--Under Construction--

So Much For the Fairytale...

2008-07-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Disney movies, although paragons of childhood fantasies about what adult life will be like, are not disillusioned about one thing: racism. Yes, these animated films are chock full of Old South imagery, stereotypes, and heck, even invisibility. While Disney is in the process of making its FIRST film starring a black princess, the company has had to go back to the drawing boards because its first script was a bit too...well, racist.

Check out this article from Jezebel and this short video from YouTube.

You might not be wishing upon any stars in the near future....Look how long it took for the dreams of black girls all over the world to come true.

UPDATE!!!

2008-07-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

As fresh-faced high schoolers cruise the round their necks proclaiming "I'm a new freshman!", I realized that itUSC campus with bright yellow lanyards a is--yet again--freshman orientation. These 2-day events bring all the new students to campus, along with their eager parents, to check out the programs, academics, campus, dorms, and all of the other perks the university has to offer.

But, I bet you didn't know that USC also offers a special overnight orientation for prospective LGBT students. Yep, that's right. It turns out that USC is the only school in the country that offers such a niche and inviting opportunity.

In fact, LGBT resources at USC are so great they have recently been recognized by the City of Los Angeles. Some of the university's standout programs include the USC LGBT Resource Center, the USC Lambda Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, and the GLBT Student Assembly.

The article, which can be found on the main page of USC's Web site, also noted that USC tied for the nation's highest score in the most recent Advocate College Guide ranking of the "Top 20 Best of the Best Campuses for LGBT Students."

"USC also received a 'five-star' rating (highest possible) by the Campus Climate Index and was named a 'diversity leader' by the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition for its inclusive non-discrimination policy," the article added.

For me, this effort to reach out and make EVERYONE feel welcome is a big step--especially as a girl coming from the Deep South where differences aren't always celebrated. This is a breath of fresh air and a definite step in the right direction.

Sexual Assault at USC

2008-04-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a lot of hard work and a long-term relationship with Google Pages in order to finish this project, but I think it's well worth the wait...

Revealing...
SPEAKING OUT AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT.
Ta-da!

If you want to know more about how USC deals with issues of sexual assault, alcohol, and consent, check out this new Web site to hear from students, administrators, and even a LAPD detective in the community.

There are pictures, videos, and links to outside resources that might be able to help if you (or someone you know) has been sexually assaulted. There's even a quiz you can take and place to leave your much-appreciated feedback.

Something to Look Forward To...

2008-04-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

With only a month of my first year of grad school left, I'm planning for this blog's grand finale: an interactive, multimedia Web site that features information about sexual assualt at USC. After last week's Take Back the Night event held on campus, I was inspired to try and give this under-reported, and often silenced, issue a voice.

I'm hoping to include the following on my site:

(1) a photo gallery with stimulating pictures from the week's events
(2) a Q & A interview with a police detective who has dealt with sexual assault in the community
(3) a few video excerpts from interviews I had with the Director of USC's Center for Women and Men, a woman who works on the judicial side of sexual assaults on campus, and a Deputy District Attorney who spoke about prosecuting and defending sexual assault cases outside of the university's system.
(4) videos of some of the really amazing monologues that the Women's Theatre Group performed at USC's Take Back the Night event.
(5) a poll that will allow readers to anonymously tally their experiences with sexual assault at USC
(6) and an interactive Google map that will show some of the sexual assault centers on/around USC's campus

Since I have already done all of the filming and photo-taking, all that is left for me to do is put it all together in a user-friendly, thought-provoking way!

Update!

2008-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

As I was perusing through the L.A. Times website today, I came across this article that follows up on my blog post from March 7. It seems like I'm not the only one who has noticed the Disney Princess conspiracy.

Check out this funny and insightful story written by Rosa Brooks of the L.A. Times.

Wiki What?

2008-03-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

In honor of my new status as an "online journalist," I have taken it upon myself to edit the content of one of the Web's most user-generated websites: Wikipedia. Besides being a guide to global culture, written by anyone and everyone, Wikipedia offers users a chance to literally have a say (or write a sentence) in the Internet's history book, encyclopedia, dictionary, and gossip guide all rolled into one.

After spending a lot of time working on the study produced by the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media, I thought it might be a good idea to check out Geena Davis's "wiki" to see what people have said about her foundation. Besides a brief mention of the name of the foundation and a one-sentence summary, there was nothing substantial included there about the recent study put out by USC's Annenberg School for Communication earlier this year.

Now, you know what has to be done...it's wiki time!

Under the section outlining Geena Davis's activism, I included a little extra information about the 2008 study put out by the Geena Davis Institute and USC Annenberg:

The Geena Davis Institute recently put out a study in collaboration with the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. The 2008 study, directed by Annenberg's Dr. Stacy Smith, shows that there are nearly 3 males to every 1 female character in the nearly 400 P, PG, PG-13, and R-Rated movies the undergraduate team of Annenberg students coded.
I also added an external link that will take the viewer directly to Annenberg's home page on the USC web site.

With one click of the mouse, I am now an official Wikipedia editor--for what that's worth. Hopefully, my contribution won't get overwritten some time in the near future.

If you're interested, check out the "Geena Davis" Wikipedia page before my edit and after my edit. Just scroll down to the section titled "Activism" to see the new additions.

Some Sort of Fairy Tale...

2008-03-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

OK, let’s play a quick game of word association. I’ll “say” a word, and then you say out loud the first thing that comes to your head. Ready?

Television! [Insert your word here.]
Girl! [Insert your word here.]
Children’s Movie! [Insert your word here].

Now, you’re probably wondering why you just played that game, right? Well, if your brain works like mine, then we probably came up with some similar responses. Here are mine:

Television! [Shows]
Girl! [Boy]
Children’s Movie! [Disney]

Four recent, ground-breaking studies conducted by Dr. Stacy Smith (University of Southern California) and a team of student researchers from the Annenberg School for Communication found that there is a major problem with children’s programming (i.e. film and television). Even though females are half (actually slightly more than half (51%), according to the 2006 U.S. Census) of the world’s population, they are highly under represented on the small and silver screens.

[Click here to see a breakdown of the studies.]

As if that weren’t enough, the study also shows that females are characterized as being either hyper-sexual (Britney Spears a là “Slave for You”) or traditional (Stepford Wives)—neither of which is particularly healthy for young female viewers.

Joining with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media, Dr. Smith presented her team’s findings at the 2008 Conference on Children and Gender in Film and Television, hosted by USC. [To see pictures from the event, click here.]

Examining the G, PG, PG-13, and R rated movies of the last 16 years, Dr. Smith and her Annenberg team examined 12 different leading ladies in 13 different G-rated, animated and live-action films (most of them produced by Disney).

Smith and her coding crew “assessed the protagonists’ aspirations, romantic inclinations, and appearance norms within the context of the plot” (p. 16, GDIGM conference brochure).

Are you curious about how these films were coded to reveal such detailed information? Well, Dr. Smith and Marc Choueiti, one of the team leaders of the Annenberg coding team for this study, explain how the coding process works.

Now, even though Dr. Smith mentioned that the study found no particular culprit of these hyper-sexualized / traditional images, I can’t help but see the part that Disney films have played in my own formation of gender identity. I mean, as a child of the 80s I basically grew up singing along with Ariel, dreading midnight with Cinderella, and sleeping beautifully with Aurora.

These images of Disney princesses have been commodified and sold to girls of all ages. There’s a whole line of Disney-themed clothing. There are Facebook quizzes asking college students, “Which Disney Princess are you?” In fact, I just saw a commercial the other night for a Disney Princess doll whose crown lights up when you brush her hair. The slogan: “You never forget your first Disney Princess.”

So in my quest to get to the bottom of this Disney Princess takeover, I came across the “offici al” website of the Disney Princesses. Yes, they even have their own website.

By clicking on the images below, you can catch a glimpse into the “About Me” sections of some of the princess’s web pages featured on the website (and a quick commentary of my own).

**If you want to know what these princesses are singing about, click here**

After perusing this website, there is no doubt in my mind that Dr. Smith and her students hit the nail on the head with their study. As long as Disney’s female characters sing songs like “Some Day My Prince Will Come” and are praised mainly for their beauty, girls are going to grow up being deceived.

Put Your [Campaign Contribution] Money Where Your Mouth Is

2008-02-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

It's the year 2008--the year of the presidential election, the year of the first female presidential hopeful, the year of the first African American to show a nation still frought with racialized tensions that he can sit in the "White" House, too.

In a time of such diversity, Americans have crawled from their politically-apathetic holes to get out and vote (especially the youth, who have turned out in record numbers in many state primaries).

With all of this being said, I thought to myself: "Wow. I bet that the gay and lesbian community has really reached out to support the Democratic candidates who seem to speak out for their issues...right?"

Wrong.

Well, at least according to the CQ MoneyLine search I performed while researching the names and contribution amounts given by people who registered "gay and lesbian" in part of their employment information given to the FEC. [FYI: the U.S. Federal Election Commission requires people who give over $200 in campaign contributions to register with them. The FEC, in turn, publishes a database of those contributions, which are, of course, public record.]

The search I performed called up 12 entries. Upon further review, I realized the 12 entries only comprised of three people. Count 'em. One. Two. Three.

Now, maybe this is just me, but out of a booming state population of approximately 38 million--and its fair share of gays and lesbians--I thought for sure the search would produce more prosperous results. I was wrong.

Out of all the people in sunny California, here are the three men who pulled out their wallets and gave money in the 2008-09 election cycle. Hats off to them.

The following list is in descending order based on contribution amount:

Big Spender #1: Curtis F. Shepard
Occupation: Director of Government Relations for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
Quick Facts: Shepard recently completed a program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; received a Master's degree from Ball State University in higher education administration; earned a doctorate in education from UCLA.
ZIP code: 90210
Monetary Contributions: $3,300to Sen. Barack Obama (D); $3,300 to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D); $2,100 to Sen. John Edwards (D); $1,000 to Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.); $2,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
TOTAL: $11,700

Big Spender #2: Matthew Walker
Employer: Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
Quick Fact: Walker contributes to the online LA Gay and Lesbian Center's website
ZIP code: 90065
Monetary Contributions: $500 to Joe Biden (D)

Big Spender #3: James Beaudreau
Employer: Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
Quick Fact: Beaudreau works with the medical services / education in the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center offers to members of the community
ZIP code: 94117 (San Francisco)
Monetary Contributions: $250 to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D)

TOTAL AMOUNT GIVEN BY ALL THREE CONTRIBUTERS: $12,450

V is for victory, violin....VAGINA!

2008-02-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

Photo Slideshow:Gender and USC

2008-02-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Gender and USC

From the Trojan Lactation Center, the men's and women's locker rooms in the gym, the LGBT Resource Center, the Center for Women and Men, an all-female cast production of Shakespeare's King Lear, and "Tommy" the Trojan, gender is visible, expected, created, and performed at USC. Check out this photo slideshow to get a glimpse of what's going on at USC this week.

Gendered Spaces, Public Places

2008-02-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

It's 2:00 pm on a Thursday afternoon at USC. Classes are in full swing. Trousdale Parkway is bustling with students. Besides these surface-level observations, what would you see if you just sat and watched the crowd pass by? How would gender function in the space? As I sat on a concrete bench and recorded my observations, this is what I saw:

The fountain in front of the Hancock building selfishly covers the sound of the bustling campus center, leaving the people to move around silently--lips moving, but no voices heard.

Here, clothing speaks louder than words. It's either school pride or high fashion on this street. For those who choose the latter, Trousdale becomes USC's own fashion runway. Girls in skinny jeans, high boots, tight shirts, and designer sunglasses strut by, their wanna-be celebrity personas eminating from them like the bright California sun.

For guys, it's either California "cool," comfy-casual, or Trojan-inspired. No stillettos for these guys.

iPods play soundtracks that only they can hear. Cell phones to ear lobes, their mouths move but nothing is audible over the hundreds of others going through the same motions.

Bicycles and skateboards whiz by. A girl attempts to readjust the part in her hair, and the handle bars wobble dangerously from side to side. She recovers, every hair in place, and zig-zags her way through the crowd.

A clothing and accessory vendor has a tent set up, drawing a flock of girls who admire themselves in small hand mirrors as they try on a new pair of earrings or a new, even larger pair of sunglasses. "Those look great on you!" the vendor mouths to her newest customer. The girl smiles, pulling out her leather wallet.

In the shadow of the Gwynn Wilson Student Union, a couple kisses passionately. She struggles to balance on her skateboard as he kisses her more intensely. Balance is a hard feat to accomplish with closed eyes. They pull back from each other, smiling.

A girl sits forlornly at the foot of the statue of Tommy the Trojan, her head in her hands. A book is in her lap, but she is paying more attention to the people as they pass than the words on the page. She is alone.

Three girls sit on a bench close by. A mish-mash of brunette and blonde, tall and short, together they are anything but quiet. Over the bubbling of the fountain, the song "I Love Rock n' Roll" penetrates into the atmosphere. The tall blonde is playing the air guitar as her friend plays the "drums." Their pretense of uncaring is see-through. Attention is what they crave.

As two guys pass by, they stare and smile, giving rise to a stage-worthy performance. The louder, the better--or at least that appears to be the girls' philosophy. Gyrating her hips, the tall blonde, makes sure her iPod ear bud is in place before she continues. The girls giggle at her increasingly energetic performace. Two thumbs up for showmanship.

As her friends leave, the blonde girl is left alone. With her audience's back turned, she sits, more quietly now. Only head-bobbing and foot-tapping are left. She lights a cigarette and flicks it with the thumb of her left hand like a movie star. Show is over.

The thoroughfare begins to clear now. Classes are soon to begin, lunchtime hours are soon to pass, and, soon enough, it will all happen again tomorrow.

Q & A with Lisa Bitel, Director of USC's Department of Gender Studies

2008-01-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

If anyone knows anything about gender-related resources at USC, it's got to be the director of the Department of Gender Studies and long-time feminist scholar, Lisa Bitel. Teaching a combination of History, Religion, and Gender Studies courses, she is making her mark on the department, as well as her students.

Amanda Rossie: How long have you been the director of USC’s Department of Gender Studies, and how did you get here?
Lisa Bitel: I began my appointment as Director of the Gender Studies Program in August of this year, although I’ve been jointly appointed in Gender Studies and History since 2001. (Actually, now I’m jointly appointed in three units, because I’ve added Religion.) Before I came to USC I taught at the University of Kansas, where I was also jointly appointed in Women’s Studies and History, and where I directed the WS Program for two years.

AR: What drew you to the field?
LB: I’m a historian of medieval Europe and I’m a lifelong feminist. I went to Smith College for my undergrad degree because it is a women’s college and I believed the college’s publicity about a women-only campus encouraging leadership roles for women. Women ran the newspaper, ran student government, ran everything, and when they left Smith they took that experience into the larger world. We learned that feminism was life. As I went on to grad school, I never considered practicing scholarship without sensitivity to women’s and gender issues. The first thing I ever published—an Irish antiquarian journal—was about women in early medieval Ireland.

AR: What courses do you teach?
LB: A combination of History, Religion, and Gender Studies courses—everything from a survey of the history of Britain and Ireland up to 1000 C.E., to a seminar on religious visions across religions and across centuries, to a class called “From Goddesses to Witches: Women and Religion in Premodern Europe.”

AR: What kind of scholarly research is coming out of the department?
LB: One of our faculty members is writing a book about the relocation of queer cultural centers from the big coastal cities to suburbia, and exploring how ethnicity and popular media influences that transition. Another is working on an oral history of famous 20th-century feminist artists. Yet another has written books about cross-dressers and pregnant men in the early modern Spanish empire. Meanwhile, I’m writing about religious visionaries in the Middle Ages and the modern Mojave desert.

AR: What kind of contributions do USC gender studies scholars make to the field as a whole?
LB: Like any other collection of humanities and social science scholars, we pursue mostly individual research that reaches the public as books and articles, conference presentations, websites, appearances in popular media as talking heads or onstage as performers. We sit on the boards of journals and academic organizations. We interact with other scholars in mainstream disciplines and scholars of women’s, gender, and queer studies. We try to bring what we learn from the larger community of gender scholars back into the classrooms and lecture halls of USC.

AR: What are the strengths of the program?
LB: Our strength lies in the diversity of interests among both teachers and students and their joint commitment to feminist work. It’s harder to do a GS major than to do a mainstream major. Students have to take the four required SWMS (GS) courses that frame our major, but then they also have to put together a portfolio of courses relating to gender taught in other departments, and thus frame a coherent program that suits their interests. Meanwhile, faculty in Gender Studies are in at least two departments/programs at once, which means double the service obligations. But this means that students and faculty don’t just happen to land in Gender Studies, they share a particular dedication to its study.

AR: What are the weaknesses of the program?
LB: Three things:

First, our courses need constant updating. Feminist politics and gender studies move fast—just when we think we’ve got a curriculum on the cutting edge, some scholar in some corner of Gender Studies turns the field around and we have to figure out how to get the material to our students.
Second, our program is too small. Our jointly appointed faculty has so many obligations in other departments that we often lack folks to teach our basic courses.
Finally, we need to organize the students in our graduate certificate program and mentor them better. It’s fairly easy to earn the certificate while working on a doctoral or master’s degree in another department, it’s just a matter of taking some gender theory courses and writing a dissertation that deals with gender. But we in GS want also support the new scholarship that these students are producing, help them find jobs, and prepare them to be feminist and gender-sensitive players in the world beyond USC.

AR: What resources could make the program better?
LB: Money to hire new faculty! But also a realization among chairs of other departments that our current faculty have to be allowed to fulfill their teaching and service obligations to GS without being penalized for neglecting their other departments. I also think that the university needs to encourage gender-based research projects.

AR: Do you think that there are any stereotypes surrounding Gender Studies courses?
LB: Sure, there are stereotypes. Some [students] come into class expecting to be surrounded by angry feminists, transvestites and trans-sexed people, lesbian recruiters, and all sorts of
fearsome creatures. Some men expect to get picked on. Women feel that they have to hide their opinions about fashion or sorority life. Conservatives tend to keep their opinions quiet at first. And, of course, almost no one will admit to being a feminist. On the other hand, there are
always a handful of self-identified, left-leaning students who feel impatient with the seemingly retrograde politics of others in the class. But GS faculty is used to bringing these issues into open discussion. We work to make clear the difference between personal opinion and the intellectual work we’re doing in class, and also to show that people’s opinions won’t affect their grades.

AR: How do you think the student body feels about gender-related issues?
LB: I think a small group of activists tries to keep gender issues visible through the usual events—Take Back the Night marches, Clothesline Project, productions of the Vagina Monologues, that kind of thing. If students in my classes are any indication, USC has the same wide variety of student opinion about gender, sex, sexuality, and feminism that every other campus has. I see students who assume the feminist project is completed, who take feminism for granted, who missed the feminist movement entirely, who believe men are eternally superior to women, who are homophobic, who are radical separatist lesbians, and who are everything else you might think up. But they don’t bother to consider these opinions unless provoked. It’s our job—the job of gender scholars—to provoke them.

AR: How would you like to change the way the campus deals with some of these issues?
LB: It depends on the issues. I’ve been trying to come up with ways to get more students into GS classes, just to teach them to notice gender issues and issues of sexual politics. GS and CFR also put on lectures and performances that could draw larger crowds. It’s hard to engage students on difficult issues without some sort of lure—why worry about patriarchy when you’ve got homework to do and a party tomorrow night? Maybe what we need is a better alliance of student activist groups and GS personnel who could collaborate on consciousness-raising.

AR: Who have you looked up to in the field? Why?
LB: My hero/ines tend to be other geeky historians who have brought their politics into their academic work, served as role models for other feminists and gender scholars, and produced important new ideas for the benefit not just of other historians, but for any intelligent person who reads about them. My graduate advisor at Harvard wasn’t a famous feminist—in fact, he was a nice Catholic family man. He supported his female students equally with his male students. He also showed us how a person could be a scholar and a loving, working parent at the same time. Since then I’ve encountered a community of dedicated feminist working in several fields of academe to who aim to help each other, mentor younger scholars, and do collaborative work rather than the kind of individually competitive work that too often occupies ambitious scholars.

AR: Based on your teaching history, what kind of changes (if any) do students experience after taking their first gender studies course?
LB: Again, there’s a range of reactions. Some students come into the course and leave it unchanged, so far as I can tell. Others tell me that they’ve learned stuff that has changed the way they approach everything they study—that a feminist approach or gendered approach will make them see all their subjects differently from now on. Others become energized politically and want to go out and apply what they’ve learned to their own situations and the larger world. And still others have personal transformations—maybe talking about sexualities has allowed them to be honest about their own sexual preferences, or maybe reading about sexism has led them to resist it in their own lives.

AR: What is one thing that the student body should know about the program?
LB: Gender Studies isn’t just a subject, and it isn’t just a single political perspective. It’s a method for thinking, learning, and living politically.
Plus, our faculty are way hip.

AR: If you could, how would you re-define what it means to be “male” or “female”?
LB: Look, I’m a medievalist. I study things that last for millennia. I’ve seen these words mean so many things in so many languages, and I’ve come to understand that they mean something different to every individual in every single historical moment. What I’d like is for more people to understand that individuals and groups constantly make and act the meanings of these words.
AR: How do you think the Los Angeles environment effects gender portrayals?
LB: It seems to be true that body image has more importance here than in other parts of America, and most of us are familiar with the gendered implications of body image. Just take a stroll down Roberston or Melrose. Sometimes I still get what I call that “Eddie Murphy moment”—you know, the scene in Beverly Hills Cop where he sees an outrageously dressed fashionista walking around and just breaks into hilarious laughter. But the obsession with body afflicts college-age people everywhere thanks to, among other causes, media globalization.

AR: In your opinion, how does gender effect one’s position in the world? How does it affect one’s worldview?
LB: How does gender affect our positions in the world? If we’re women, we’re oppressed. Women are still underpaid by comparison with men. Men perpetrate sexual crimes against women at home and at war. Legislators are still trying to take away our rights to our own bodies. There aren’t as many female as male CEOs, prime ministers, judges, leading scientists, etc etc etc. Come on, we’re struggling over whether to elect our first woman president and people interviewed on television and radio still say things like, “I don’t think a woman could ever run the country.” Men and women should be looking out at the world and saying, let’s change this right now.

Step One: Get Connected

2008-01-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

According to Merriam-Webster Online, gender is defined as, "the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex." And whether you believe it or not, gender plays a huge role in our everyday lives.

Gender is who we are, how we appear, and even who we pretend to be. It matters to the world, and it should matter to us.

Because this site is dedicated to issues of gender at the University of Southern California, it's important that you stay plugged in to what's going on in the academic and advocacy worlds. If you want to get involved or get your mind thinking outside the box a bit, try exploring these websites listed below:

First thing's first. If you want to learn more, the best way to do it's in the classroom. USC's Gender Studies Department offers many interdisciplinary courses taught by the university's world-class faculty. The department was inspired by the Women's Movement of the '60s and '70s as well as the Gay Rights movement, which is still going on today. The website plugs you into upcoming courses you can take, professors you can learn from, and links to possible resources and research opportunities. Ranging from English, Film Studies, History, Sociology, Anthropology, and Spanish, the courses offered by the Department of Gender at USC are interdisciplinary and bound to interest you. Check it out and expand your horizon.

If you're gay or lesbian (or know someone who is), go to USC (or know someone who does), the USC LGBT Resource Center is the place to go to learn about important events around campus, issues of gender in the community, and to get tuned into the students' pulse on issues related to gender. The website offers a seriously comprehensive look at what USC students, faculty, and staff are doing to bridge the gender gap. Plus, as soon as the site pops up, you're bombarded by great music that instantly puts you in the "browsing" mood. You can also find/become an ally of LGBT students, get a list of helpful LGBT terminology, and learn about local resources and groups that also make a difference.

USC's Center for Women and Men is a student resource offering help for students who have experienced gender-related harm (stalking, harassment, sexual assualt, rape). The center provides counseling, support groups, and even emergency services to the Trojan student body. The Center (located in the Student Union) even houses a library filled with resources relating specifically to gender-related issues. Every college and university should have a Center like this.

Here we go...

2008-01-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

Knowing nothing about HTML language, posting things on the Internet beyond my own Facebook profile, and the one-man-band website-making ordeal, I have been faced with the task to create my own blog. I can't promise breathtaking graphics, snazzy fonts, or other jazzy effects, but I can promise other cool things. Stick around to find out.