these conversations go), he asked me if I was planning on eating after college. I told him I was fully planning on it.

Then I asked him if he was planning on fucking himself. Funnily enough, the verdict is still out on that one.

My parents were mad (and a little proud) that I was rude, and I admit that I was, but at this point I don’t even care anymore. What I choose to do with my life is not a joke and I will tell the exact same thing verbatim to anyone else who asks. I feel like I make these sorts of posts every couple of weeks but I really am tired of constantly finding myself in these situations where I need to defend my life decisions. Up until now, I’ve always been really respectful when people make comments like that because they were adults, but tonight I realized that I’m twenty years old and that, by all accounts, makes me an adult too. I don’t need to be demure to disrespectful people, especially those who think they can predict my future. 

I am going to be successful, I am going to do exactly what I want, and I am going to be happy. Either you can support me in my endeavors, or you can keep your opinions to yourself and stop wasting my time.

HECK YEAH! You tell ‘em! :)

WellesleyFML is BACK!

What Are You Going to Do With That?

Read this. Read it all the way through. Because this, people, is why I chose to be a Women’s and Gender Studies major. Not because I know that it will make me rich, not because there’s a clear-cut path for me to follow, but because I believe in my heart that the things I am learning will make me a better person, and the kind of person I want to be. It was scary as hell, admitting that I no longer wanted to follow the precise little path to money and comfort. But I did it, and I’m glad I was mature enough to know that it was the right thing do for myself.