Thursday, January 22, 2009
so ive alr fulfilled my one post a day quota, but i have things to discuss that are of a different topic to the previous one, thereby explaining the seperate post.
so its been about 2 weeks into this coed environment thing. and i must say personally that we technically arent coed yet, since the guys largely stay to their side/friends and we largely stay to ours. ive not met a single male counterpart i dont alr know. and i think i speak for most of us who simply arent trying. after all we still have an abundance of time.
of course there are people mixing around though. or rather i should say. its not even hookup-week yet and the bgrs are already beginning! hookup-week is annies description of orientation, and bgr info comes from chong. chloe gasps "SO LOOSE D:"
but like i said, most of us arent trying. on both sides.
yet time has passed when we can still pretend we're an exclusive female bunch. there are differences that flood us in all directions. the deep (very loud D:) "booming" tones of bass during the national anthem, the slightly shorter path to the mrt through raja block, the senior frisbee dudes showing off their grace in the amphitheatre, the general whiteness everywhere and of course, the slightly mean jabs about the male species.
speaking of the taunts, quite a few people have been commenting on them (from both sides). jx made a particularly strong stand. i do agree the guys need not put up with them and that in recent days, the jabs have been pretty increasingly frequent and tiresome. and childish. im all for a little competiveness, but i think the guys acknowledge our abilities (its not like they all think we are inefficient and stupid or something) and even if they dont just yet, there are plenty of opportunities to show them how we do it later on. like pw. but theres always a line between teasing and disrespectful. i still rmb the talk we had in rg at the end of year. that one was terrible. trying to make it sound like all men are out to rape us is not the right way to make us look forward to jc. as much as the school (both rg and rj) are trying to help us "[get] ready for a coed envirnoment", i certainly agree that there are better ways to go about doing it. i should know. ive had 10 years of all girls education!
but i must defend our gender as well. we are not the only side with discrimination. the bias is both ways. how many guys actually put down a yes in "i think the girls i will meet in rj are caring and considerate" in the horribly sexist survey? we've had our fair share of stereotypes. and not all of us view our ri counterparts in a purely negative fashion. we are more intelligent than that. in a sense it is like issuing a challenge, one that we dearly hope the guys will win in. (after all, we as females only stand to gain) at least, i have enough faith in our fellow rafflesians to believe that they will.
on another related point, feminism. for one, feminism is for equality, not for females to overthrow all the males or rule over the world. it is certainly not at all related to gender-based criticism. instead, it has bigger issues like female fetal abortion, equal education and job opportunities/rights/wages, protection against domestic violence etc. not too applicable in a coed higher learning institution in a first world country. im not an expert on this topic (fik is) and i will not pretend i know enough about feminism to expound upon its qualities and methods of manifestation, but i do know enough to tell you point blank that not all rgs girls are feminists and that feminism is not taught/instilled in rgs.
i will not hurry to judge the rj environment just yet, because a lot of it has to do with building trust, which takes time. but the right way to prepare us all for the year ahead, i believe, is not putting down, but building up. show us the good sides. warn us but dont slander, clarify but dont add on to the stereotypes.
after all, both sides has an ocean of misunderstandings to cross.
Escaped
{10:32 pm}
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