Blogs

Hello, Anne, Kaye, classmates, & web browsers,

Greetings. My name is Joshua. At this particular moment, I’m sitting on my very comfortable bed, very proud of myself for successfully logging onto my account.

I am very much looking forward to this semester with all of you. After reading through “Listening To Understand,” I want to share, briefly, a few swimming thoughts.

I was at first anxious to write my educational autobiography for an audience because, while I do think about the details of my formal and informal schooling often, I don’t usually share these thoughts with others. As always with my written work, I was worried that I would come off in a way that I had not intended, for which reason I opened my writing with a less formal anecdote, though in reading the essay again, I’ve found that I soon after fell into my old formalities that often accompany my writing. When speaking of my writing, my English teacher would often say that it comes across as if I am trying to impress someone, or that it is more or less pretentious, two things that I would not like my readers to feel; I simply do not know how to write in any other way.

Hi Everyone!

My name is Lucy and I am a sophomore at Bryn Mawr.  I am an anthropology major with an undeclared gender and sexuality studies concentration.  I am interested in public health, particularly women’s health.  I wanted to take interdisciplinary perspectives on gender and sexuality because all of the other Gen/Sex classes that I have taken have been anthropology classes and I wanted to learn about gender and sexuality in a different context.  This semester I am also taking anthropology of the body and introduction to biology and I am hoping to see a connection between the three classes.

Hey all,

I'm a senior (yikes!) political science major at Haverford College, and so excited for this class. I love the idea of interdisciplinary courses, and wish the bi-co more fully embraced them. I'm particularly interested in the interception of race and gender, because I think we (as a society) too often get stuck in the bogs of white middle class feminism while unintentionally marginalizing other movements. Other than that, I'm extremely interested in public health as it relates to sex, gender, and identity.

This is Chelsea borrowing Gavi's account. Mine is freaking out!

Hi Everyone! My name is Chelsea. I’m a sophomore at Haverford and have not declared a major – though it will probably wind up being Political Science. I'm excited to take this class because I love thinking about the ways gender and sexuality influence and interact with different pieces of society. I'm hoping that throughout the semester I will begin to not only see connections between Gen/Sex studies and other disciplines, but also consider their implications more deeply.

 It was really interesting to see the variety of majors that are present in this class.

Hi everyone! My name is Kim. I'm an English major and gender studies minor at Bryn Mawr. I am really excited to be taking this class. I have always been interested in how fashion and gender intercept. There is a saying, "gender is a drag", and I think that is so interesting and true. In Riki Wilchins book there are a lot of theories on socially constructed gender, and I believe that fashion and clothes are a way to play with and explore gender and gender roles. I think this ties in well with the "Playful" in this course title, because through fashion we are able to manipulate and play with our own gender, and the way society views us.

When I looking back my educational experience, I am not surprised to find that I spent most of my time sitting in the classrooms and listening as carefully as I could to every word the teacher said. Yes, I learned a lot from various kinds of lectures delivered by teachers and successful people, however, for my educational autobiography, I wrote a dialogue happened between a street cleaner and his daughter, which I consider as one of the most important lessons that I have ever had.

The conversation between the father and the daughter provided me with a great opportunity to redefine success. Now in my perspective, success has nothing to do money and fame, it is something with personal contribution. Some people, especially those from lower-class, have much less resources and opportunities than most of us, and therefore it is nearly impossible for them to move up to the upper class. Of course they are not the “successful people” according to the traditional definition. But, they are still making their own contribution to the world: clean the streets, for example. As a matter of fact, a meaningful life does not equal to a successful life