Category: Contributing Content

 

It is 11 A.M., and I am currently sitting in a small coffee shop trying to recover from a lecture on the philosophy of mind with a latte and a slice of chocolate cake. Still warming up from a chilly morning walk, it feels like fall for the first time since starting college. For a New England girl, this weather is perfect.

It’s funny – the accents have begun to fade into the background after a month here in Oxford. The streets are finally making sense, and I look the proper way before crossing them. The country, the culture, and the Oxford university system are so different from the United States – the last is perhaps the most strikingly different. Oxford is based on a tutorial system. I have a primary tutorial once a week and a secondary every other week. A tutorial consists of submitting and discussing an essay I have written with a professor here at the university. Then I go to four different lecture series that are taught by other professors. They assign reading lists for everything, so most of the week is spent reading and trying to set a world speed record in the 1500 word dash while retaining some appearance that I know the material.

There is a lot more freedom with arranging your time since the only homework is due basically once or twice a week. The tutorial system makes for a really intensive 8 weeks studying one topic in detail, which is the inverse approach to the BIC. In spite of this difference, the grounding that the BIC lay in history, politics, and sociology has been incredibly beneficial in understanding political theory – my main area of focus this term.

While official term began this week, the previous month was spent listening to lectures about British culture, going on field trips to important landmarks around England, and writing papers synthesizing what we had learned in British culture lectures with our main areas of study. The lecturers chose to focus on how we remember and misremember narratives throughout history. For a minute, I felt like I was back in Morrison for World Cultures, and loved seeing the intellectual connection of academic thought four thousand miles apart.

Currently, both the United States and England are in the middle of a definitive narrative period of change and uncertainty. The concern here over Brexit is startlingly similar to the anxiety induced by the current election cycle. Oxford, as a city, voted to stay in the European Union, and it is fairly common to hear professors voicing their shock over how the decision went. I get the scarcely comfortable feeling that no one really knows what is going to happen in the next few months either here in the U.K. or home in the U.S. That being said, it is comforting to know that this controversial period is not the end of the story – just the middle. We hope.

The coffee shop, which, incidentally, is in an awesome vault beneath a church, bans laptops from twelve to two so I need to wrap this and myself back up and head out into the autumn air. Even though it seems like the world is in crisis, there are also blue skies and falling leaves and a heck of a lot of beauty in this place, and for that, I am undyingly grateful.

Becca Richards is a junior BIC and University Scholar student with a focus in philosophy. 

On October 20, the Baylor Lariat posted an opinion piece entitled “Not Interested? Then don’t give him your digits” by Thomas Mott, the Lariat’s assistant broadcast news producer.

In this article, Mr. Mott encourages women “of our society today” to refrain from giving their numbers to men if they are not interested in dating those men.

According to Mr. Mott, “This is exactly the problem with our society today. Girls are too nice and do not know how to say that they are not interested. Why can’t girls just say no to a guy they clearly have no interest in instead of giving him their number and then not replying to his texts?”

Mr. Mott goes on to posit that women purposefully lead men on by giving them their phone numbers just to completely ignore these men later, or to further lead them on by offering such excuses as, “I’ve been busy.”

In his final call to all the women “of our society today,” Mr. Mott states,

“So ladies, next time a guy asks for your number, and you don’t want to give it to him, or he’s been talking to you for a while, just straight up tell him you’re not interested. Do not lead him on with facade that would make him think you are actually interested. He deserves an explanation. Yes, we will be upset at your bluntness at first, but we’d rather this than have you lead us on.”

If Baylor University had a tornado-siren-esque sexism warning system, red and white lights would be flashing, sirens would be blaring, and we would all be hiding under our desks with our hands above our heads, hoping these misogynistic ideals do not somehow worm their way into our brains.

The statement “he deserves an explanation” is, in itself, absolutely appalling. While Mott is completely correct in stating that it takes a lot of guts for a guy to go up to a girl he finds attractive and ask her for her contact information, by no means does this amassed gusto warrant an explanation from the woman in question if she turns the guy down.

Sorry dude, maybe she is just not that into you. Maybe she has heard your answers to questions in class and she is not impressed. Maybe she is already in a relationship or maybe she just is not looking for anything right now. Moral of the story: it is none of your business! By no means does she have to explain her decision to you.

Do you want to know why some women, or “girls” as you call them in your article, are “nice” to the extent that they will give their numbers to guys in whom they are not interested?

Women may be afraid of the backlash, physical or emotional, that they could potentially receive by rejecting the advances of these oh-so-gusty men! Why wouldn’t they be – with guys saying that they “deserve an explanation” – that this woman, who he does not know, somehow owes him something. In fact, Mr. Mott states, “We will be upset at first,” as if this anger is somehow warranted. As a man who occasionally asks for digits, I do not appreciate being lumped into this “we will be angry” nonsense. This attitude is a problem with “society today,” not the women who refuse to bruise fragile egos in observance of their own safety.

Is it not more appalling that the Lariat Staff edited and approved this opinion piece? Is it not more appalling that this blatant act of sexism was published on a Baylor-sanctioned news source? To me, as a feminist but even more so as a person with a conscience, I am horrified.

Women of Baylor and the world, I would advise that if someone asks you for your “digits,” whether it be woman or man, if you are not interested, you handle the situation however you please. You do not owe anything to anyone.

To read the article that will set off your sexism-alert for a whole month, click the link below:

http://baylorlariat.com/2015/10/20/tell-him-the-truth/

 

Lee Shaw is a sophomore BIC student majoring in professional writing and is the current editor of the QuickBIC.

Young girls dressed in vivid purple, pink, and yellow yukatas walked beside their parents while visiting stalls filled with games and traditional food. In between performances, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and U2 played over the loud speaker. A children’s choir exuberantly sang Annie’s “Tomorrow” in between Japanese songs.

This vibrant scene embraced me when I visited Akimatsuri, a Japanese festival, in Dallas this past weekend. When I first entered the festival, I was greeted with a cheerful “Ohayō gozaimasu” (good morning)! From that point, I was struck by the interplay between different cultures. Over the loudspeaker, announcements were made in Japanese and English. In a stall containing various anime figurines, posters, and other toys, I overheard a little boy enthusiastically exclaiming to his mother, “¡Ay, está Naruto!”

Performances included Baylor’s Japanese Student Association (JSA), Kendo, Judo, and a handful of other dances. In one performance, two women, masquerading as a couple taking a stroll, danced to crooning, peaceful traditional music. Rather than quick, complicated movements typical of Western dance, the dancers’ movements were slow, brought more focus to the hands, and were full of symbolism. Later, Baylor JSA danced to a traditional song called “Sōran Bushi,” which originated in Hokkaidō, Japan, and depicts the daily lives of fishermen with movements representing ocean waves, pulling fishing lines, and tossing barrels.

Various types of Japanese food were being sold. Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake, was eaten with chopsticks and explained to me as savory rather than sweet (if you have had HRC Toasties before, you can fully appreciate the difference between these two words). Yakult, a dairy product that is like drinking yogurt, were being handed out for free.

There were various games available, some of which involved makeshift yoyos and fish as prizes. The former game involved trying to pull a balloon yoyo out of a pool of water with a small hook attached to a piece of paper. The balloon was decorated and filled with a small amount of water with a rubber band tied to it, allowing an elastic yoyo-like motion. The latter game involved trying to catch fish. At one point, I passed by some children who had unfortunately tipped over one of their cups containing their prize fish, frantically trying to retrieve the flopping three centimeter long fish.

One of the final performances, Music Together Dallas, which has classes for children, had an interactive performance, asking the children to follow instructions such as wave your arms, jump up and down, and turn around. One of the women told the children that she did not know what else for them to do and asking one toddler, held the microphone for him to speak. He thought hard for a moment, then answered, “um… wiggle?” And thus all the children had to dance and wiggle. It was absolutely adorable.

For those of you who would like to learn more about Japanese culture, I suggest next year attending Akimatsuri. It was an amazing experience to see many traditional performances and watch the interplay of different cultures. As a BIC student, I am sure you are aware that learning about other cultures needs to be an active, interactive process, and I advise that you search out numerous opportunities to extend your experience of other cultures beyond the classroom and mandatory extended learning activities. By pursuing a cultured life, you become more knowledgeable of your identity and position in the vast world we live in.

Clarissa Anderson is a sophomore BIC student majoring in journalism.