I managed to catch this week’s campus cutie, Lucy, before she ran off to one of her bible studies to find out a little more about her.
Lucy is in her second year studying History and English, however she took an unconventional path to choosing this degree. “I was actually going to be a nurse”, she explained, “I pretty much had two days to decide whether I was going to go and do that up in Southampton or come down here and read Humanities”. Would she choose differently now, two years on? “I’m not really sure,” she said, “it was tempting because if I studied nursing that was my whole professional life sorted, you know?” she explains, “but at the same that’s pretty scary – what if I decided in twenty years or something that I wanted to do something different? I think that idea of ‘what if’ is what made me choose History and English to be honest.”
So now that she’s chosen a life that doesn’t revolve around nursing, what would she like to be doing ten years down the line? She paused for a while before: “I have literally no idea! I could be anything, you know?” she said, “For ages as a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist. I was utterly obsessed with dinosaurs – I was a little bit like Ross from Friends looking back at it,” she laughed. “But in a way I think it’s nice not knowing, you know? To have that freedom to decide whatever I want to do at some point in the near future. I just feel like I have so long to decide, I’d rather not stress about it too much now!”
Continuing on, I asked Lucy whether there is anything in her life that she would consider herself passionate about and why? “I’d say I’m a pretty passionate feminist”, she said without much thought, “but then sometimes I wonder if I’m passionate about the right things within feminism?” she explained. “I recognise that I’m from a really privileged background, I mean, I’m a white woman, and I’m very conscious of that. I try not to be associated with particular kinds of feminism, especially white feminism because I feel like, in some respects I can’t completely empathise with the real struggles that are going on, you know?” she said. “I do think that perceptions of feminism are changing for the better, which is great, but I don’t want to be associated with white feminism, and for people just to think ‘Oh, white feminism, Emma Watson – that’s the kind of feminist you are’, you know?” she explained. “I do respect what Emma Watson is doing, don’t get me wrong, but it is an incredibly white and privileged perspective. There are so many areas within feminism that need to be addressed; I just feel that feminism should especially benefit people of colour. I’m definitely of the opinion that racial equality is significant to gender equality,” she explained.
I next ask Lucy whom she would consider as her role models at the moment. “I would definitely say Jesus” she explained, “I mean, that’s definitely something else I’m passionate about- my faith. Which I actually find really interesting as I would definitely identify myself as a feminist and definitely as a Christian, but a lot of people assume that the two don’t go together, but I think they definitely do, for sure” she explained. Why is this a mind-set that is held within the church? “I think mainly its just because the church has such a history with patriarchal dominance that implemented quite specific gender roles – but I don’t think that these are representative of the biblical concepts of gender” she explained. “But,” she continued excitedly, “I also really admire Jessica Williams at the moment. She’s an actress, but she’s on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart right now and I think she’s really cool and a fantastic reporter.” she said. “Also, there’s Ava DuVernay! I’m really interested in film and cinema and she recently directed ‘Selma’ which was about Martin Luther King – it was an absolutely amazing film, but she got snubbed at the Oscar’s,” she explained, “can I tentatively mention that perhaps this was because she was a woman of colour up for an award at this notoriously white awards ceremony?” She said, cheekily.
I conclude by asking whether our gorgeous cutie is single or not? “I don’t really want to answer that, to be honest” she explained, “I just don’t feel like it matters, you know? I have so much else going on in my life at the moment that is so much more important to me than my relationship status, to be honest. I definitely don’t feel like my relationship status should define me.”
And with that, I end my interview with lovely Lucy. This week’s campus cutie is an opinionated and informed one – what’s not to love?