I agree yet disagree! I would like to just remind readers what exactly empathy means and what exactly to empathize for someone could actually look like. So, empathy is more of an ability. In other words, you’re able or unable to empathize with someone else. To empathize, you are able to understand or to simply connect with another person. Therefore, you both are now able to share feelings amongst each other on a personal connection. I agree that empathy is one of the most important human emotion one can feel because of its power to bond and unite cultures, races, religions, etc.

I agree with much of what nbarker has posted in Cautiously Optimistic, particularly the corncerning lack of support systems in place for trans women (as well as many other demographics that are already quite present on campus). The main questions I have been grappling with are: Is it wrong to welcome people into this environment if we do not have the proper support systems in place to ensure their comfort and safety at Bryn Mawr?

 The general is evident: trans women are women, and thus belong at womens' colleges. The specifics and nitty-gritty are what make this issue an incredibly frought one. Let me bring up a few of the issues I've heard in various spaces and try to address them. I'll try to present a nuanced view for a nuanced problem.

In Freaks and Queers, Clare discusses how the LGBT community has taken the word "queer" out of the hands of homophobes and transformed it into a word of pride and coalition. He says, "The word names a reality. Yes, we are different; we are outsiders; we do not fit the dominant culture's definition of normal. Queer celebrates that difference rather than hiding or denying it" (113). 

I think that we often speak in black and white, but truthfully there is a much more complex gray area. I understand that not everyone can empathize with each other because we all come from different backgrounds, different social structures, different homes, but that does not mean we cannot sympathize with another person's story. I might not be able to relate to someone's experience, but does that mean I have no right to hear it or that the story teller nor I will gain anything from sharing his or her truth. Is relating the ultimate goal?

I was having a chat with a friend last night about identity. We started our discussion because we are doing a collaboration, as the leaders of a new poetry group, with a CDA for their tea. We were trying to come up with poetry prompts that had to do with identity (I suggested that we do something with the “characters” we play at Bryn Mawr, and the intersection between the characteristics of those characters and the rest of our identity). Further along in the conversation she said that she does not know who she is without the context of other people.