Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

A Targeted Existence, Melissa J. Lauro

SURGE

Over the summer, I visited a friend from Gettysburg who was having a party. The party was fun for the first half, and I was having a good time, so I decided to stay the night instead of walk in the dark to the bus. This is what parents and educators and older sisters and women everywhere had taught me: stay with people you know; clutch your keys in your hand; don’t walk alone. I was staying with my friend from school; I was safe. [excerpt]

Whose Story? His-Story., Meghan E. O'Donnell

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The essay instructions finally landed in front of me. I passed the extra sheets on and quickly glanced over the page, hoping that the prompt would be inspiring. There were two open-ended options from which to choose: military and social/political aspects of the war. My eyes first fell upon the social option and I pondered using this opportunity to shed light on the experiences of women during the war. I’d done this before – used assignments to explore history’s untold stories – and found it interesting. Then, in a fit of frustration that erupted out of nowhere, I thought to …

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

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Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

Fearless Friday: Erin Meachem, Erin M. Meachem

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In this round of Fearless Friday, SURGE is honoring the work of Erin Meachem ‘16!

Erin is originally from Queensbury, New York and is currently in her senior year at Gettysburg, majoring in English and Spanish. She has been heavily involved with student senate, serving as the senator for the Class of 2016 over the last three years. Erin currently works as the Student Liaison for the Career Development Center, advertising career development events to people who participate in student senate. In addition, she worked as the Peer Learning Assistant for a First-Year Seminar last semester and helped First Years …

Q&A: Privilege And Allyship, Anonymous

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Question: I’ve always wondered about this: as a white, heterosexual male person who cares about the way minorities and marginalized populations are treated, what gives me the right to feel offended or call someone out on something they say that’s a definite gray area when I don’t belong to that group? I believe that as a privileged individual it is my responsibility to advocate as an ally but it would conversely be an exercise of my privilege if I were to be the one to decide what is and isn’t offensive to a whole group of people I don’t belong …

Fearless Friday: Jasmine Matos, Jasmine S. Matos

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This week Surge is honored to highlight Jasmine Matos for Fearless Friday!

Originally from the Bronx in NYC, Jasmine is here at Gettysburg majoring in Health Sciences and minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She now finds herself in her last semester at Gettysburg College and is trying to make the most of it. She’s the Captain of B.O.M.B. Squad, a member of the Black Student Union (BSU), a member of the Latin American Student Association (LASA), and she works in the Admissions Office. [excerpt]

Object To Your Affection, Melissa J. Lauro

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Recently a guy in one of my classes defended objectification of women on the grounds that if he cares for a girl, he will treat her like he treats his most treasured objects; he used his coat as an example. He said that he loved his coat, he wouldn’t let it touch the ground, and he took great care of it; he would do the same for any girl he cared about, for “his girl.” [excerpt]

Fearless Friday: Justina Molokwu, Christina L. Bassler

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Justina Molokwu ’17 has been fearlessly involved on campus in her first two years at Gettysburg contributing to the College’s goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A Psychology and Organization and Management Studies double major and a writing minor, the list of Molokwu’s extracurricular involvement is impressive: Diaspora House house leader, Diversity Peer Educator, Vice President of GASA, and Career Development Liaison for BSU. In addition, she works at the Den, with Residence Life, for the Psychology Department, with the Women’s Center, and is a member of the Gettysburg Cheerleading squad. [excerpt]

Mirrors, Manipulation, And Me, Anonymous

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Yesterday I was sick to my stomach. Literally.

I tossed and turned all night, woke up and felt sick, and spent the first two hours of my day in bed trying to calm down while. I was worrying that I was a bad friend, student, and girlfriend. The hardest part was that I was criticizing myself for having these insecurities. It’s tough to get out of that cycle, but it’s what I need to do. [excerpt]

Stop The Spread, Please, Stephany W. Harrington

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As I walked down the sidewalk of East Lincoln Ave, I saw several students coming towards me. They were guys strolling three across. They clearly saw me approaching, but as the gap closed between us I found the situation similar to a game of chicken. I was unsure how close I would get before one of them moved. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be me. No, I stood my ground and was subsequently body-checked. As he collided with my shoulder I looked at him with disgust, but he kept walking like nothing happened. [excerpt]

Stop Ducking, Stephen Lin

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When I joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, a small voice in my head kept saying that it was a bad idea. “Don’t become part of the system, Stephen.” But I defended my decision and believed in the idea of Phi Kappa Psi returning to campus with a clean slate. The possibilities far outweighed the cons. I dreamt of the potential of what Phi Psi could become and how we would stand above the traditional expectations of Greek organizations. I wanted to tell everyone about this dream and I couldn’t wait to find like-minded people. I felt inspired by how …

The Space I Own, Alison P. Lauro

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***TRIGGER WARNING: Eating Disorders***

I don’t care what anyone says—being a woman is hard. Being a young woman has its own set of complications–we experience a lot of pressure to look a certain way, to act a certain way, to have a specific friend group; to act as social butterflies and to live up to a set of socially constructed beauty standards. And there are too many girls—myself included—who have fallen victim to this impossible set of expectations. [excerpt]

Cannons To Cannon, Ann M. Sasala

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I’ll never forget the first moment, I truly realized who Batman was. No, I’m not talking about (SARCASTIC SPOILER ALERT) his alternate identity as Bruce Wayne, but instead his depth as a character, his uncompromising morals and never-ending cycle of battles with the Joker. Batman, his mythology, and his backstory encompass so much more than the movies; he is alive for me in a way he will never be on screen. From an early age, comics provided my escape; Batman was there to drop kick depression and side-swipe thoughts of suicide. [excerpt]

Fearless: Mollie Sherman, Christina L. Bassler

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As the 14 days to End Sexual Assault ends, Surge highlights the fearless actions of Mollie Sherman, for her courage to speak up against sexual assault. [excerpt]

Stop The Silence, Victoria J. Reynolds

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I am tired of the numbers. The statistics. We all know them. One out of every six women are the victims of sexual assault. One out of thirty-three men are victims of sexual assault. Forty-four percent of victims are under the age of eighteen at the time of their assault. The transgender and queer communities are three times as likely to be targeted for sexual assault. But numbers don’t carry meaning, the don’t carry identity, and they (very quickly) lose their weight and are forgotten. Names mean much more. Stories make an impact.

"A" Is Not For Ally, Ellen I. Henry

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Most people can recall their first crush. They think fondly back to age ten or eleven when they first “went boy-crazy” or couldn’t focus on sixth-grade English because that cute girl was in their class.

This did not happen for me. I do, however, vividly remember it happening for everyone around me. [excerpt]

I Watch Porn, Chelsea E. Broe

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I started watching porn when I was 16.

The first thing I noticed was the porn actresses’ vulvas. They were hairless, perfectly symmetrical, with beautiful folds of labia. This being my only venue to see other female bodies, I assumed what I saw was normal (after all, they all looked pretty similar to each other) and that my own body, not looking like those of these women, was flawed. [excerpt]

Paradoxes Of Porn, Jessie M. Pierce

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So I have a confession: I’m kind of obsessed with porn. Which is weird considering that I have never actually seen any. [excerpt]

The New B-Word, Dayna M. Seeger

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I get all of my career advice from Cosmopolitan magazine.

Okay, maybe not all of it. But sitting in the airport this past weekend, I breezed through articles about Khloé Kardashian and confessions about why guys cheat, and, somewhere in the middle, stumbled on an article called “Like a Boss.” It was written by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In, and described an issue I had never really given much thought to: why female leaders are, seemingly more often than male leaders, described as bossy. As a woman with a leadership position on campus, the …

Fearless: Haya Mohanna, Haya M. Mohanna

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Constantly pursuing new avenues on and off campus to engage in different communities, raise awareness about issues in the Gaza Strip, and learn more about leadership, Haya Mohanna ’17 fearlessly pursues knowledge and activism opportunities to learn more about her own leadership style and capability to create change in her home community. [excerpt]

My (Not So) Angry Vagina, Mary E. Maloney

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Why is feminism a dirty word? Why are celebrities from Susan Sarandon to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry explicitly rejecting the feminist label? And why is Carrie Underwood saying, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am a feminist, that can come off as a negative connotation.”

Since when was there a negativity surrounding feminism? Well, basically since forever. [excerpt]

Fearless: The Vagina Monologues, Center For Public Service

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Performed annually around the world to celebrate womanhood, empower survivors of sexual assault and abuse, and create an open forum for challenging cultural attitudes toward women, the Vagina Monologues will be performed by Gettysburg College students next Thursday and Friday (February 20 & 21). [excerpt]

Our Gendered Food Chain, Jasmine T. Colahan

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Over the past four decades, the number of women-operated farms has nearly doubled. Including both primary and secondary operators, one million women make up thirty percent of all U.S. farmers.

Headlines such as “Females Take the Reins,” “Meet the New face of Agriculture,” “Old McDonald Might Be a Lady” demonstrate this gender shift. And, it is true in my life too. As I worked on the Painted Turtle Farm this summer, the majority of my role models, co-workers, and mentors working in agriculture, whether rural or urban, were primarily women. [excerpt]

Twice As Likely To..., Adrienne M. Ellis

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TRIGGER WARNING!

I am white. I am bisexual. I am female. I have been sexually assaulted. Three times. [excerpt]

What I'Ve Learned To Expect, Natalie S. Sherif

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“Hey bitch!” someone yelled.

“Biiitttch!” I heard again from the car.

Music blared from inside. I pretended not to notice. Don’t give them the satisfaction, I thought. Don’t do something you’ll regret. So I stood there until the cars stopped whizzing past, pretending to ignore a car of boys yelling insults.

When the light changed, I hurried across Carlisle Street, got into my room, and lost it.

I was furious. Being reduced to an insult while walking home from a movie for class is infuriating. But, what really got under my skin was that incidents like this seem commonplace. While …

The Strong Silent Type, Alyssa L. Bosold

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Speak up. Be assertive. Lean in. Take up space. However it’s said, there is a stream of discourse telling women that we should be louder and prouder in order to succeed.

As the argument goes, we, as women, are silenced by oppression. Society tells us to be quiet, politely agree, and make ourselves as small as possible. So naturally, we should resist this social pressure by being more vocal, more extroverted, and more assertive. [excerpt]

Every Other Day, Sarah M. Connelly

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There is a problem on our campus—a problem of sexual assault and its perpetuation due to unnecessary silence. Current compulsory education on the topic through AlcoholEdu and First-Year Orientation are often turned into jokes because of course everyone knows not to rape and not to put yourself in a dangerous situation. The concept doesn’t seem real until a Campus Safety Alert reports that one of our students has been sexually assaulted. But even then, we get those so infrequently that it couldn’t be that much of an issue, right? [excerpt]

I Don't Want To Save Second Base, Chelsea E. Broe

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Tomorrow kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I have one request: This October, let’s not save second base.

I know, I know, you probably think this month is a good thing. If not for all of those T-shirts demanding every female-bodied person to feel their boobies, or the bracelets simply proclaiming “I love boobies,” people with breasts might forget that they even have them, or at the very least might start to think that their breasts are their own business. But the female body seems to be an object owned by the public, so we must always be reminded …

The Irony Of Choice, Cam T. Nguyen

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We are having the inevitable late night conversation. You talk about your eventual wedding, your marriage to the person you love, the timeline you’ve created for yourself, and your plans for what our future children will do together. I clarify that I don’t want to have children, but you can’t seem to understand that decision. You question how happy, satisfied, or fulfilled my life will be without children, the maternal instincts I’m supposed to be feeling, and my desire to have something to care for and love. You’re convinced that I will recognize how empty my life will be sans …

Brooks Better Not Come Back, Helena E. Yang

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Every time a new season of the Bachelorette starts, I tell myself that I won’t watch this season—that I won’t give in to the trashiness and the petty drama which is the Bachelor. But I can’t help it. Season after season I’m hooked and 17 seasons later… here I am. [excerpt]