Off Campus Event
I guess I didn't really do that much off campus either...it's felt like such a productive semester, but I think most of what I have accomplished has been preparation for other things. Or school work. One really interesting thing I went to was something I heard about in my Gay and Lesbian film class. For the class we watched the film By Hook Or By Crook, which is basically this low-budget movie with a male lead played by a female-to-male trans man and his friendship with a sort of crazy man, also played be a f-t-m trans man. The film disregards sexuality and places its importance on friendship and non-romantic relationships between friends. It was a cool movie, and one of the directors, Silas Howard and his friend Lynnee Breedlove came and spoke to our class. Very interesting discussion. The reason they were able to come, though, was because they were in Austin for a comedy tour they were on, which was the event I went to.
Their comedy was very funny, and in line with the "new queer cinema" direction of the film, in which gay filmmakers don't try to portray their gay characters in a positive light as had been done in the past, but are more unforgiving and in-your-face. Their comedy dealt a lot with struggles of acceptance--not knowing which bathroom to use (male or female) and also included a skit with stuffed animals who were confused about their sexual desires for one another as well as their own self-perceptions. Though it was humorous, I felt like it really had a lot of depth. I was impressed by Silas and Lynnee's ability to so freely share themselves with an audience. I know it much take so much courage to be able to expose oneself to so many people, and that was very beautiful for me to watch.
On Campus Event
To be perfectly honest, I haven't spent all that much time on campus this semester. I've been living in a cute little house a couple minutes from campus and have been spending even more of my time in Austin since I started dating my boyfriend. Not to mention I have been super super busy (and stressed) trying to prepare for study abroad. SO, the only event I've been to on campus this semester was the Strategic Planning meeting we went to during our recent Paideia meeting. I hadn't planned on going since I've been so lazy about that sort of thing this semester, but I'm glad I did. Though I have to admit it was kind of frustrating for me...I don't plan on being an active member of the Southwestern community after I graduate, so most of what is being proposed in the plan won't ever affect me all that much. Everyone seemed to get a lot more worked up about it than me, but maybe I was just tired when I went...
Let's see, I want to address the name change proposal. I've never heard any stereotypes (negative or otherwise) about locationally named schools, so I'm not certain of where that idea comes from. Maybe it is a real stereotype, but Northwestern refutes that. The only evidence of a school successfully changing their name in this way was Rhodes College, so the positive and negative seem to balance each other out. But I don't know. I'm not really opposed to the name change thing. Visibility would be nice, I think. I'm confused! I see both sides of it! I understand the need for the school to create more revenue, and that most of its income is now going to be based on tuition, but I feel like most Southwestern students choose it as a school because of its small size-- for the experience of it being a tiny liberal arts school. I don't feel like I would be getting the same education if the student/teacher ratio were changed.
Another point several students brought up was the football team issue. Everyone is our cohort called the kid who said something like "my friends and I pride ourselves on NOT having a football team" pretentious, but I kind of agreed with him. Then again, I am pretentious. Also, one of the reasonings in defense of said football team was to "broaden diversity"...which is totally racist. Maybe they're talking about men, but come on. It's just perpetuating stereotypes of black athleticism.
Unfortunately, I don't know how better to resolve these problems. I can complain and disagree as much as I want, but when it comes down to it, it's very very difficult to decide how to spend Southwestern's money. I'm glad I'm not in charge of this. It's impossible to make everyone happy and I would be too stressed out to try.
