Between the Sheets Author: Meet Emeralde O’Donnell

Name: Emeralde

Major: Resource and Environmental Management, and English

Year: 2nd

Hobbies: Watching nature documentaries and buying plants

What inspired you to join Her Campus?

I think words are incredibly powerful and I have always really enjoyed writing. I wrote for my school (and city paper a little bit) all throughout high school and wanted to continue doing so in university. When I found out about Her Campus, I knew I had to sign up because I’m also passionate about supporting and empowering women and I think it is really cool that Her Campus provides a space for that.

What do you most like to write about?

I quite like opinion pieces. I did the whole completely-neutral-and-unbiased reporting of news thing for four years and, while I do enjoy that style of writing and find it valuable, I find opinion pieces especially interesting and exciting. They have a unique ability to spark the reader to think critically about the world and question their beliefs.  We’re all biased, and nothing is ever truly neutral, so I think it’s fun embracing that, getting controversial, and promoting some real dialogue about differences of opinion.

Your “Between the Sheets” series had been a huge hit. Can you tell us more about your series?

Between the Sheets is an SFU Her Campus series where SFU women can be empowered through reading the thoughts and experiences of women like them, and anonymously contributing their own! It covers a variety of topics within the broader subject of sexuality.

What inspired you to start writing “Between the Sheets”. 

I’ve always noticed, through firsthand experience and third person observation, the amount of taboo that is associated around female sexuality. I’ve been frustrated at being told to clothe myself by my men in my life either because ‘people don’t need to see’ my whatever, or because they ‘value modesty’, and have felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about being comfortable with myself sexually. I think that’s really crappy and no one should have their bodies regulated or be made uncomfortable for expressing themselves in their own skin. My hope with Between the Sheets was to provide a space for women to be able to talk about these things that we’re maybe encouraged not to talk about, as well as a space where they can hear the voices of other women if they don’t want to share for themselves. I believe that the normalization of our bodies and what we do with them begins with public discourse like this.

What do you most want young women to take away from reading this series?

I think the most important takeaway for me, for women of any age, is an understanding and celebration of sexuality in all its niches.  My hope for the series is that it can be a place for women to assert or reclaim their agency in their own sexual expression, to celebrate it, and to know they’re not unusual or alone. We are all different when it comes to our own bodies and sexualities, and it is so important to acknowledge those differences and normalize them. Feeling uncomfortable about masturbation and being criticized for not wearing a bra is crappy, but a woman is equally justified for not masturbating or dressing modestly if she wants to and she shouldn’t have to feel ashamed for that. That’s why I hope any woman reading the series, especially younger women, are able to see all these university women who are comfortable/beginning to become comfortable with who they are – women just like them – and think “wow. I’m not the only one”, no matter their sexual experiences and expressions.

Any final comments or advice for our readers?

Between the Sheets is about your voice! Every one of our questions so far (minus the question for the launch article) has been based from reader suggestions. If you want to see something, let us know! You can provide feedback on the anonymous submission forms for each question without having to submit an actual response to the question.