For this entry, I guess I’ll write about why I’m a Women Studies minor and in turn why I joined the class, what I hope to gain by the end of the semester, and why I think hotdogs should be boiled and not microwaved when prepared at home.

I work in the university’s Veterans’ Affairs office, where there is a generous supply of good-natured but sometimes controversial colleague banter. When I have stood up for feminist causes or otherwise made known my antipatriarchal mentality amid these locked-in-a-tiny-submarine-for-months-style chats, the tone of the conversation is often dampened and made strenuous and I typically receive sullen, careful questions from my coworkers along the lines of Why?, Are you gay or something?, and Did your dad used to beat your mom? Veterans have no problem asking you these kinds of questions, and they typically expect honest answers and respond with courteous interest. Yes, I was surprised too.

My point is that having these questions posed to me by a number of colleagues, friends, and family—essentially, Why are you minoring in Women’s Studies?—has made me quite aware of my position as one of only a few males in the program, often the only male in a class, and what that might imply about who I am (and whether or not I care). The fact is, I hadn’t considered the role my own gender would play when I decided to take all the Women’s Studies courses I’ve been enrolled in and construct a minor. I felt the minor would give me the opportunity (or academic excuse… pleh) to take more classes that reflect, involve, and create voices for women because I figure all of us have been learning according to what and how men think for a very, very long time, and that isn’t the only perspective I want, it isn’t the nature of my perspective to begin with, and it isn’t the way the world should work.

Taking this service-learning course in domestic violence is a part of understanding why the world has worked according to men for so long and what we can do about it. The national prevalence of domestic violence brings into discourse issues of power and social imbalances that reflect or are reflected in everything we do. The discourse we create is then the tool for fomenting knowledge and awareness about the state of gender relations, which gives us an invaluable (but not requisite) perspective we can use in actively working to change the system, empathize and assist its victims, and help others learn to do the same. These are the things I hope to achieve this semester.

I am now using my remaining 58 words to explain why hotdogs should be boiled and not microwaved: everything that’s wrong with America is the result of being able to, and in-turn being expected to, prepare our meals in under 60 seconds. If we all took the time to slow-cook our foods over a moderate heat, everything would taste better.