Feminism | Posted by Vimbai D on 04/18/2011

Women’s Super League: Up and Running

The FA Women's Super League

April 13th 2011 was a landmark day for women’s football in England as Arsenal took on Chelsea in the inaugural match of the FA’s Women’s Super League (the WSL). And it was also a personal landmark day as I was able to watch the match on TV. Yes, I did. Women’s football. On TV. I have never had the opportunity to watch women’s football matches on TV before so excuse my excitement.

Featuring eight clubs including Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool, the WSL has been three years in the making. Official plans for the league had been announced in 2009, but it has been a league that has been needed for longer than that. It is the step forward that women’s football in England has desperately needed:…

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Feminism | Posted by Marie B on 02/28/2011

Martial Arts: Not Just Defense

time to kick some ass

This weekend I will be testing for my black belt after eight years of Taekwondo classes. During those eight years, I’ve grown into the person I am today. Not only have I learned how to kick, punch, and block, but I have learned compassion, respect, and confidence. Each Saturday, I spend hours practicing self defense, meditating, sparring or even teaching entire classes. It is one of the most rewarding activities I have ever participated in (and prevents the extracurricular section of my college apps from remaining blank). Unfortunately, the only aspect of taekwondo, or martial arts of any kind, that people pick up on for women, is self defense.

For example, one day this past year, I participated in a jujitsu class:
“Kick her Brian! She’s a black…

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Randomness | Posted by Julie Z on 08/25/2010

Chelsea Baker: 13-year-old Role Model

Chelsea Baker

I remember one day in 5th grade during P.E. class, a particularly douchey male classmate of mine turned to me completely unsolicited and said, “Boys are better than girls at sports, you know.” Now, if this had happened today, you better believe I would have smacked the dodgeball or whiffle ball or whatever sports accessory I may have been holding at the time into his righteous face (just kidding, violence is bad). But I was ten, and even though his statement didn’t seem true to me I just let him get away with it. I mean I personally fail miserably at sports, but that’s due to complete indifference and laziness, neither of which I attribute to my gender or even physical ability. And now that I think about it,…

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Feminism | Posted by Zad B on 11/9/2009

The Gym Teacher

The Gym Teacher

So I was calmly sitting in class gazing at my watch when the cleaner cleared his throat and announced the arrival of our new P.E. teacher. I payed him an uninterested look. He seemed quite nice, with a thick mustache and lots of wrinkles all around his eyes. I went back to gazing at my watch. I was hungry…

“Good morning, guys!” He said with a deep, phonily cheerful voice: “I’d like to get to know you all better! I will call your names and you will tell me something about yourselves!” Great, I thought sarcastically, while starting to make up some idiocy I could say, that would avoid him getting started on the usual stupid questions teachers ask foreign students: “And was it hard moving to a new country? How…

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