When I saw a YouTube video featuring a 5-year-old girl insisting she must have a job before she gets married on a friend's Facebook wall, I commented, "She's so Saint Mary's." As a senior at Saint Mary's, I meant this very sincerely. I have watched my friends over the last semester be accepted into Ivy League graduate programs, accept incredible job offers, get published in journals, and, generally speaking, achieve great things. When an acquaintance of mine saw my comment, he said "No, that girl is not Saint Mary's." He claimed that stereotypically, Saint Mary's women are not on a mission to find a job, they "are trying to find Notre Dame husbands; in pursuit of their M.R.S. degree." In making this claim, a claim that would no doubt infuriate the 1,600-plus women of Saint Mary's College as it infuriated me, he diminished us to nothing but girls who twiddle their thumbs by day and man-hunt by night. Not only is it appalling that this idea pervades the Notre Dame campus, but the idea that any 21st century woman goes to college simply to meet a man is both archaic and demeaning. Newsflash: The M.R.S. degree does not exist, and if it did, attending an all-women's college to get it is an idea that's a little more progressive than I would expect anyone from Notre Dame to be. Domer boys, we're working just as hard as you. We can be executives, lawyers and dentists, too.
Emily Newton
senior
off campus
Feb. 27
