Gender

Ethical Qualms and Change of Plans

Monday, July 13th, 2009

So, my plan to move down to Nicaragua in September has changed. Instead, after spending August traveling around a bit, I will head back to Xela September 1st to start working (unpaid, unfortunately) as the international volunteer coordinatory for a well-established women’s weaving cooperative.
Why the change of plans? There are simply too many opportunities [...]

Romance… or just “sampling the local fare?”

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Last week, during one of my daily sessions perusing the Lonely Planet message boards, I received an interesting message. A forum member had read about my time staying with a local family in Ouagadougou, and sent me a bunch of questions. Among the mundane (“how did you find the family?”) was a very… interesting question: [...]

Abstinence-only Education

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Ok, so it is incredibly nerdy to post a school paper on one’s blog. However, this paper was on the most interesting topic I’ve studied my whole two years at Carleton – abstinence only education. So, here goes.
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Our youth deserve medically accurate information on contraception and STDs, including HIV/AIDS… It is time that society puts [...]

No wonder women grow up to have so many neuroses…

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

When I was thirteen a sex ed troupe visited my middle school. A hundred pre-teens filed into the gymnasium and sat down in rows, our awkward skinny bodies uncomfortable again the cold hard floor. The innocent, sterile scene of our childhood games seemed inappropriate for a discussion of such an adult topic. This was the [...]

“Polygamy” or “Trying not to Judge”

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

I am learning about polygamy through two channels: my host family, and my research. In the family, polygamy is weird in how not weird it is.
I didn’t really get the whole situation straight until recently, because it’s sort of hard to figure out who’s who in a Burkinabe family. Why? Well, in West Africa [...]

Cultural Relativism.

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

On Tuesday, I almost started to cry in class when we started talking about cultural relativity. A year ago, on June 21st, 2006, I made the following post to my old livejournal from the slow-as-hell internet cafe in Sapone:
The stars here are amazing. You can see so many. Last night, when it was still 30-some [...]