What matters in the end

 

 

It does not matter how handsome he is

It does not matter how intelligent he is

It does not matter how rich he is

It does not matter how cute he is

It does not matter how sweet he is

It does not matter how many times he says "i love you" in a day

At the end of the day,

What matters is

Is he prepared to go a long way with you

Will he be with you when your skin loses its glow

Will he be with you when everybody is against you

Will he be with you when you do not know yourself

Will he be with you when you are nobody

Will he still be with you when you become somebody?

That's all that matters in the end

 

P.S. In case of heterosexual men, just replace he with she.

First lecture of the semester

As soon as posted on facebook " excited about the first class of semester: sexuality and society", my friend Pranika commented " blog about it". So, I am writing this when, my academic writing is bit slagging and my reading is getting sluggish. So, here it is.

First let me tell you how I landed up in this class. As a PhD student, I do not need to attend lectures actually. Since I am just beginning, I realized that attending regular lecture on topics relevant to my research interest will be good start for my academic year. I approached my supervisor to grant me permission to attend this class titled "sexuality and society". The course basically attempts to overview some important theoretical perspective surrounding sexuality. The major aim of the unit I think is to help us understand the linkages and interactions between individual and society that shapes the ways in which we think about and experience sexuality.

Even before, I started taking this lecture, I had met couple of cool young women around in Monash Women's Room. Let me tell you a few words about Monash Women's room. Monash Student Society has a room just for women students. Oh, yes, amazing isn't it. The room consists of a big lounge where you can sit around, read and eat. With offers of free tea, coffee and fridge and microwave to heat your lunch, this is the most happening place around in campus. Besides that, there is also a set of bunk bed. Bed, hell yes. Imagine a day when you are in university, you feel a sudden cramp. It could be due to your period or you are just feeling tired due to all hormonal somersaults in your body, women's room is just the place to be. Just feel comfortable to have a power nap for an hour or so, even the crappiest of the cramp will begin to feel better.

So, there I go. So, meeting these cool two young ladies had already had already piqued my interest. I had a hunch that this class is definitely preferred by cool young people who want to know more about issues concerning sexuality. One can dare to make an assumption as well to say that this course is much preferred by lesbian/gay and transgender students. As the class will move ahead, I look forward to have interactions with them and learn more about it.

Today's class was basically introductory. The class started with Lecturer Kirsten introducing about Monash Ally Network, please see the link http://monash.edu/social-justice/ally/. It is something that we can initiate in Nepal too. As you know many of us who may not be lesbian or Gay ourselves are more empathetic to challenges and problems faced by homosexuals. We wish we could do something about it. Monash has maintained Ally network ( they could be members of teaching faculty or staffs or students) who are supportive of homosexuals. It was an amazing way to start the class.

She started with introduction of sex and gender. And I liked her introduction of concept of Gender as (hetero alignment). Using the concept of Liam Leonard ( 2003) she argued that one ways of viewing Gender could also be as a principle of hetero alignment of bodies in three different and connected areas : in public/private spheres, social space, sexuality.

Most interesting part of the class was of course, a quiz session. Based on Australian Study of Health and Relationship 2014 ( http://www.ashr.edu.au/) we were asked to guess the answers to some interesting questions like these
1. Median age of first "vaginal sexual intercourse" of men and women
2. % of homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual men and women
3. % of men and women who use paid sex ever in their life
4. % of men and women who had causal sex beyond their regular sexual partner

There were other questions regarding viewing of pornography, use of condom and so on.

When she discussed research results one could clearly see that the ideology and practices surrounding gender definitely influences the ways in which we experience sexuality. For instance, women tended to have their first intercourse a year later than men ( men: 17, women:18). Similarly, men were more likely to use paid sex ( 16.7%) in comparison to women ( 0.3%) due to the fact that there exists higher number of female sex workers and they are way cheaper than less available number of male sex workers. Similarly, men were more likely to have causal sex with other than regular partners ( 4.6%) than women ( 0.3%).

After introduction of these concepts, she discussed some of the major milestones/key moments of history of study in sexuality. Look, I cannot write everything. I will try ask permission if I can upload the powerpoint in my blog :D. This is all for today friends. Will write more later.