There is a cliche when coming into college that you will grow and find yourself over your stay. What we don’t hear about is the individual’s that are having these experiences. Junior public health major Sydney Gholson came into college from a bubble, hearing one set of ideas her whole life, not knowing the full story of the world around her. By being informed about ideas and issues she had never heard before and for the first time being able to hear all perspectives, she was finally able to make her own decisions.
“I came to school, and I think it is a classic thing people hear, you come to college and become a Democrat,” Gholson said. “But for me, it’s not that, I just learned I wasn’t a true Republican.
Gholson was raised in a house devoted to the church. She went on youth service trips growing up, with Christmas and Easter being taken lot more seriously than the commercialized holiday that other more secular people see.
“I was raised in a super Christian conservative Republican family,” Gholson said. “My grandfather didn’t hold back on any of his opinions, and he would say things at the dinner table. There were always big political discussions happening and even as a young girl I really didn’t know what any of it meant. But only being exposed to that and only knowing that, I identified myself as a Republican without knowing the true meaning to any of those beliefs.”
When coming to the University of Maryland her freshman year, Gholson was exposed to things that simply weren’t talked about at home. The first idea that shifted when starting on her own was her stance on abortion.
“I grew up in a family that just considered abortion as just this horrible sin that is murder. Before I came to college I was pro-life, and I didn’t believe that women should be able to do that with her body,” Gholson said.
“I realized that I was a woman, capable of having a child now. It was my realization that I am 18 years old and I am about to start my career, and I thought about what would happen if I was in that circumstance,” Gholson said. “If I had to make that decision and I just don’t think now, that it is right for anybody to tell any woman that an abortion is not something they should be able to do with their body, because I know now if I was in that circumstance that that would potentially be a decision that I would consider.”
The idea of feminism itself was never even talked about in her upbringing.
“Coming to college, feminism was kind of unclear to me, I knew what it was, but I did not consider myself a feminist. To me, from the way that I was raised, it appeared as if women were fighting for things that they already had, and then I was exposed to this environment in which I realized that so many of these things that were happening weren’t normal, they were things that shouldn’t be happening and things that are considered discrimination against women. I realized I had been told my whole life by my grandfather, this older man, that women shouldn’t be able to have an abortion and all these types of things regarding women and women’s rights. It also finally occurred to me that he is not a woman, and that kind of sent me on this big thing into realizing how the right of women and the choices women make with their bodies is completely decided by mostly men.
“I realized that women really don’t have the same opportunities as men. I was walking down the street one day, and someone rolled the window down of their car and gave me a little catcall, and for me, I never thought of that as something that was demeaning or degrading towards women. It had happened before to me, but it was never something that I thought I had a right to be uncomfortable about because I was raised to kind of believe that. That was something that women just had to deal with.”
Gholson also spoke proudly of her mother she was predominantly raised by.
“I think being raised by my mom is a big factor in how I have now related a lot to empowering women in general and think that’s because I had a really great role model in my life who was able to just do that for me.”
We constantly find ourselves on opposite sides now, and it is crazy to me that this woman that I think is the most incredible women and did everything for me my entire life, doesn’t necessarily identify as being a feminist,” Gholson said. “And I just think that it’s crazy that the woman that empowered me the most, doesn’t even consider herself as someone who wants to fight for women’s rights, it’s kind of just eye-opening.
She believes that these beliefs are based off her mom’s upbringing.
“She was raised by the grandparents that I am referring to, she lived 15x more shelter than I did and was just raised with these things being lectured into her brain,” Gholson said. “I just got to hear it at the Thanksgiving table, but my mom grew up with this every single day of her life so at the same time it is understandable.”
She explained how moving into her sorority house, and meeting women passionate about feminism helped her come to her own realization.
“After moving into the house I met a few women who were just big into feminism and equal rights for all minority groups,” Gholson said. “I specifically became close with three girls who just heavily impacted a lot of the opinions that I have now. I learned what was actually happening in the government and the war against women and policies that were going on and after being informed I was able to go and do my own research and figure things out.”
(Sydney Gholson) Volunteering at her sorority philanthropy event
She learned from the experiences her own friends were having and the new things they were telling her.
“Something that was brought to my attention was just how the Trump administration was trying to rid women the access to birth control and making it really hard for women to receive birth control,” Gholson said.“I have a friend that ever since Trump came into office, every single month her birth control has gotten more expensive to the point where she was almost paying $200 to get her birth control for one month. That to me just seems insane.”
She recalled the instance when she realized when she felt inequality in her life.
“I was sitting with those three girls in one of their bedrooms, and one of the girls said, “you should never feel that a man has access to do something that you can’t.” And I started just to look back throughout the course of my life, and I realized there were so many instances where I didn’t even recognize that that was exactly the feeling that I was feeling,” Gholson said. “Was that there was a man in that circumstance that was able to either get out of a certain situation because of his gender.”
Her view of her own opinion has changed as well, not feeling it was important to vote before.
“I didn’t vote in 2016, but I did vote at the past 2018 midterm election. I think the University of Maryland does a really good job motivating students to vote. We have a lot of people on our campus who are super passionate about it,” Gholson said. Something that I have realized and I think all of us young people should realize is that we are the next voice, our voice is here now, but older people vote double the amount that younger generations do so I kind of had the realization that this election that my voice does matter.
Her major has played a role in her political shift.
“I’m a public health science major, so a lot of that is examining health disparities throughout the world, but specifically throughout the U.S. in different communities and among people of lower socioeconomic statuses and minority groups and analyzing and how that impacts your access to good health,” Gholson said. “I think that is something that honestly did sway my opinion more and shift my understanding of the important of national health care.
One friend, in particular, Rachel Greenberg really did help Gholson realize that feminism is important. How one girl’s passion, made her realize it is cool to be passionate about something like this also.
“There aren’t even words to explain how much Rachel has impacted my life, Gholson said.” She knows what she is talking about, and this woman is a Gov and Women studies major and still probably knows more about the women body than I do as a science major. I think just learning from someone who I just respect so much as a person and who is so passionate about everything she does, but also obviously knows what she is talking about I definitely think had a huge impact on me.”
“In my family they just close off the social justice issues, like as if they are not there, and as if they don’t matter and in my life, I am a white, straight woman, I have not experienced much oppression and I think the same comes from the rest of my family, so I think college was one of those realizations that their are people experiencing oppression and it is okay for me to be passionate about it and I should be able to fight for these people to because they need more people fighting for them. And I just think Rachel just kind of showed me that.”
Gholson conservative grandfather finally realized the political shift this summer and did something about it.
“I received a 20-page letter from my grandfather, stressing the importance for me to remain a Republican. I’m not gonna lie I didn’t read the letter. I read the first couple sentences, and I just realized that I am really tired of having these things shoved down my throat,” Gholson said. “I am at a time now that I am allowed to have my own opinions, and I don’t need someone telling me what I need to be. It is okay for someone to inform me about things that are happening currently and bring me aware of certain disparities and even for my grandfather to say what he believes in, but I am not okay with someone telling me what I need to believe.”
After being exposed to all these new things, Gholson is still growing and forming her identity.
“I don’t consider myself a Democrat, I still find myself in the middle on a lot of things, but I think what college opened me up to was equal rights in general,” Gholson said. “I think I was just super closed off to all the disparities that were still occurring and unaware.
Gholson also emphasized that her new perspective came from herself, not from other people.
“I didn’t change my opinions based on what people were telling me,” Gholson said. “I was becoming aware of issues I didn’t know of before, looking them up on my own, and then coming to my conclusion on them.”
So, what is feminism to Gholson now in her third year of college?
“To me, feminism has transformed, most people that identify as feminist, yes they want equal rights for men and women, but they want equal rights for everyone, and I think to me that is what it means,” Gholson said. “Just trying to strive to the point that we can achieve a society and an environment where everyone has equal access to rights and opportunities.”