Introductory Letter

Hi everyone! My name is Kelsey Paul. I am from Largo, Fl. I am a sophomore at UCF. I am a Criminal Justice major with a double minor in Sociology and Women’s Studies. As for a career, I basically want to travel the world fighting human trafficking, sex slavery, and the oppression of women overall.  I’m an upbeat and happy person. I’m a Christian and I love Jesus! I’m a big nerd and a goofball. I love to read books; it’s an addiction. My friends and family mean the world to me. I love to eat cereal and watch Disney movies, simultaneously. I always have a crazy busy schedule, but I can’t function any other way.

I am really excited about this Women’s Studies course! Technically I am required to take it because I am a Women’s Studies minor. However, I, actually, thought it sounded very interesting anyways. I don’t consider myself a very traditional person; therefore, I am constantly questioning social norms. My friends get annoyed with me because I frequently go off on long rants about what society has taught us to believe. I also manage to bother my friends with my talk of gender roles and giving people a hard time about their subconsciously sexist views. I have some very strong opinions on society and what it has led us to believe, so taking a class like Women’s Studies seems right up my alley.

When it comes to activism, I am all for it. I am striving to become an activist myself. I am involved in student organizations that, I believe, are a step in the activist direction. I am involved with Knight Allies, which is a great organization that strives to educate people to promote understanding and acceptance of members of the GLBTQ community. I am also the Vice President of the Students Against Slavery. It is an organization that strives to bring awareness to people about modern day slavery and, also, raise money to stop and prevent this slavery from continuing. I feel like these are types of activism. Although, I still feel like to truly consider myself an activist I need to get out there and do much more.

I personally don’t think gender is very important in life, or at least it shouldn’t be. The reason gender becomes important is because we are forced to recognize gender because of the way society treats us based on our gender. So as a woman, I can walk around and choose to ignore gender, but when I am denied an opportunity because of my gender, I am forced to recognize it and realize how important a role it truly does play. When we are looked at funny, judged, or mocked because our actions or decisions don’t fit typical gender roles, we must see these reactions and realize what is important to our society. A woman can wear men’s clothing, cut her hair short, and whatever else she chooses, in order to defy gender roles. Yet, though she has obviously chosen to break these typical gender roles and outwardly defy them, she still cannot pretend they are not important to others.

In conclusion, I am very excited to dive into the world of Women’s Studies, and I have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus and the blogging protocols.