Yesterday during my Interpersonal Communication course we had the privilege of having Deirdre N. McCloskey come speak in our classroom. Deirdre is an eminent professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. What's so unique and awesome about Deirdre is that she used to be Donald.
There was something that really stuck with me during Deirdre's visit. She was talking about her transition from male to female and said, "Hey, we all go through transitions, like a child wanting to be an adult so they can get candies and drive a car...We all want to be what we're not, especially something we don't know much about." I am of course paraphrasing here but what Deirdre was trying to say is that we all put on a performance one way or another whether it's our given gendered identity or, say, if someone who is in Pre-law and wants to become a lawyer. It's an area of study no one inherently knows about so you must be trained in order to fulfill your role.

Another exciting event that took place this week was 'Take Back the Night' run by the good ladies of the Women's Resource Center. It's a gathering, welcoming all, where people can speak openly and comfortably about sexual violence. Individuals shared personal stories, powerful song lyrics that touched them and someone even read a pretty comical editorial by Eve Ensler (author of the Vagina Monologues) regarding Sarah Palin.

This was my first 'Take Back the Night' and I must admit I was amazed and touched by how many students and faculty members showed their support. There were three parts to this event. The first involved understanding why we have 'Take Back the Night' and how important it is for people to speak about sexual violence. The second part was a march around campus. This was used as a tool for spreading awareness; that it does happen and activism needs to be initiated. We (the Dub) had prepared t-shirts, printed out chants for everyone to follow, had a blow horn and most importantly support from our fellow students and faculty members. The night couldn't have been a success without them!
After the march everyone gathered back in Atwood for the final installment, an open discussion. Here we took the time to reflect on the last two hours and share individual opinions. A majority of the discussion revolved around everything that I'm pretty much learning in my Communication and Gender Studies courses. I was able to take what I learned from inside the classroom and converse with others on the various structured ideologies we currently have in our society.

Instead of a picture this week I'm going to leave you with a quote from my communication professor, Dr. Traci Fordham-Hernandez to hopefully get you thinking about language(which are merely a set of culturally CONSTRUCTED symbols, by the way) and how it is entirely arbitrary. She says, "We only have meaning for which we already have meaning for."

THINK ABOUT IT!