No matter where you spent your summer vacation you have heard of H1N1, or the Swine flu Pandemic. Since becoming widespread earlier this year the Flu has caused 67 deaths in Canada and close to 2200 worldwide.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Dilshad Vadsaria, who plays Rebecca Logan on the college dramedy Greek. Set in the United States, the shows deals with “Greek life” -fraternities, sororities, and everything involved therein, with each house named by Greek letters. Fortunately for us Canadians whose knowledge of such things extends no farther than films like Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds (one of this writer’s favourite films of all time), the show deals with subjects our demographic are familiar with.

Depending on where you’re from, you may not have heard a whole lot about this thing called ‘feminism.’ I know I sure didn’t, growing up in Pictou County. As an undergrad at Dalhousie, I became a feminist, and my Women’s Studies classes and professors had a profound influence on my evolution. I was interested in taking a Women’s Studies class my first two years at Dal, but was afraid to register because I believed the ridiculous stereotypes about feminists. I was afraid of what would happen to me if I took a class. Maybe the world would never look the same. Finally, in my third year, I got over my fear and took Women and Music, followed by Women in History, Feminist Philosophy, Gender and the Media, you get the picture. My world did change−for the better. A common criticism of Women’s Studies is that it doesn’t have any “real world” applications, but for me that’s not true. I’m constantly applying my Women’s Studies knowledge outside the classroom, because, and this may shock you, we are gendered beings.