Reply to comment

My mind is stuck on the subject of women's college, their purpose, and the environment at Bryn Mawr.  After reading people's opinions about this subject and hearing Ortner's comments about her experience here (Bryn Mawr) I began to see how a woman's college can potentially be a space that fosters activism and radical social change.  What I understood from Ortner was that Bryn Mawr really was a radical place when she attended the college and that coming here was a "good shock."  When I hear about the place that Bryn Mawr once was I am disappointed in what it has become. Since being at Bryn Mawr I haven't experienced any "shock" or been exposed to anything that I see as being very politically or socially 'radical' in respect to our times.  Maybe this is just my perspective so I am very interested to hear what other people have to say about this school from their experience or as a student from another institution.  Why aren't Bryn Mawr students and faculty taking the role of activists (maybe in a more extreme way) and challenging social structures instead of conforming? Bryn Mawr is liberal but I don't think that a liberal environment necessarily encourages activism.  I would like to see students applying the intellectual discourse that occurs in and out of class to radical social movements.  I think that the issue here may be that the college has become too focused on creating a safe accepting environment.  I don't think that college should necessarily be a place where we feel comfortable, maybe it should be a place where students are taken out of their comfort zone and presented with extreme ideas (everywhere, not just in or out of the classroom) that challenge what they believe, and teach them to not 'accept' each other but instead to challenge each other and try to understand one another.  I'm worried that Bryn Mawr's goal may be to 'create citizens,' but it doesn't always support the agenda of an activist aiming to create 'radical citizens'. By being encouraged to accept others for 'who they are' I feel discouraged from the role of an activist, because an activist doesn't accept things the way they are.  I have never thought of myself as an anarchist before but now that I am identifying myself in this new environment I'm feeling more drawn to the idea.  There are lots of students at Bryn Mawr who misinterpret and are afraid of the word "feminism" let alone "anarchism."  So what happened to Bryn Mawr? Is this school still a radical place? Has it lost the "shock" factor? If so, or if not, is that a good or a bad?  Please share your opinions, I admit that I really am judging based off of first impressions, and this is really only one of my personal perspectives.   

I'm scared that people are too happy with the way things are to be radical.  The idea of redefining gender and sexuality is still radical in our society so I think it takes a lot to be an activist (for redefining these social norms), or to "walk your talk."