Weekly Service Learning Log #1

1. Because of the middle schools having Spring Break this week, the YWLP had another meeting on campus with just the big sisters. The main focus was a game called “cross the line” that will be played at the next little sister meeting. The rules of the game are that everybody stands in a line and remains silent while a prompter reads off a list of descriptive sentences that begin with “cross the line if…” (e.g. cross the line if your favorite color is purple), and those who find the sentence to be applicable to themselves step forward. Afterward, we discussed how we felt about this activity and the way it would be handled at the little sister meeting. We also wrote encouraging letters to our little sisters and decorated a “phonebook” for them, which they will use to list the names and numbers of adults they feel comfortable talking to about difficult issues they may be struggling with.

2. In class this week we discussed women’s sexuality, which actually ties in really well with this past YWLP meeting. While we are not allowed to discuss topics such as sex with our little sisters, we are trained to encourage them to talk to somebody with whom they feel comfortable. The facilitators also rightly reinforce that we are not to make assumptions about what gender (if any) our little sisters are physically attracted to. Then there was the cross the line game, which was surprisingly intense. Examples of some of the more triggering prompts include “cross the line if you’ve ever been sexually assaulted “ and “cross the line if you don’t think that you are attractive.” The feeling in the room after the end of the game reminded me of the Lorde article about redefining the erotic as being something that connects us as humans by forcing us to face and embrace our emotional sides. In the article, Lorde writes, “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers, which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them and lessens the threat of their difference” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 163). It was interesting to see the different range of reactions to some of the more intense prompts—shame, pride, embarrassment, sadness, joy, etc.—because while not all of them were pleasant, every one of them was very real. Like Lorde states in the aforementioned quote, I felt less threatened by and more understanding of the women in that room after the game from nothing more than sharing in those feelings with them.

3. The YWLP is full of strong, positive women. From a feminist perspective, it is easier to feel encouraged to continue with my activism when surrounded by those who think and feel as I do about the subject of women’s rights.

Word Count: 475

Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.