As part of Body Appreciation Week '07, Dickinson hosted Ophira Edut, author of Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image, as well as a national speaker, activist and entrepreneur, to
give a talk on positive self-image,
held in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium on February 7, 2007.
Founded in the early 2000s, AIDS Awareness in Dickinson Society (A.A.I.D.S.) sought to promote AIDS awareness through education and activism. According to their constitution "The Purpose of A.A.I.D.S. is to provide the community with the realities of AIDS and its impact on the world. This organization is the first student group to offer such contributions to the college community." A.A.I.D.S. was not affiliated with any other campus group.
Dr. M. Jocelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, spoke about "Healthcare in the 21st Century" at The Central Pennsylvania Consortium's Annual Women's Studies Conference. The conference was about Women in Health and took place Saturday, March 4, 2006 at Gettysburg College. Dickinson College was invited to attend the event.
A group of students who had conducted research in women's studies presented their papers on various subjects. The schedule of events for the symposium included a dinner, a welcome by Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Ann Hill, remarks by English professor and member of the President's Commission for Women, Victoria Sams, and two sessions of presentations. The two sessions of research paper presentations were grouped, "Sexualities and Power" and "Status and Representation." Student presentors included, Jennifer Chmielewski (Class of 2010)
The Extra Features on the Dickinson College website documents the creation and activism of the Feminist Collective. Formerly the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women, the Feminist Collective is the new student-led women's feminist organization on campus. The first women's center was created in 1984 as a support and research center, named after the first woman to graduate from Dickinson, Zatae Longsdorff. With this new center, the members can "now focus on an inclusive agenda that addresses gender, race, class, and sexual orientation" because they are a feminist organization.
In response to the posters put up by an anonymous student in protest of the Roe v. Wade anniversary posters of the Women's Center, Susannah Bartlow of the Women's Center created this lunch forum sponsered by the Women's Center, Office of Campus Life, Office of the Dean of Students, and Institutional and Diversity Initiatives.
On the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortions the Women's Center placed hangers hung with different phrases around campus to get student attention and make students more aware of the history of being able to choose and make decisions over one's own sexuality and the choice to bear children. This poster says "Don't Like Abortion? Get a Vasectomy!"
After seeing posters attached to coat hangers put up by the Women's Center in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, an anonymous student put up a reaction coat hanger with this poster. Some of the Womens Center celebration awareness posters included phrases like "Don't like abortion? Get a vascetomy!" and "Keep your theology off my biology."Â The anonymous student wanted to make it known that abortion and other female issues are much more complicated than narrowing them down to religion/politics and other aspects of opinion.
Shannon Sullivan '09, writes a column for the March 2006 Dickinsonian on the perceptions of the Women's Studies Major. Being a Women's Studies Major, Shannon discusses how many people feel the major is "completely unnecessary."Â Since this major is still very "new" in terms of most college majors, people often forget how important this major is to understanding our culture.
Susannah Rowe calls for women to understand and appreciate the "traditional" male roles on the dating scene in her "Dating Too Traditional?" article in the March 2005 Dickinsonian. Rowe takes a look at how in all aspects of life, even in the natural world, men are supposed to take the lead in getting a relationship, or even dating. She calls for women to be more appreciative of the effort men put out to get their attention, and even asks women to consider taking charge of their dating life.