Mary Jo 1: The Ah-ha Moments
Mary Jo was a confused young woman. She had been raised within a somewhat monolithic, community. She was intelligent, aware of what was happening around her, acceptably attractive and a nice, fun person to be around. She was now attending Boston University on a full ride academic scholarship. Since coming to school, she observed how other students were living their life and how considerably different they were to the way she was living hers. She recognized, though, that she did know enough to judge.
Mary Jo's sexual experience was limited. She was a virgin. Her orgasms came from her own fingers. She felt guilty when she masturbated but it did feel good. She had made out with some guys but only to kiss and to touch and be touched.
She was aware from taking showers after working out at the gym that there were some women who had nicer boobs than what she had and had more interesting pussies. She was envious. She wondered why she wasn't so blessed. Had she dome something wrong? There were some boobs and some pussies that she felt a desire to touch but she believed that that would be wrong.
Boston is a college town with several significant universities and colleges within the immediate surrounding area. It is a diverse city made even more so by the thousands of students from all over the world attending the schools there. As she observed how many were pursuing their day-to-day lives, it became obvious to her there were many different ways to live one's life. Her way was not the only way. The thought came to her mind: "Could I be living a better life?"
Mary Jo's "ah-ha" moment come in a philosophy course. During one discussion a student raised two questions. One about something that he said was the "Right of Self" and the other, about what he called the "Subtleties of Evolution".
He described the Right of Self as recognizing one's capability to do what they wanted with their body or life; that one had free will. He gave as examples: one can terminate one's life and if a woman and pregnant, can terminate a pregnancy; one can surgically modify their body or decorate it with tattoos and piercings; one can ingest whatever they wanted; and one could have sex. It said nothing, though, about what one should or should not do.
He said that the Subtleties of Evolution recognized the differences in how we are created from the chromosomes of our parents. Some are combined randomly and others conditionally within the overall context. Some persons will have more whatevers than others. Some will be smarter, stronger, faster, taller, thinner, more logical, more creative, more empathetic, more attractive, more whatever than another. We are what we are.
As Mary Jo walked back to her off-campus apartment she gave thought to the Right of Self and the Subtleties of Evolution.
She came to realize that her religious teachings were directed at telling her how she should and should not exercise her Right of Self. Her parents raised her to be a responsible, independent and self- sufficient person, to be all that she could be with her inherent capabilities. Mary Jo felt that she was up to the task to determine for herself how she should exercise her Right of Self. She was confident in her abilities.
When she reflected on the Subtleties of Evolution, she realized how foolish she was about being envious of other women's bodies. Because of the randomness of selecting chromosomes, it is a "crap shoot". This led her to consider gender stereotyping. The campus LGBT group was very vocal about accepting lesbian gay, bi-sexual and transgendered fellow students. Maybe they were a product of the subtleties of evolution. Mary Jo decided to keep an open mind.
