TIME Article

Until senior year of college, I never really thought about feminism. I always knew how fortunate I was, but I never really had the opportunity to see my life or history through another person’s eyes. Cue Camille Paglia. A teacher at UArts, Camille writes for TIME, the Daily Telegraph, and is featured on many news sites and programs. I took her Gender Images in the Media, which is basically a class on feminism. It inspired so much of my art and my life this year. For the first time, I was able to relate and have intelligent conversation that led to many successful partnerships and collaborations. For our term paper we had to write a 2-sentence proposal about what we wanted to write about. Now, it was supposed to be a 5-7 page research paper about some gender role in society. For some reason, senioritis, I decided that this was dull to me. As an Aquarius, I go with the flow and kind of do what I want (but at least I do it whole heartedly).

I began to think of social barriers and expectations that affect me. Things arose like, “What does a person mean when they double take on the street.” I thought about going up to people at bars and interviewing them. I wanted to find the dingiest of dive bars to the elite dining halls finding out TRUE REAL conversation about what is happening in gay society. I wanted to make it about gays because that is who I most relate to and who I feel I have to most power to influence and grow alongside of. My proposal ended up being “If we do not give collegiate aged youth 18-21 year olds, a place to exchange ideas and form meaningful relationships, they have to resort to hook ups apps in order to form a community and meet friends, thus perpetuating the gay stereotype.” What started as a 5-7 page research paper kind of turned into my thesis statement for life of which I could write a book. I brainstormed with a lot of new friends, talked to a lot of people about their thoughts and input, and had very interesting dialogue about current gay culture.

Camille liked my thesis idea that she took it but broadened it into an article the she wrote in TIME about lowering the drinking age. I thought it was a very interesting point of view on the issue and she offered a solution. As a 22 year old, I am still asking all the questions. I know the problem, I know the very root of the problem, but I do not know the answer yet. I wrote my paper, having A LOT to say and solving problems along the way. I asked for her feedback after a very challenging writing process and editing week and received a response highly in my favor. She passed along my paper to her editor at TIME and now I am currently writing an article about gay culture on college campuses and my critiques. HOW EXCITING RIGHT!? The thought of being an LGBT activist all of a sudden got very real.