Of all the things in the world I have tried to learn, of all the things that someone has tried to teach me, I think women’s studies has come easiest to me. At least, the women’s studies that I know and love, has come with relative ease. It’s not that I think it’s an easy program, because it’s not, but it’s one of the only disciplines that my mind can wrap its head around without wanting to explode. The concepts can be mind boggling, especially if you don’t do the god damn readings (I’m talking to you, first year self) but by the end of the semester, I generally have a feeling that I understand them. Of course, there’s always that one topic, that one little section of a class where you’re like “what the fuck is going on?!” For me, that concept is spaces as they relate to identities. It is worth mentioning that I never actually took the course called “Sex, Gender and Space”, but a lot of my friends did and every time they would explain the concept of space and well, anything, I was still lost. Maybe my friends weren’t the best teachers, or I wasn’t paying complete attention. Yeah, it was definitely the latter.
It’s been a few years since that course was offered, and I’m still fairly certain I don’t “get” space. A reading for popular culture class talked about the Canadian identity in American space within the show “How I Met Your Mother”, where the character in question constantly had to negotiate and challenge her identities, based largely on which country she was in. I’m hoping that my having something in common with this character will help me to understand “space”. That going to a new environment will leave me with an understanding of how I will constantly change.
3 weeks later...
So here I am in America. I’ve been here for a little over two weeks, and I can honestly say I’m no closer to understanding “space”. Maybe I am starting to get a hold of the ideas, because I’ve noticed some things that make me uncomfortable and have lead me to question the world around me. For instance, it was revolutionary that there would be different sex dorms, even though the rules are so strict I have laughed just a little.
-The doors that lock within the building (between wings) are normally accessible to anyone with a residence key card. However, between certain hours, if you are of another sex, those doors will not open (except in case of emergency). This assumes, of course, that you are a member of one of two and only two sexes. Do we need to go into how problematic this is again? No readers, I think you’re smart enough to know the ridiculousness behind the gender binary.
-There is 100 percent no sharing a dorm/house/apartment with anyone of another gender. Which ok, that’s cool if that’s what they want as a rule. But again, the binary. And it seems suspicious that they start locking out visitors of another sex after a certain hour. I could have an orgy of women in my room without getting written up. You know, in theory.
I do like it here, though. Some of the things do blow my mind, and I’ll be writing about them for sure. Right now I’m still very much in the introduction phase of being here, and I have to hold off judgement, obviously. And no matter how much something might scare me for whatever reason, I’ll never be comfortable saying it’s wrong if it’s not hurting anyone.
And now here is the obligatory, but no less sincere, proclamation of homesickness. Nothing really overwhelming but there is kind of a quiet “I miss you” voice that speaks in my mind every once in awhile. It mostly whispers when I go for days without interacting with people, despite several attempts at doing so or when I miss the companionship of furry creatures, especially ones of the canine and feline persuasions.
