Have you ever sat down to write an essay or finally get that assignment done and really could not be bothered to do it with your full attention? Congratulations. You are a normal college student. We all generally accept that there will be classes that we just care less about than others. There will also…
A senior’s non-advice
Looking back as a senior, it is very easy to see all the mistakes I have made and all the things I would tell a small first-year Mara. It seems like everyone has a list of things to tell their past self — what to avoid and better things to do. Because we have no…
Complicating consent
Recently, I listened to the first episode of Radiolab’s “In the No” series. It came out last year, so I am a little behind. But it got me thinking a lot about consent and the way it seems to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. In theory, it is all very simple, but in…
A trans perspective on the Title VII ruling
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, arguments officially started in the Supreme Court about whether or not LGBTQ+ identities are protected under Title VII on the basis of sex in three different cases of wrongful termination. In as little as a month it could be legal to fire LGBTQ+ people based on their identities and/or orientations. It…
What shouldn’t be a poly-tical choice
Recently in my life, I have done a lot of questioning of a lot of different pillars of our society — gender, sexuality, race and attractiveness to name a few. But one pillar that I kind of held sacred was monogamy. On the outside, it sounds really nice and is sold with such a nice…
You can’t have breakfast and eat lunch too
If you are a college student reading this, chances are that you do not eat breakfast, w hich is fine, no judgment here. But here is the crucial question: if one day on a whim you decide that you need breakfast from there onward, would you like the option to have it? Or better still,…
Cis-splaining
“You’re not really trans.” “Yeah, but not all trans people experience dysphoria.” “Some trans people really need surgery.” “Trans means going from one sex to another.” I’ve heard these things from people I know who know I’m trans and who seem to think they know better than me. They seem to think they have some…
Constructing a new narrative about “transness”
Top surgery. A gender-confirming surgery that some transmasculine and non-binary people choose to get. There are many reasons people choose to get it and none of those reasons are any of your damn business if you are a random person on the street or even someone close who doesn’t know the context. But now that…
What? How? Where?
A few weeks ago, while walking through Briggs Hall, I saw a poster for a trans support group. I was really excited because I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to hang out with other trans people and talk about our unique struggles. I contacted the listed leaders all pumped up, only…
No white saviors, here or abroad
Recently, I stumbled across a series of tweets that led me to a world I had thought about but never truly delved into. The tweets were from a group of social workers in Uganda called No White Saviors. In them, they talked about Lauren Akins and Thomas Rhett adopting a child from Uganda, a place…