Aguas Negras

November 01, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Mental Health

By Alicia Margarita Olivo

Content warning: description of violence, implication of depression, mention of hurricane, flood

Being at Wellesley makes me feel like I’m wading through flood waters (I remember when Tropical Storm Allison hit home and my dad took my hand and helped me walk through the water to see the cars stuck on the street; I thought they were sharks in the deep), or that I’m carrying a weight on my chest. Now that I’m 1,806 miles away from home (if I were to walk home—sometimes I imagine society collapsing and everything going to complete shit [more than it already has] and, stuck without the availability to drive, I would walk those 1,806 miles back home) and family, bringing up any topic that might be considered Heavy seems rude.

Luisa and Luis Meet and Ariana Happens: A Wellesley Story

November 01, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Ariana Gonzalez-Bonillas

Content warning: binary language to honor how Luisa and Azucena experienced Wellesley

August 1990.

Luisa arrives at Wellesley, Purple Class of 1994. The Latinas that Azucena had adopted and helped to grow in turn adopt and care for Luisa. Luisa majors in Latin American Studies, becomes a Mellon Mays Scholar, and struggles to learn how to be at a predominantly white institution. Soon, she will find a companion in her struggle who knows what she is going through, too.

Kamala Khan: The Ms.-Ing Piece of the Marvel Universe

October 31, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Arts & Culture

By Padya Paramita

Content warning: mention of Nazis

On the day after the 2016 US presidential elections, a queer international student of color found herself at a comic book store face-to-face with a superhero she had never seen before. In encountering Kamala Khan—known by her superhero alias, Ms. Marvel—I discovered a girl much like myself: brown, Muslim, fighting demons, trying to find a balance between Americanization and her South Asian roots.

The Hate U Give: A Mirror and a Window

May 03, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Identity

By Olivia Funderburg

The Hate U Give follows 16-year old Starr Carter as she navigates the ins and outs of being a teenager: from friendships and sometimes fighting to boyfriends and maybe taking the next step. But Starr’s life is more complicated than some 16-year olds’ are. She has to navigate living between two worlds: the black neighborhood she calls home and the elite, predominately white high school she attends. Starr’s life quickly becomes even more complicated when she is the only witness when her childhood best friend Khalil, unarmed, is killed by a cop.

Natural Woman

April 14, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Olivia Funderburg '18

Without fail, after every weekly wash and the random in between washes after a summer beach day, I remember looking into the mirror at my hair that was definitely not straight. It’s as if all this time my hair was longing to return to its natural state. I hear its whisper in my ear: Look at me, aren’t I pretty? Isn’t this what I am meant to look like?

La La Land: On Reconciling Art and Erasure

February 23, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Identity

By Kele Alfred-Igbokwe '19

Content warning: mentions of racism

The film crushed my heart with the wistfulness of love lost over the course of chasing dreams, of the sacrifices of creative drive.

Throughout the film, however, my mind was bogged down by an incessant observation: all the people of color (except John Legend’s character) were in the background as amorphous jazz music machines. The thing is, they had presences as brilliant jazz musicians, but they had almost no speaking roles, didn’t drive the story, and were only there to supplement the main characters, who were almost all white. The film was centered around two white characters, while subsequently using people of color as musical props.

Intersex at Wellesley

February 23, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Mental Health

By Anonymous

Content warning: mentions of gender dysphoria, descriptions of medicalization of intersex bodies

When my doctor called me with the final test results, she seemed to be nearly in tears. She wanted to immediately put me on two different types of birth control, regardless of the fact that I would need to be taken off of medications important to my mental health. She made me swear I wasn’t having sex. She repeatedly told me that even though chances were low that I could even have my own biological kids, I would need to have an abortion if I ever did get pregnant. The reason? If I was to have a child, that child would most likely have full-blown CAH resulting in ambiguous genitalia. In other words, any of my future kids would most likely be visibly intersex.

Counterpoint Unedited: On the Election

November 14, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Politics, Campus Life, Identity

Counterpoint staff members share their thoughts on this election and what it means for them:

What saddens me most about all this is that we were so close.

We are not okay. Yet we still stand tall, because we have each other.

Somehow, when I sit down to write something about this, I never seem to be able to get it quite right.

Everything What's Wrong of Haunted Houses

October 25, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Who's to Say, Identity, Arts & Culture

By Allyson Larcom ’17

Content warning: mention of bugs

The first time I ever went to a haunted house, I was twelve years old and I both cried and peed myself. I figure this is probably average childbeast behavior, it still feels like I was somehow wronged.

The question, “What don’t you like about haunted houses, Ally?” can be answered summarily and thus: MUCH.

Where That Cherry Blossom Tree Used to Be

October 01, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Samantha English '19

25 Baker Street is bright blue and falling apart. The three levels are lopsided and the concrete steps are dusted with a layer of dirt. The building may not be up to code and it desperately needs to be cleaned, but there’s a simple charm to it, a sort of cheeriness that old colorful houses create for me in their unremembered nostalgia.

Gray Sp-Ace: On Consent and Sexuality

April 30, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Anonymous

Content warning: sex, sexual assault, slurs

It didn’t take me long to realize that the never-ending cycle, and my horrible anxiety about any sexual advances, were not normal heterosexual experiences. But I figured that I was just sexually immature, or maybe had a hormone deficiency.

Pubes, Vello Púbico

April 30, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Anonymous

I’m not going to shave because it’s itchy and because I decided that my sexual partner was just going to have to be okay with my pubes. Now that I think about it, there’s also something political about this decision.

How can pubes be political?

Spoonfuls of Rainbow

April 29, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Laura Mayron '16

Queerness is so much about space, place, and interacting with others, whether as friends in a community or in a romantic context, and gastrointestinal illnesses aren't exactly a sexy topic of conversation. As I like to joke, Crohn’s disease is probably the least sexy illness out there—chronic diarrhea (or just a lot of normal pooping, when in remission) isn’t seductive for a Tinder date.

Neither This Nor That

April 03, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Arleny Vargas '18

The first time I ever felt American I was 15. I was on my way to México to meet my relatives for the first time, a scared and anxious young girl, filled with doubts. What would they think of me? Would I live up to their standards? Would they love me?

A Humanist Revelation in the Sagrada Familia

April 03, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

By Elise Brown '17

Hi God. I don’t think You can hear me, and really, I don’t even believe in You. Then again, I suppose thinking You can actually hear me would be taking the idea of prayer too literally.