I have received an invitation to serve on the President's Commission on Diversity at my school, and I'm actually kind of excited. I'm not sure just yet what all that entails, but it's definitely an honor to represent the GSM community on campus. Waiting to hear back about what that means for me, more info to come!

 My class, taught by the remarkable Dr. Harriet Grissom, adjunct professor at Georgia College, consists of periodic debates in which you sign up for a topic and then you are randomly selected to join either side. I signed up for the sex ed vs. abstinence-only debate hoping that, with a 50-50 chance, I would end up on the side I'm most comfortable with: safe sex education. Of course, with my great luck, I ended up on the abstinence only team. But that's okay, right? The point of the debate is to challenge yourself to see both sides of the argument, and surely I'd come out of this a better person for researching the abstinence-only supporter's arguments, but... I can't do it. I've looked up arguments and views and to be frank, they offend my good senses. Their argument is full of bad information and unethical debate techniques, such as strawman arguments. I can tear down this argument without even having to know any about the advantages of sex education because these arguments are just really damn bad. How am I going to do this? How am I, the Georgia College Condom Fairy, going to stand in front of 50 or so of my peers, regurgitate these distasteful arguments, especially at a crucial time when sex education programs are under fire from exreme conservatives who are using their power in congress to rewind decades worth of progress? 

By buying more condoms and distributing them in class after the debate along with flyers on how to support Planned Parenthood and where to turn for local resources on sexual health. With permission from my professor, of course. 

Still, I'm stressed. I hate giving up the fight before it's begun, but this debate is going to be a disaster. Hopefully some peers on my team can help carry this one because one girl from the sex ed team has already contacted me for information and statistics on sex ed programs, and I can't turn her down. I'm practically sleeping with the enemy (safely). 

Working in cooperation with different sex health and rights groups, the GCSU Condom Fairy (aka, your's truly) will be out and about for AIDS Awareness week and Valentine's day. I'm so excited to get active in the community and possibly even become an icon on campus. I will be dressing up as a fairy and roller skating around campus handing out condoms to students. I will also be attending various events pertaining to sex issues. Should be fun, and I can't wait!

 As a feminist, I believe that it's a woman's choice what she does with her life and her body. That includes being a mother and/or wife. What scares me is the sheer amount of women in my own generation who seem to be unintentionally becoming one or both of those things. I can't even count on my hands anymore the number of girls, under 20, who I know that are either having or have already had children, or are married. Again, there's nothing wrong with that if that's what they want, but am I the only one who finds that sad? Our grandmothers and mothers worked hard to give us freedoms and choices as women, so that we could go to school, do something positive with our lives, then have families if we choose. Since when was teen pregnancy the new black? I'm not saying you shouldn't be kind or helpful to teen moms, or that what they did is inherently wrong, but it seems like the media has been giving a lot of negative attention to this issue. Shows like "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" are wildly popular shows for young women today. Other shows like "Secret Life of the American Teenager" don't correctly represent teenage pregnancies. I definitely don't think they are intentionally making matters worse, but they definitely aren't helping either. Girls see the young women in these types of shows and idolize them. It's as if the television is saying, "Hey, it's sometimes okay to get pregnant and married as a teen," and that's not really cool.
Women who don't receive a secondary education are vulnerable; they often can't afford to take care of themselves or raise children by themselves. I was talking to a woman recently about her divorce and struggle with raising three kids on her own. She said, "I was devastated when my husband left, but thank God I had a degree to fall back on. I wasn't about to give up on myself or my kids, and it was education that saved me. I could afford at least the bare minimums and make sure we were sheltered, fed, and happy." What are the women that are getting married right out of high school going to do if they end up alone and uneducated? Even worse, what do they do if they had children in their marriage? That's such a horrible situation to put yourself in, yet so many women are finding themselves in it at an early age. 

A staple of college vandalism is of course THE PENIS. There are penises everywhere I look! People buy chalk and draw them on the sidewalks, doodle them on people's dry erase boards, carve them into elevator doors (YES, even the metal ones), and draw them on their drunken friends' foreheads. Let's face it, the penis is a college dude's best friend.

A friend of mine, let's call him Sanchez, likes to put up posters of things like Edweird from Twilight or Justin Bieber on his door with a collection of sharpies for people to walk by and draw on. Guess what they like to draw on these posters? PENISES. Well, one time I decided that there should be  little more diversity in these doodles so I drew a vagine on the poster. Proud of my powerful female assertion, I came back to the poster to show my boyfriend the piece of art. To my surprise, however, someone had not only scribbled over it, but they had scribbled over it in two colors and wrote "SICK" next to it.

They did not, however, scribble over any of the penises.

I was extremely taken back by appeared to me to be an act of sexism by multiple people. I drew another one next to it and waited to see what would happen to my rendition of the female genitalia. The next day, I checked back and noticed that, once again, the vagina had been scratched out. When I talked about it with Sanchez, he revealed to me that the culprit was actually... drum roll... a group of girls! This made absolutely no sense to me. How could a group of girls be so ashamed and grossed out by their own anatomy? Why is it okay to have penises everywhere, but a vagina is offensive? Especially when it comes from what is supposed to be a liberated and educated generation of women? A vagina is NOT gross. It's a natural part of a woman, and deserves just as much positive attention as a penis does.

I'm a little disappointed by this sexist ordeal, but perhaps it can be a positive experience: I have my work cut out for me.

As much as I regret not having them in time for AIDS awareness week or Valentine's Day, my father called me today to let me know that my box arrived and that they'll be waiting for me at home. I can't pick them up this weekend since there's a bad snow storm that has forced way all the way to old Milly, Georgia, where I go to school, but hopefully I'll have them by next weekend. I can't wait to get creative!
Truly, Madly, Deeply,
~Mia