UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Imagine my surprise at hearing these instructions from a teacher: “I want you to try putting the minimum work needed into this.” I never expected to be told to do less work for anything related to school—especially not for the enigmatic honor of getting published in a peer-reviewed journal. Wasn’t publication by the not-yet-hooded reserved for the most hard-working graduate students? For the overachiever who sacrificed sleep, relationships, and any semblance of a social life in exchange for the dreary pallor of a library tan? Yet this was Wendy Belcher’s practical advice to me when I confessed I was sick of thinking about men and vasectomy and was dreading revising my article for publication.