Explore the New

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What is the purpose of studying abroad? To me, I think its purpose is to help the students to see the other unknown world and explore the unfamiliar fields.

I remember the first time when I official heard the term, feminist, which was an event that I attended the first year at UCSB that talked about the #MeToo movement. In the event, Grace Kyungwon Hong, Professor of Gender Studies at UCLA, states that feminist have surfaced from time to time in the past, the modern feminist movement’s roots are in the age of enlightenment with its principles of individual justice. Being an international student, especially a male student, I think this event inspired me a lot.

“As the feminist movement taught us, what happens to one gender happens to us all,” as Professor Hong states. I used to think that the feminist movement only focused on the group of females by its literal meaning. However, I was wrong. As an article from Forbes, “Why We Need Gender Equity Now” highlights, “ Gender equality "does not mean that women and men will become the same, but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.” The feminist is about coalition and solidarity. “Human misery knows no frontiers, and nor should human solidarity,” like the professor mentioned in the event. We cannot use gender to distinguish the good and the bad. As a collective living in today’s world, everyone has the right to do what they think is right. We should accept everyone unconditionally even though we have different gender, different race, different color of skin. The University of California, Santa Barbara is an excellent university because of its diverse environment. At UCSB, you can see students from all over the world. I think this can be a unique opportunity for me to know more about others. Like what the professor mentioned in her lecture, we need a coalition. I think that the first step of an alliance is to know each other well. For example, our school has all kinds of cultural clubs such as Chinese student association, Latino student organization, Japanese student association, and so on. Through all of these cultural groups, we definitely can learn from each other. Meanwhile, by looking at the differences between each culture, we need to find a balance point that can help us to understand each other more effective.

What is more? The professor Hong (UCLA Gender Studies) talks about the Third World Women’s Alliance. The Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA) is an organization that brought together women of color in socialist, anti-imperialist solidarity projects. She states the importance of solidarity again. She points out that whatever occurred, we must unite as one. As an old Chinese proverb goes, “great things may be done by mass effort.” This teaches me that whenever I am facing a problem that I cannot solve by myself; I can always ask help from others. “It is yourself that is the biggest enemy that obstructs your progress,” as the saying goes. We cannot allow our self to be the biggest stumbling block. On the contrary, when we see someone in trouble, we should help them incumbent instead of ignoring them. I think this is the purpose of the word “solidarity.”

I believe that the word “feminist” is excellent and inclusive. It not only about the group of females but also about coalition and solidarity in general for everyone. We need to realize that no matter who you are, where are you from, what is your gender, we are all equal to each other.

Being an international student, I do believe one of our duties is to combine the background that we already have with the new culture that we are entering. And then, use this studying-abroad-opportunity as an excellent platform to absorb and grow.

Work Cited

Forbes.com. (2019). Why We Need Gender Equity Now. [online] Available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2017/09/14/why-we-need-gender-equity-now/#148acd077a24 [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].