Letter of Introduction

     My name is Valerie Tindall. I am from Ft. Lauderdale Florida. I am a junior at UCF and my major is Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Women’s Studies and a minor in Communications. I am interested in taking this course because I would like to have a career in fashion, specifically women’s fashion because I believe women’s apparel is used as a way for women to express themselves and to empower themselves. I think that taking this course provides a necessary perspective to be involved in an industry I am passionate about.


   Though I don’t have involvement in any type of organized activism, I feel that living my life every day freely and for myself is the best activism I can do. Feminism to me is all about women living their lives unrestricted, to not be defined by socially based gender roles. It’s about being able to go to school and study whatever I want to, to be able to get a job in any field I want and to not feel guilty for not staying at home and raising a family and living a traditional life (although if that’s what you choose to do there is nothing wrong with that, after all it is your choice). Feminism is merely and aspect of being a women whereas Women’s Studies is a full spectrum analysis of all that is woman.

  The people who have had the greatest influence on my understanding of how men and women behave would have to be my parents. For as long as I can remember both of my parents worked and they shared all the housework equally, if my dad cooked, which he pretty much always did, my mom did the dishes and so on. My dad was always very supportive of my mom working and eventually going back to school to get her bachelor’s degree, which she did when I was a teenager. My dad was the first one to show me that a man could be a feminist. The relationship between my parents and the way they live their life helped me to live my life the way I wanted and to not see a difference between what I am and what I want to do.

  I’m not really sure what I want to learn from this course this semester, because I don’t feel that I’ve been exposed to all the details of this subject, but I feel I need to be exposed to this material if I want to be involved in a feminine industry. Besides I’ve always been interested in this subject, I want to have a better understanding of myself, where I came from and where I can go from here. In writing this

  I agree to the terms of the course syllabus and the blogging protocols.