I went to a slam poetry event on Friday evening with Alvin Lau. He had one particularly political and chilling poem about his gay sister's unrecognized marriage-- I wanted to show you guys the video cus it's says so much.
[an aside: at one point he says 'anybody who doesn't think my sister should live freely can go straight to hell' and though I agree with absolutely everything else he says other than that, I think it's important not to let anger over injustice turn into hatred, cus that just creates new divides. please don't let offense to that comment cloud the listening of the rest of his message, cus the rest of his message is so important.]
I'm really liking the new apartment. It's nice to have my own bedroom, so I can have some down time and occasional solitude. Life and classes have been generally interesting. We're trying to tackle some tough issues in abnormal psyc- is assisted suicide ethical, what exactly *is* abnormal, how does culture impact our definition of abnormal, should severely mentally ill individuals be forced to undergo treatment?
We've gotten into some pretty radical Queer Theory and Gender Theory in my literature course. I know gender is a cultural construct, but the course has forced me to sit down and think about it. High heels are in no sense inherently 'feminine'; it's a learned arbitrary association. And yet there is moral outrage over the sight of a man in stilettos?? We police ourselves and each other cus we have a limited, binary, heterosexist, and gendered understanding of the world.
PSYC 407: Psychology of Personality PSYC 334: Psychology of Women PSYC 302: Abnormal Psychology ENGL 338: Literature of the Queer HONR 312: Independent Undergraduate Research
[edit: a spot opened up in abnormal psyc, so I swapped out of that music & landscaping class. sweet.]
