Student profile
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
"You're wearing too much makeup."
"Your nails are too long and distracting."
"You're too aggressive."
These are real comments judges give during speech and debate tournaments to high school students. Girls lose debate rounds because their clothes, nails, and presence don't "fit" according to the judge's preferences. Beyond physical appearance, female debaters are taught to lower their voices to sound more "manly" and avoid appearing "whiny and rude" when striving to assert dominance.
Over the last six years, my passion for public speaking is based upon making my voice heard. Leading an all-female debate team sparked my curiosity on the topic of women's oppression worldwide. This propelled me to advocate for women's rights in education, the workplace, and the criminal justice system.
I utilize my leadership position on the Public Forum team to instill the same enthusiasm, encouraging each member to expatiate on arguments meaningful to them. For example, I guided two girls in debating the adverse repercussions of gun violence on domestic abuse and violence against women. Ironically, I was sheltered to the prejudices against females -including myself - in the very platform I use to raise awareness about discrimination.
Yet, this was the only comment written on my feedback sheet: "Your skirt is too short, very unprofessional." Shocked, confused, and angry, a rush of questions flooded my mind. Was the judge even listening to my arguments? Is this why I lost the round? Who cares about my skirt when I have to stand behind a podium anyway? Hopeful my coach would address the situation, I showed him the comment only to receive more backlash for my "short skirt" and loss. I stared at my skirt, processing every facet of what happened. My hard work preparing for the tournament didn't matter anymore. My words didn't matter anymore. My voice didn't matter anymore.
Unfortunately, numerous female coaches and students endure similar disappointments, yet little change has occurred to address the biases. I yearned for an outlet to channel my enmity and protest the manifesting gender inequality in debate.
Opportunity knocked on my door when my teammates and I were unable to attend the Women's March since it conflicted with the State Qualifiers Tournament. Adapting quickly, I decided to bring the Women's March to the competition and perform a rally. I reached out to every school attending the tournament to participate in our conversation with personal posters and speeches. Numerous debaters came to the protest armed with potent signs, and three girls shared their individual debating experiences in their addresses. The momentum gathered, and awareness rose as we all chanted, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"
After the rally, I emailed debate coaches in the region to promote discourse with their judges about delivering appropriate criticism to students, acquiring substantial positive appraisal from female debaters in this process. Additionally, I mentored a group of inspired younger female debaters to establish a nationwide organization called BeyondResolved that empowers women in debate and pushes for inclusivity of all genders. BeyondResolved has taken the initiative to run girls- only debate tournaments and contrive specific programs to combat issues of gender inequality.
When identification of sexism flourished into activism, I persevered to create change through communication. This milestone reinforced resilience, solidarity, and resistance for me and for all women in debate. I unearthed that gender inequality is an immense problem, but the will to fight it is transcendent. Recognizing and combating the biases in debate has given me the will to acknowledge and traverse inequalities in the world.
My passion for debate became the vehicle to supporting women in finding the true power in their words while other peoples' words fell short. I aspire to apply this same passion to bridging the social dichotomy in all realms of academia and beyond.