Mackenzie's Movie: Lady Bird

If you still haven’t seen Lady Bird here’s my pro tip: don't watch it the week before you leave for college for the first time.

Lady Bird is one of those movies that is so profoundly personal that you can’t help but see yourself as Lady Bird or Julie or even Danny. The first time I saw the movie I cried, and again every single time I’ve watched the movie since. Every character was someone I’ve known at one point in my life, but especially Lady Bird and Julie. The desire to find a space for themselves where they feel like they belong, the yearning to leave home (ESPECIALLY Lady Bird’s desire to live on the East Coast), and the power of Alanis Morissette. It’s rare to watch a movie that feels so intimate and so unbelievably real, and it’s especially rare to see this with teenagers. The realness in Greta Gerwig’s writing makes you feel a sense of nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced while still understanding exactly how they feel.

Often times characters like Lady Bird are not given the opportunity to become full-fleshed characters and are instead relegated to being yet another “manic pixie dream girl.” This opportunity would not have been allowed to Lady Bird had the film been written by a man. While there are strong female characters written by men, none are as complex as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson. The way that Saoirse Ronan plays Christine, or as Julie would say “the titular role,” is masterful and captures the essence of what it is like to be a teenager who knows everything and nothing all at once. The moment that always sticks out to me is when Lady Bird asks her mom: “what if this is the best version of me?” and her mom, played by the incomparable Laurie Metcalf, just shrugs as if to say “it can’t be, can it?”. Seeing a character seemingly as strong as Lady Bird admit that she is unsure if even the real version of herself is good enough, let alone the facade she puts on around the “cool kids,” is powerful in its own right.

This movie is full of moving scenes, but the one that resonated with me the most doesn't come from Lady Bird at all, but rather her best friend, Julie. When Lady Bird comes to Julie’s apartment on prom night she finds Julie crying, and as Lady Bird tries to comfort her she says: “some people just aren't built happy, you know.” Having had, and still having, my own battles with depression and anxiety, hearing this brought tears to my eyes (and then streaming down my face). It’s a thought that runs through my mind every time I have a panic attack, the thought of “why me?” Julie is just as powerful a character as Lady Bird and the fact that they have each other to rely on is so incredibly important. Lady Bird is a story about friendship, about self-discovery, and, most importantly, about women and everything that comes with being a woman.

Update on the Gators Matter, Period Campaign

Today, I walked out of the Capstone Seminar for my Women’s Studies Major after having spent the last 2 hours discussing the book “We Should all be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and “The Personal is Political” essay by Carol Hanisch. (You can listen to the “We Should all be Feminists” TEDx here.)

On my way, out I was discussing some of the upcoming events and to-dos with the President of WSA. I left the class hopeful for a future where women matter and our voices are heard. Where our hard work and efforts are recognized and rewarded. Where we can sit in on a conversation with other peers without having simple information “mansplained” to us. Where we can dress how we choose and be taken seriously regardless of our choice to wear a dress or a suit.

Then reality hit me. I opened my newsfeed and was faced with an Alligator article: SG Committee Rejects Proposal to Use Student Fees for Free Tampons, Pads on Campus. The article describes the reasoning behind not adding a code revision that would allow Student Government to fund menstrual products on campus that would be free to students. I say students because it is important to note that non-binary and transgender students may also use menstrual products, even if they do not identify with the binary gender “woman.”

When the President and I were elected, we decided we wanted to make free menstrual products on campus a reality. WSA had briefly discussed the possibility the year prior, but we did not have an opportunity to act on it. So, we created a service position on our executive board that would focus on making this happen. We picked strong, passionate leaders to fill this position. We did research over the summer, on top of studying for our GRE and LSAT exams. We found other schools that were implementing this and read articles about their process.

In July, we received an email from the Judiciary Committee asking for any WSA legislation ideas, much to our surprise. In this email, the Committee recognized the “prominent portion of the student body” we represent. Within mere days, we responded with a proposal for free menstrual products on campus.

After hearing no response, we handed over the job to WSA’s Service Director, Chase. She worked tirelessly to create a coalition of organizations to garner their support. She organized tabling in Turlington to encourage people to sign the petition and circulated it online. She worked day in and day out with Student Government and all of their complexities, and never wavered if they didn’t respond or put her on the bottom of their importance list.

All of this hard work comes down to: “…Various complaints, including that the funding would benefit only the female half of the UF Student Body,” and “the committee said the petition was unclear about how many signatures came from students and if the issue was also being voiced by male students.”

Because that’s the world we live in, right? Where men have to weigh in on whether something is meaningful and important (to them) to make it happen, even when over half of the student body benefits from it. If we just want to talk about women, they make up 55% of the student body according to USNews.

If Student Government is truly concerned about how many UF students are interested in this initiative, they can easily poll the students as they did when considering making two study spaces 24/7. Rather than attempt to ease their own concerns by taking action, they shot down the possibility of even voting on it. To fund this initiative, we would not even request an increase of fees but a re-allocation of money that we estimated to cost less than $3,000.

When will women be able to have something benefit them that does not simultaneously benefit men? (It literally cannot benefit men. Sorry you don’t bleed and can’t birth children!)

Women matter. Our opinions are valid, regardless of the male opinion. No one asks how many women benefit from something. (Is it true we paid for urinals with SG money? Let me know.)

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.”

― bell hooks

What To Do When Someone Tells You "You Can't"

Prove them wrong.

#sexism #inspiration #womensempowerment