One of the greatest things about working for GLI – besides the water fights, sing-alongs, birthday cakes, and post-ropes course a-wooing – is the annual opportunity to work on my communication skills. Being emotionally honest, authentically expressing myself, and handling issues without damaging relationships are skills that take practice, even well into adulthood. I’m lucky …
Dear Friends, Spring has sprung! The longer days and colorful blooms are inspiring us to share our own stories of new growth: GLI is expanding to Boulder CO, and New York City! To kick it off we are running our first Spring Break Day Camp in New York at the Young Women’s Leadership School in …
Chances are, if you’re into academic feminism or if you’ve taken a Gender Studies class in the past 15-20 years, you’ve heard of Judith Butler. Butler, a feminist theorist who helped found queer theory, is generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers of our time: she’s extremely prolific and her work literally changed …
FROM: Rachel Simmons TO: Friends, Family, Colleagues, Readers, Old Students, Current Students, Parents, Teachers, Random People I Went to High School With & Spammers DATE: February 18, 2010 RE: The Curse of the E-Good Girl I’m so sorry for taking this long to write you back. I was away for a few days and am …
I recently attended the GLI reunion in New York, and I had an absolute blast. It was SO great to see the GLI family again. I loved the chance to be silly, and loved being a part of the hug-fest that comes with any GLI event. And, in typical GLI fashion, I left with more …
Last week my mom, my little sister, and I went to see the latest Disney movie (the first to feature a black protagonist), The Princess and the Frog. As a feminist wary of the whole Disney Princess “some day my prince will come” thing, I didn’t get my hopes up and was prepared to leave the theater mildly annoyed at best and angry and offended at worst.
But in fact, I left the movie happily surprised. (***spoiler alert ahead***) Tiana, the protagonist, seems like a modern feminist herself—she’s a hard-working waitress who plans to open her own restaurant and doesn’t need a man to make her dreams come true. Tiana does eventually fall in love with Prince Naveen, a fun-loving yet lazy and materialistic guy; however, Tiana then teaches Naveen to cook and in the end the two marry and found Tiana’s dream restaurant together. With themes of gender equality and overcoming racial adversity and poverty, The Princess and the Frog seems like a feminist dream come true. (for more on its feminist themes, read this awesome blog post by Rose at Feministing: http://www.feministing.com/archives/019389.html)
I had just started a fifth grade class when a student began waving her hand and doing that “Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!” thing that I used to do when I couldn’t contain myself.* “Okay,” she said, “what if, like, my friend asks me if I like the dress she was buying and I didn’t like it …
Lately, I’ve been in a lot of situations in which I’ve had to impress adults. For example, last month I held a fundraiser where I tried to persuade people to donate their time and money to bring glasses to people in the developing world. And, being a high school senior, I’ve had to put on my impressive face in the obligatory college interviews. I’ve been working hard to perfect my smart, mature presence, to be someone that these people could take seriously and respect. I’m confident that I’m a smart person and know that adults generally like me. I was expecting to completely rock out these situations. It turned out that flaunting my strengths and earning respect was much harder for me than originally anticipated.
This does not look like fertile ground for an emerging real girl, but this is where I am: on the tennis court. I dismissed tennis for years as elitist or exclusive. The truth is I am scared of it. Tennis is hard. When one isn’t naturally gifted at sports, one develops a sports philosophy that is anti-competition. This philosophy leads to yoga classes, leisurely bike rides, or relaxing (slow) jogs. Tennis, unlike these solo sports, is about winning, and therefore another person loosing. I am a progressive educator that usually doesn’t embrace this kind of set-up, but let me tell you, I am going for this.
It started this summer while attempting to play doubles. Even though we couldn’t get close to what I would call a rally, there was something energizing about being out on the court. As we walked off the court GLI Assistant Director, Julia Loonin, said to me, “That was fun!” “Yea,” I casually replied, not realizing that Julia was already thinking ahead to taking lessons.
This summer at GLI, we got an assignment; to spend three minutes and share a part of ourselves in a poem, story or skit form. The second that I heard about it, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to use the supportive environment of GLI to talk about something that I’ve never talked about—honestly at least — to anyone. GLI is all about taking risks, and it seemed so appropriate to use my last night there to take what felt like the ultimate one and share a part of myself that creates a pit of stomach churning embarrassment for me to even think about. To let out my own anti-good girl and spend three minutes being totally real.
I chickened out.
