Stacey Waite is a poet and Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her poetry is bold in its confrontation of gender norms and ideals, but her beliefs are nuanced in an interesting and creative way.

What I found most interesting about Waite’s visit to Davidson was her discussion of pronouns. As a teacher and professor, she doesn’t have a time when students are supposed to share their pronouns. I have become so familiar with the introduction (especially in queer safe spaces) that includes name, fun fact, and pronouns. Waite believes that if you give everyone an opportunity to share what is most important to them, those who want to share their pronouns can. I personally like what we did in your class where we put our pronouns somewhere where people can see them if they want to see them.

Stacey Waite’s beliefs about pronouns display her more generalized belief that gender shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that she believes you shouldn’t have to respect people’s gender identity and performance. Instead, she believes that gender should be fun and however you want it to be. She believes that people who have progressive ideas about gender and sexuality shouldn’t push out people who haven’t gotten here yet. Rather, we should bring them in to help them know that a person is defined beyond their gender and that you care about them wanting to learn and change. These beliefs were very powerful to me because I have personally worked with my parents about their beliefs that contradict mine. Because I didn’t shut my parents out, they were able to grow and learn so many new ways of thinking. Obviously not everyone owes this to the people in their lives, but it is cool to see an activist with such a positive attitude towards the direction of gender. 

To me, I love hearing about someone who expresses the malleability and exciting possibility of gender in their art. Waite’s poems were beautiful and emotional. They reminded me of Jacob Tobia (a personal role model) and their coming of gender story. I am super excited that Davidson was able to get Stacey Waite to come to talk to us because I have another gender role model who creates art that I am interested in.