Sex, politics, and power | Rachel Liddell | TEDxMiddlebury

So last year I served

as the student government
association president,

and I'm pretty proud of that
because I worked really heard

to get that position.

I spent weeks planning
and executing a campaign,

handing out flyers, canvassing the
student body, and putting up posters.

It was all around pretty ruthless
self-promotion.

There was one poster in particular
that I really loved.

It featured a series of pictures of me
making funny faces,

you can laugh...that's the point of it

and I was making these silly faces
and I loved it

because I thought it made me
really approachable,

fun-loving, like someone
you might wanna have dinner with.

And since I'm always a bit nervous

that people think I'm a little uptight,

this was the perfect poster for me.

So I put it up in Proctor and I left it

hoping that everyone would like it
just as much as I did.

But when I came back the next day,

I noticed something different:

Someone had made
an addition to this poster.

You see that picture
at the bottom, in the center,

where my mouth is open?

So I didn't really think that much
of this picture, because

like, I open my mouth all the time

I'm gonna do it a couple of times
in the course of the next 20 minutes.

Please brace yourself
if you find that offensive...

And so I didn't really
worry about this picture,

but someone saw it

and they thought to themselves,
you know, :"I'm inspired!"

And they drew a penis in my mouth ...

I'm glad that you find that funny...

I took down the poster, I put it in
my backpack, I went home