Adjusting after breaks should involve changing conversations

Doing it wrong: ‘Biddie’ battle: ditch the divisive term and find our commonality

Biddie. I had never uttered the term before arriving at Bowdoin, nor did I hear it all that much. Nevertheless, the term has become part of my daily vocabulary, even though I’ve never learned what it actually means.
After Googling the phrase “Bowdoin Biddie” with no real success, I searched for “College Biddie” and found a blog called “Biddie Lifestyle” which described to me the commonalities of biddies everywhere. Apparently, biddies wear leggings as pants, have iPhones, love glitter, pretend to know about sports when guys are around, and listen to Jason Derulo and Nicki Minaj. I am guilty of 3 of the above, yet never in my worst nightmares could I imagine anyone referring to me as a biddie. Unthinkable. Further research was needed.
I then found “biddie” in the Microsoft Word dictionary. After correcting my spelling to biddie (I will continue to use this spelling out of respect for Amherst President, Biddy Martin), Microsoft kindly explained to me that the term biddie (noun) is 1. “Same as chicken,” or 2. “an offensive term for a woman whose behavior is regarded as fussing or interfering.”
Pink, Nicki Minaj, glitter—the loud things, the bright things. These are the things that society condemns women for embracing, yet simultaneously conditions them to adore. For a woman to enjoy these things is to interfere with our social standards, but if she does not comply with these interests, she fusses with social norms. Unsurprisingly, there is no way out.
Urban Dictionary says that a Biddie is “gullible/easily tricked,” “does not remember the last weekend that did not involve a hangover,” and “dreams of being a woman from Desperate Housewives.” It is audacious to me that this term could involve so many intricately offensive assumptions, yet in reality is applied to so many women. I can’t remember the last time I looked at a girl wearing a sequined tank top at a college house party without “biddie” being the first thing that came to mind.
Where does one draw the line between biddie and non-biddie? It’s unclear, if not impossible. Because I listen to Bright Eyes and shamelessly detest football, does this make me a non-biddie? But I wear leggings as pants on occasion and I have an iPhone. Does this make me a biddie? This shouldn’t concern me. It shouldn’t concern anyone. We need to stop classifying women and pitting them against each other.
The term biddie separates women in a society where women should be finding their commonalities in order to fight against the oppression that is prolonged by the use of gendered and derogatory terms. Women are constantly mocked for what they are and what they aren’t. Instead of ridiculing women for having certain tastes, we should work towards a society in which women are comfortable to explore their interests.

Doing it wrong: Internet anonymous: explaining the web's caustic environment

The advent of social media makes anonymous activity exceedingly easy. It is no secret that people will often say things under the veil of anonymity that they would never say under their own name. College “confessions” pages like Bowdoin Confess and Words from the Bubble are just the latest means of providing anonymous commentary on campus.
One might think that providing an anonymous outlet increases and improves dialogue on campus. Finally, a place where students can say whatever they want with no consequences or judgment! I’d argue this is not the case. Anonymity, when coupled with a lack of accountability, does not improve dialogue in any real way.
While it is true that confessions pages can uncover real, problematic issues on campus like race and sexual assault, anonymity dilutes these issues. Real arguments should be brought up by people who care enough about them to stand by them. Submitting an anonymous confession allows people to make public whatever is on their mind, and then forget that it was ever said. Sure, the experience might be cathartic, but it does more damage than good.
Anonymity takes away the biggest leverage we have when we speak up for ourselves—our humanity. Talking about an issue face to face does so much more than an anonymous complaint. It’s hard to care about an issue made public by an anonymous website when I can’t put a face on that person. How can there be dialogue with a faceless entity? When you remove your personhood from your opinion, you remove any possibility for understanding. There is no means for your opinion to be clarified, defended, altered, or put into any context. Sure, other commenters can come to your defense, but they are not on any realistic level a spokesperson for an anonymous confession.
When important dialogues at Bowdoin are not trivial, the same voices are always represented. This community cannot afford to lose important arguments and opinions to petty confessions pages. Bowdoin students should be comfortable creating a space for their opinions, politically correct or not. The only way to understand each other and our environment is through meaningful dialogue. That doesn’t happen when we hide behind our computer screens.
Furthermore, anonymity gives people the means to say things that should not be said in public—things that hurt and insult individual people. These types of statements do not create dialogue, and anonymous message boards should provide the filter that these submitters did not have. Well thought out and earnest opinions should be encouraged. Purposefully insensitive and demeaning language does not have a place in this community.
It is not the easiest thing in the world to state an opinion, especially a controversial one. Society makes many people feel as if their thoughts are invalid or inconsequential, and the potential for backlash is frightening. I am wary and self-conscious about what I write in this column, and the feedback has not always been pleasant. But the sacrificial nature of speaking up for what we believe in, and the willingness to face opposition, is what gives our words power.

Doing it wrong

Adjusting after breaks should involve changing conversations

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

April 4, 2014

When you first come to college, the transition period is endlessly discussed. It’s normal to feel homesick or culturally shocked during the beginning of your freshman year. A similar sort of process is also acceptable for those who come back from study abroad. Yet, during Spring Break, it occurred to me that for those of us who go home often for break, no one talks about how difficult it can be to constantly readjust from Bowdoin to home and vice versa.

My Spring Break was considerably relaxed; I spent most of my time eating Chinese take out and watching “Scandal.” However, towards the end of my break I started to feel unusually stressed and irritable. I realized that what was stressing me out were the differences between my life at Bowdoin and my life at home. I had never understood why going home never sat well with me considering I loved spending time with my family and friends. But there is something to be said for the toll that continuously adjusting to different environments takes on many people at Bowdoin.

The adjustment that affects me personally at Bowdoin is the ease of life here. When I’m at school, all I have to do for meal times is swipe my OneCard at the dining hall and there is an array of food available to me.

I don’t have to walk to the supermarket, worry about how much money is in my bank account, or make sure that I make dinner before my parents get home. If I want to hang out with my friends late at night, I only have to walk a couple of minutes to their dorm room. I don’t need to take the subway and worry about being a young girl alone in New York City. I don’t need to worry about constantly entertaining myself—there is enough work, events and extracurricular life to do that. At Bowdoin, I am often able to forget that I am vulnerable, poor and unsure of myself.

But this attitude is sometimes hard to preserve. And for the times when I am not able to forget some of these things, it is not easy to talk about them. For some reason, I don’t feel as comfortable tackling economic privilege in a conversation with my friends as I do with other heavy topics like race and gender. I almost feel like I’m at the dinner table in Downton Abbey, and it would be out of the question to talk about wealth. It shouldn’t be that way. There should be a space for students to express their feelings on economic privilege.

Living in a place with so much wealth can be difficult when you know that at a certain point, you have to go back to a very different situation. The more comfortable people feel to talk about an issue that is important to them, the less it will strain them.

Bowdoin should try to tackle this by educating more students about the reality of economic privilege, to show students who deal with this issue that their troubles are important, and to make students attuned to these issues so that they can better understand their fellow students. Adjusting to a new home is a great deal easier when you don’t feel like you have to hide certain parts of yourself to get by.

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