Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election signals a victory for women.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Let me explain. It was December, right before winter break. Half of the class was fantasizing about skiing down Donner Slope. The other half? They’re literally skiing. My AP literature teacher had just handed back our essays, and was battling valiantly- but futilely- to get our attention. The class averaged somewhere between the second and third letter of the alphabet. I already knew we’d be hearing him drone endlessly about our dull vocabulary, repetitive sentence structure, and handwriting so atrocious it very well might have come from an actual chicken.
Instead, he posited that the election could be construed as a success for gender equality. After the election, articles abounded all over the Internet decrying Trump’s ascendancy as a setback for gender equality. Common sense said that virtually all women would vote for Clinton. However, the actual split of women lay closer to 55:45 in Clinton’s favor, which he interpreted as showing that women refused to conform to societal norms and made their decisions independently, both of which are key goals of the feminist movement. Of course, this was …show more content…
AP literature was undoubtedly my most challenging high school class, but I would take it again in a heartbeat. It taught me how to tackle problems without a preset method and adjust to the prompt within the 5 minutes allotted for brainstorming. Writing a good essay isn’t about having the most magniloquent vocabulary. It requires the flexibility and craziness to craft a thesis statement that purports Jay Gatsby is the true antagonist of his namesake novel. It also requires the iron will and determination to stand by that thesis and cobble together six supporting pieces of evidence into a fully fleshed out five-paragraph essay. And, crucially, with the power to persuade even your
Yes, you read that correctly.
Let me explain. It was December, right before winter break. Half of the class was fantasizing about skiing down Donner Slope. The other half? They’re literally skiing. My AP literature teacher had just handed back our essays, and was battling valiantly- but futilely- to get our attention. The class averaged somewhere between the second and third letter of the alphabet. I already knew we’d be hearing him drone endlessly about our dull vocabulary, repetitive sentence structure, and handwriting so atrocious it very well might have come from an actual chicken.
Instead, he posited that the election could be construed as a success for gender equality. After the election, articles abounded all over the Internet decrying Trump’s ascendancy as a setback for gender equality. Common sense said that virtually all women would vote for Clinton. However, the actual split of women lay closer to 55:45 in Clinton’s favor, which he interpreted as showing that women refused to conform to societal norms and made their decisions independently, both of which are key goals of the feminist movement. Of course, this was …show more content…
AP literature was undoubtedly my most challenging high school class, but I would take it again in a heartbeat. It taught me how to tackle problems without a preset method and adjust to the prompt within the 5 minutes allotted for brainstorming. Writing a good essay isn’t about having the most magniloquent vocabulary. It requires the flexibility and craziness to craft a thesis statement that purports Jay Gatsby is the true antagonist of his namesake novel. It also requires the iron will and determination to stand by that thesis and cobble together six supporting pieces of evidence into a fully fleshed out five-paragraph essay. And, crucially, with the power to persuade even your