On reclaiming childhood accomplishments, my black belt, and self-defense.

March 09, 2022 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

by Rachel Desmond' ‘22

CW: Graphic descriptions

I think my fifteen-year-old self getting a black belt says a lot about who I am as a twenty-two-year-old. That black belt says that right as I was hitting puberty—a time when many girls have to relinquish the safety of a prepubescent body—I was learning how to take a punch.

My Body

October 11, 2019 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

by Mar Barrera ‘20

Content warnings: gender dysphoria, mentions of transphobia

My body feels like a political statement, even though it never asked to be one. Wherever it exists (or doesn’t, according to the Wellesley College administration), it must be prepared to justify and explain its existence.

Choosing the Instance of Gender Euphoria

February 25, 2019 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity

by Gus Agyemang '22

Content warning: gender dysphoria

What I have now come to understand as “gender dysphoria” became my problem around the time of puberty. Like most teenagers, I noticed the changes my body was going through, but what really bothered me was how different it was from my friends’. My voice didn’t drop, and I didn’t grow tall, and people were now referring to me as she. I felt disgusted by my budding breasts and hips and enraged that I was to feel proud of them.