So I'm taking a summer sociology course on deviance. It's a cool course, and the prof is awsome. A very open minded environment.
So at the beginning of every class the prof encourages us to share stories of deviance with the class. Today no one was really being forthcoming, so I raised my hand.
The prof, who knows my name from all my question-answering, asked me what deviant thing I did on Canada Day, and I said "it was really Canada Day, but last weekend I realized that I wasn't going to have enough money to pay my bills this week so I went back to work as a dancer for the weekend...so, deviance."
And the prof said "good, thanks for sharing that."
And that was it. No one snapped their head back and looked at me. No one said anything. Most people probably didn't even hear what I said. It was so relieving. The prof was sincere and didn't dwell and didn't ask any questions. It was like nothing happened at all.
Then later on as we were all leaving the class a girl who sits near me and often gives well-spoken, intelligent contribution in class (she's mentioned that she works as a counsellor at a support netword for sex workers) turned to me and said "thanks for saying that today...that was good". Or something like that. I stammered something in reply. She seemed just as genuine and sincere as the prof. Maybe a very little bit condescending, but not even I don't think. I have a pretty good BS radar for that kind of thing.
So I don't know why exactly I said it...probably to disprove that whole "we're all illiterate, sad-sack, strung-out, crackwhores" (read a post from my friend pr317 from a while back about being harrassed by students who thought she needed to be saved or pitied or gossiped about or something). Some theory of visibilty decreases...I dunno. But I am glad I said it.
Have any of you done anything similar? All that notwithstanding, I could never confess that stuff to my family, or even in a class within my department where the profs and students all 'know me', if that makes sense.



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