Year: U2
Hometown: Toronto
Major: Sociology
Minor: Women’s Studies
HC McGill: The women’s studies minor caught my attention. Guys are probably a minority in those classes. What was it about the field that made you decide to minor in it?
CL: I believe that without taking at least one women’s studies course, you’re truly missing out. It’s necessary for people to learn women’s history, as women are the majority of the world’s population, and their perspectives have been ignored for years. The world is still largely seen through the eyes of men. The goal of women’s studies is to distinguish between what is actually true about the human race and what has been falsely propagated. I hate that it has a bad rap – because women have been seen as subordinate throughout history, people don’t take women’s studies seriously. And even today, equality is so far from what it should be.
HC McGill: Wow. Maybe I should sneak in a women’s studies course for an elective.
CL: Definitely. You won’t know how interesting it really is until you try it.
HC McGill: On a lighter note, where can we find you on a Saturday night in Montreal?
CL: With a bottle of the cheapest wine and a handful of my closest friends.
HC McGill: Not out at a bar until 3 A.M.?
CL: Yes, I am known to frequent the bars of Montreal, but most of the time I’d rather have a simple, low-key night with my friends.
HC McGill: If you could meet any celebrity, who would it be?
CL: Christopher Hitchens
HC McGill: Umm…who?
CL: Well he’s not the conventional celebrity, he was an author and journalist who was amazingly intelligent, but I’d be terrified if I met him. He could destroy anyone with logic; it was called being “Hitchslapped”!
HC McGill: McGill students seem to be annoyed by many things lately, earlier this year it was the pedestrian gates at Milton & University. Anything bugging you lately?
CL: Those #@$*! gates are so annoying! Well, everything bugs me…hmm…what bothers me the most is the lack of bike lanes, Montreal drivers – anything that impedes my swift bike ride to class every morning.
HC McGill: Yet, I don’t see that you brought a helmet.
CL: Well…
HC McGill: Pedestrian gates aside, another topic causing controvery is the proposed Quebec Charter of Values. Thoughts?
CL: Listen, they want equality, fairness, a “neutral” province, but there’s a flipping cross on top of Mont-Royal, all lit-up like its Vegas. People are still going to be who they are when they leave work and go home. Nobody can stop that. True neutrality would be seeing people as people, despite the fact that they’re wearing a burqa, yarmulke, or cross.