Author: soupeconomics

by

I Literally Don’t Know What Race I Am

This is going to sound really weird, but I am having trouble figuring out how to identify: as white, mestiza, both? I really don’t know. My brother took a DNA test and we’re ¼ indigenous to the South American region. Is that enough to consider myself a woman of color? Does the one-drop rule apply to mestizos? According to 23andMe, we’re 63% Spanish and Portuguese. I think about this a lot. So much so that I’ve even been recommended to a therapist who focuses on race.

Here is where my confusion stems from: race as a social construct and race as an identity. I read something on twitter that basically implied there is no such thing as “white-passing” because race is a social construct so whatever race society sees you as, that’s what you are. I try to apply that to myself, but there is not a social consensus on what race I am. 

Continue reading →
by

Is my field of study being used to justify eugenics?

I hate that we still use BMI. I was maybe 10 years old when I learned that BMI as a reliable indicator of health was a total myth. My siblings and I would often play Wii Fit, where there was a weight measurement feature. We’d put in our height, age, sex and then they’d determine our health. Mine would always say “At risk of overweight”. I was 5 feet tall (I still am) and around 127 pounds. My mom would reassure me that it was mostly muscle and that I was perfectly healthy. But when I’d go to the doctor, they’d print my BMI on the reports and my status as “almost overweight”.

Continue reading →
by

UMBC’s Dance Team Scares Me

I originally went to the dance team’s prep classes as part of a class project. The goal was to go to a club that we’d “never imagine we’d join”. So the former high school football player went to a chess club meeting, the international student went to an election night event, and I – a marching band girl who’d exclusively wear one-piece bathing suits to the beach – went to Dance Team. I went there because they scared me. I saw them at Involvement Fest with their slightly revealing uniforms and their shining confidence. I imagined myself in their position and thought it was ridiculous but a few months later, there I was, in front of the whole Event Center in that same uniform. I was attracted to the feeling of sisterhood.

Continue reading →