Reply to comment

“Though the crowded years go by, this nigh on seventy-year-old-tale shows no sign of age. It remains as spry as ever, a timeless classic of perennial fascination that seems to have been written for today. Like all great art, it defies the tyrant Time.” (Abbott iv)

As I read Flatlands, I contemplated the meaning of this passage. Is it a positive or negative that it “seems to have been written for today?” And if this is the case, have we come very far over the last seventy years as a society? Did the students, the women of Bryn Mawr sit around the table discussing the consequences of the words put on paper in Flatlands seventy years ago? And if so, what conclusions did they arrive at? Are we, as women, suppose to be merely straight lines, moving in just the right way as to not upset or “instill” fear into the opposite sex? Does this fear not lie within them to begin with?

My brain has been swimming since last meeting….I keep thinking about the consequences of our words…something I heard in class on Tuesday…and while we are students we do not have consequences for our words/   Hmmmm…..I know for me, there are consequences for my thoughts, what I say, and my actions. And it is my responsibility as a woman who has many sisters in countries around the world who are killed, mutilated, raped, or tortured, only because they are a woman, to understand that it is my RESPONSIBILTY to take my education seriously. I do not only go to college for myself, but for my children and for the millions of women around the world who will never have the opportunity to do so.  I personally do not feel as though there is no responsibility being a student…quite the opposite. I could leave my work at work. I take my college career seriously and it is with me day and night. I do not just leave it the end of the work day. I, also, being a Bryn Mawr student, take the honor code very seriously….one other reason to think about the consequences of our words and actions.

I hope not to offend but needed to share my experience.