Spring Break
Blog allows students to share frustration, joys
By: Caroline McGeough
Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: News
Last update: 4/1/08 at 6:11 AM EST
Last update: 4/1/08 at 6:11 AM EST
What secrets would you confess to the Duke public if no one could find out it was you?
A new blog started March 19 by junior Deepika Ravi, and supported by organizations across campus, invites students to speak about their fears, secrets and insecurities on its Web site-and promises total anonymity to encourage open confession.
The blog, MeTooCampaign.Blogspot.com, currently features more than 230 posts from students confessing to chronic loneliness, dissatisfaction with Duke's hook-up culture and feelings of failure on a campus of perfectionists.
The majority of students' submissions are intensely personal statements, including entries like "I'm a healthy weight, but on campus I feel obese," "I was raped during study abroad," and "Sometimes I am afraid that being me just isn't enough."
Ravi said the volume of responses on the site in its first weeks shows that students needed an open, honest forum to express such issues for the first time.
Junior Megan Kuhfeld, who recently posted on the site, said she felt she could submit a candid reflection on the blog without having to consider what others might think.
"I liked the idea of being able to say something without other people knowing," she said. "The whole anonymous nature makes it feel like something that people would read, without having [my confession] come back to me."
Other students who have perused the site said they were struck by how many posts echoed the same issues of body image, self-confidence and chronic depression within "this Duke bubble," as one post said.
And although many of the themes are common to both men and women on campus, junior Christen Tingley, co-chair of Students to Unite Duke, which is sponsoring the campaign, noted that the myth of "effortless perfection"-that female students should succeed without struggling-pervades the blog.
The site was inspired by a speech Ravi heard at a leadership conference by Gary Glass, senior coordinator of outreach and developmental programming for Counseling and Psychological Services, which discussed students' mental health and initially referenced the idea of a "Me Too" T-shirt as a joke.
A new blog started March 19 by junior Deepika Ravi, and supported by organizations across campus, invites students to speak about their fears, secrets and insecurities on its Web site-and promises total anonymity to encourage open confession.
The blog, MeTooCampaign.Blogspot.com, currently features more than 230 posts from students confessing to chronic loneliness, dissatisfaction with Duke's hook-up culture and feelings of failure on a campus of perfectionists.
The majority of students' submissions are intensely personal statements, including entries like "I'm a healthy weight, but on campus I feel obese," "I was raped during study abroad," and "Sometimes I am afraid that being me just isn't enough."
Ravi said the volume of responses on the site in its first weeks shows that students needed an open, honest forum to express such issues for the first time.
Junior Megan Kuhfeld, who recently posted on the site, said she felt she could submit a candid reflection on the blog without having to consider what others might think.
"I liked the idea of being able to say something without other people knowing," she said. "The whole anonymous nature makes it feel like something that people would read, without having [my confession] come back to me."
Other students who have perused the site said they were struck by how many posts echoed the same issues of body image, self-confidence and chronic depression within "this Duke bubble," as one post said.
And although many of the themes are common to both men and women on campus, junior Christen Tingley, co-chair of Students to Unite Duke, which is sponsoring the campaign, noted that the myth of "effortless perfection"-that female students should succeed without struggling-pervades the blog.
The site was inspired by a speech Ravi heard at a leadership conference by Gary Glass, senior coordinator of outreach and developmental programming for Counseling and Psychological Services, which discussed students' mental health and initially referenced the idea of a "Me Too" T-shirt as a joke.
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