the ch!cktionary

Me and Hamlet in bed TWO DAYS before my thesis was due...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:16:37 -0500

Me and Hamlet in bed TWO DAYS before my thesis was due (yesterday). Couldn’t have done it without his company.

Last night, I finally slept after 48 hours of panic. Now I’m heading to New York to drop off Hamlet, before the Roomie and I fly to Tulum, Mexico, where EIGHTY DEGREE WEATHER awaits me. Olé!

Marriage Shouldn't Be A Mandate

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:55:00 -0500

In a bit of a F-U to heteronormative cultural norms, I replace most instances of the term “premarital sex” in my thesis with “non-marital sex”. Because who the hell says that the sex my friends and I are having now is pre-anything?

(Especially when some of them can’t get married.)

Harvard's New Policy Covers Transgender Health

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:53:16 -0500

Harvard's New Policy Covers Transgender Health:

In 2006, Harvard University modified its non-discrimination policy to include gender identity and expression (the latter protects EVERYONE on campus, not just those who identify as transgender). Four years later, the school is taking a must-needed step forward by covering top surgeries for transgender employees and students. Before this, trans members of the Harvard community were much like women under a Stupak-ized version of healthcare: equal payers, but not equal beneficiaries. Of course, there is still so much more work to be done, but this move is a great step forward.

Shoutouts to the amazing Trans Task Force and UHS’ Sara Kimmel, who were the powerhouses behind this change!

How The Future Gets Discussed

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:03:45 -0500

Patrick: Did you see the email someone forwarded me about a job you might want to apply to?
Me: Um, this job would require moving to New York. You don't want to move to New York, right?
Patrick: No.
Me: Didn't think so.

48 Hours

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:43:00 -0500

Currently thesising from bed. I have to turn this in 48 hours from … now. Oh. My. God.

Feminism Goes on Display in Adams

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:38:11 -0500

Feminism Goes on Display in Adams:

The Crimson writes up a rundown of Harvard’s first-ever Feminist Coming Out Day, which kicked off Women’s Week 2010. It was awesome, and I’m sure someone has photos of me running around wildly and being super frazzled. (I have done far more articulate interviews when my brain wasn’t thesis-fried.)

Happy Women’s Week!

Tomorrow is Harvard University’s first-ever Feminist...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:00:00 -0500

Tomorrow is Harvard University’s first-ever Feminist Coming Out Day!

I wish I could tell you what the heck I was thinking when I thought it’d be a good idea to plan an event for THREE DAYS before my thesis deadline. Yeah, I know. Nonetheless, I will be donning my “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” shirt and button with pride tomorrow.

Come and check out the reception we’ll be hosting for the Feminist Portrait Project, featuring the many faces of feminism at Harvard. It takes place at Adams Art Space from 8-10pm.

(Brought to you by the awesome kids in the Radcliffe Union of Students and the Queer Students & Allies)

Peace, Boston.

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:26:43 -0500

On my list of travel-related things to look forward to post-thesis:

A much delayed New York visit to drop off Hamlet before spring break! Naturally, I will be making the pilgrimage to Beacon’s Closet, my personal Mecca.
Spring break, which will entail no electricity or wifi. For serious. I’m going to Tulum, Mexico, where I will scale the Mayan pyramids and take lots of bikini photos and maybe ever learn how to swim. Maybe.
A trip to Cornell, where I’ll be talking sex blogging on April 1st. (Followed immediately by another New York visit, ‘cause why the heck not?) After this, Princeton will be the only Ivy I haven’t visited.

And that’s it! I probably won’t leave town again for the rest of the semester, since this is my last chance to fully indulge in being a college student. I really look forward to getting shit-faced with friends for the remainder of senior spring.

You know you want to read this.

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:43:00 -0500

The first empirical chapter of my thesis is entitled “From Veiled Virgins To ‘Zipless Fucks’: The Historical Evolution of Sexual Norms.”

I kind of want to make this the title of my actual thesis, but I’m not really sure how that’ll go over.

P.S. I totally just checked to see if Erica Jong is on Twitter. Alas, she is not.

Oxytocin: The Pseudoscience of the Hook-Up Hormone

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:27:18 -0500

Oxytocin: The Pseudoscience of the Hook-Up Hormone:

In which I explain how abstinence proponents turn completely legit scientific studies into junk science. Their conclusions? Don’t have sex.

Birth of a Harvard Feminist

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:27:12 -0500

This article is amazing and going in my thesis.

alishalisha:

In light of Women’s Week at Harvard, I wanted to share this fascinating article, titled “Birth of a Feminist”, from the Harvard Gazette written in 2005 by Ann Shapiro, Radcliffe Class of 1958.

I think we rarely hear about Harvard’s rich history — nevertheless the history of Radcliffe (what is now the Quad) — so reading this article was very illuminating. There are some great lines - the author is a great narrator - so below are some gems I particularly enjoyed:

“Both Harvard and Radcliffe had elaborate parietal rules to assist us. At Radcliffe we had a limited number of ‘one o’clocks’ and we dutifully signed in at the end of the evening. It is hard to imagine what lewd activities all this prevented, but there seemed to be tacit agreement that as long as we were locked in the dormitories by 1 a.m., all would be well.”

“Although I became fairly adept at keeping my blouse buttoned even amidst the periodic fumblings in the back seat of a car, I was almost defeated one warm spring evening by a wise Harvard junior who accused me of ‘bourgeois morality.’ Having just read Karl Marx, I knew enough to eschew everything bourgeois, but my mother had not lectured me in vain about used women. I won the debate in the back seat of the car, but I lost my Harvard junior.”

“Those of us who forgot that we were not permitted to enter Lamont, the undergraduate library in Harvard Yard, were unceremoniously expelled from the premises as ‘trespassers.’”

“At Harvard, the B School was the only one that actually closed its doors to women, although the Harvard Business School Wives Club awarded its members a Ph.T. (Putting Hubby Through) diploma, a mimeographed document suitable for display on the refrigerator, not in the executive suite.”

What should I include in my thesis? (Now taking requests!)

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:39:00 -0500

I started off with “hodge-podge”. At Alex’s request, I’m now attempting to work in “willy-nilly”. Any other amusing words that I can sneak into this stuffy academic paper?

8:50 p.m. You guys are awesome. Please keep this stuff coming. This is going to be the best thesis in Harvard history. Or at least the most uniquely worded one.

9:08 p.m. I’ve decided to live-blog my attempts to include some suggested phrases. They’ll appear in italics.

9:09 p.m. “The hullabaloo over young people’s sexuality was not without consequences. Magazines suggested instituting strict curfews on teenagers, while colleges adopted “parietals”, rules limiting when and for how long a male visitor could be in a female student’s room.”

9:12 p.m. This was the first semi-ridiculous phrase I started with. “The scholarship on sexuality thus far is a hodgepodge of work from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, psychology, gynecology, demography, feminist theory, and criminology.”

9:14 p.m. Currently working on “flimflam”, “hoi polloi”, and “lollygag”. Um, I’m not sure “sexual napalm” is doable unless I also work in a Jessica Simpson reference. Which … could happen. She’s kind of related to my thesis. (It’s on virginity.)

10:10 p.m. “Women, though now technically free to lollygag the day away with their lovers, were still far from achieving equality in practice.”

"Good night, my little crab rangoon."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:16:41 -0500

“Good night, my little crab rangoon.”

- Jason, who comes up with the best politically incorrect terms of affection

In Which I Extol The Virtues Of Living Off-Campus

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:37:00 -0500

In Which I Extol The Virtues Of Living Off-Campus:

Judging from the comments, no one agrees, but like my article says, tradition dies hard at Harvard.

UPDATE: … and the comments to this story have only reaffirmed my desire to stay far, far away from campus. Look, I tried House life, kids. I also tried to like Harvard. Really, I did. Then I realized it sucked (at least for me), and now that I don’t live in a House, I can finally see that it took me so long to leave, because I believed that however miserable I was in Mather/Currier/wherever, I could absolutely not give up this part of my Harvard experience. Now, I’m pretty sure that my decision to live elsewhere is actually the only thing that has salvaged my affection for this place.

(Yeah, you could call me bitter, but half of my blocking group, which was fairly scandal-less other than me, also transferred or moved off-campus, sans crazy blog controversies. So, chew on that.)

Terrorizing the dog. #14 on the list of “Things I’m...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:47:00 -0500

Terrorizing the dog.

#14 on the list of “Things I’m Actually Doing When I Tell Patrick That I’m Working On My Thesis”.

Everyone Else's Hell Week Is My Hell Month

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:31:58 -0500

Can we please discuss the fact that I just wrote an eight-page paper and now I have to immediately work on my eighty-page thesis?

NOT COOL.

All you people with multiple midterms and papers due? Don’t even. I’m knee-deep in Biblical passages, radical feminist theory, and etiquette manuals galore. I know that March 11th is nearly within sight, but I seriously do not know how I am going to make it until then. I cannot even look forward to spring break, because it is becoming very apparent that I am not done. Not even nearly.

"A tried and tested cunt marries late."

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:22:00 -0500

“A tried and tested cunt marries late.”

- Middle Welsh proverb (via the book Medieval Virginities)

In an attempt to make the last days of thesis hell a little more bearable, I am copying and pasting random snippets of my masterpiece onto my blog until my March 11th deadline. This will all be completely out of context, of course. (Trust me, you don’t want to read it in context. It’s a mess right now.)

Feel free to comment on the litany of bizarre virginity factoids to come!

Hello Kitty Personal Vibrator (now on sale!) I have a...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:03:01 -0500

Hello Kitty Personal Vibrator (now on sale!)

I have a well-documented obsession with all things Hello Kitty or Sanrio, so when the folks at OpenSky tracked down the Hello Kitty vibrator I’ve been coveting for years, I was thrilled to include a dose of her pink adorableness to my e-store. Because really, who better than Sanrio’s most iconic character to act as spokeskitty for healthy sexual attitudes and/or back pain relief*?

For a limited time, use the code “HelloKitty20” for 20 percent off and get the inappropriately phallic creation above for under $30 in my shop. (Coupon expires Friday, March 5th at midnight.)

Know of any other bizarre, wonderful, or bizarrely wonderful Hello Kitty products? Share them in the comments!

* Miss Kitty has dual-purpose uses, but c’mon, you’re not fooling anyone.

"You don’t have to be anti-man to be pro-woman."

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:59:38 -0500

“You don’t have to be anti-man to be pro-woman.”

- Jane Galvin Lewis (via feminaction)

See, guys? I do go to class. Also, you should say hi next time,...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:36:15 -0500

See, guys? I do go to class.

Also, you should say hi next time, anonymous poster! Hamlet loves attention almost as much as I do.

(via I Saw You Harvard)