2018 Bailey Oratorical
This year’s Bailey Oratorical was my first. Since this is my first year at Juniata, I was unsure on what to expect from a “speech contest.” Upon learning that this event is one of our longstanding traditions, I was excited.
I read up on who was participating in the event- something I was unsure of until the night of the event. The contestants were Alex Jones, Catherine Lanigan, Vy Mai, Ben Martin, Nate Matthews, Mary-Claire Sei, Sarah Ullom-Minnich. Alongside their name was their POE, and I was surprised to see that everyone had different areas of study. At that moment I was interested to see how the rest of the night would plan out, and excited to see the different speech topics.
Every contestant spoke about things that I would consider to be “currently relevant,” including women’s rights, immigration, compassion, etc. I thought that each contestant had a unique way of speaking about their dream for the future, all while offering small and large scale ways to make these dreams come true.
Out of all of the speeches, I think my favorite were Catherine Lanigan’s speech on reducing gender stereotypes to create equal opportunities in life, and Mary-Claire Sei’s speech on active listening, and how active listening can empower women.
My reaction to Catherine Lanigan’s speech was that she created points in a very clear and organized way, and made the speech relatable. She also made the speech slightly humorous, which was nice to see in such a serious environment. She made many relatable points to different groups of people; appealing to men, women, parents, children, and many more. However, I thought this topic wasn’t necessarily a new topic, I’ve heard similar speeches before. On the other hand, I thought the way she presented her views with humor and real solutions for the audience to be refreshing considering the popular topic.
It made sense to me why Catherine picked the topic of gender stereotyping, as one of the fields she is studying is Gender Studies. Her speech has made me more interested in possibly learning about this topic in a college setting.
Reflecting back on her speech, I wonder if this dream is one of the more possible to achieve in the future. Catherine touched on the point of our society internally stereotyping, such as labeling blue as a boy color and pink as a girl color, telling women to be sensitive and men to be masculine. Things such as these have existed in our society for a long time, but I do not think it will be hard to destroy those structures set by society. Many stores, including Target, are already taking actions towards reducing stereotypes. They have stopped labeling their toy isles as “boy” and “girl” toys.
Another point I wanted to reflect on was the point of getting rid of stereotypes to create equal opportunity for all in all ways of life. This would include creating equal opportunity in the work place, sports, school, and equal emotional opportunities. Getting rid of labels for toys and colors is just a start to how women and men can be taken seriously in areas where they normally wouldn’t.
My reaction to Mary-Claire Sei’s speech was that her speech was really relevant to my life as a woman, and she was a really good public speaker. She spoke with proper tones when necessary and was always easy to hear. I enjoyed how most of the first half of her speech was a personal anecdote, which was different from the other speakers. Maybe some people thought her speech needed to have more of a factual basis, but I thought her story was necessary to getting to her point, her dream of everyone having the ability to listen actively.
Reflecting back on her speech, I soon found out that I related heavily to her speech when she finished her first couple of paragraphs. If people could listen actively, women would be empowered in being able to explain their story, whatever their story may be, or whatever situation they may be in. I find myself in everyday life not being taken seriously, or not listened to fully by my peers when I talk, whether they mean to do this or not. There are stories I need to tell too, whether it is a point I’m trying to make in an argument or if I need to ask someone for help. More often than not, men speak over me before I can even finish my sentence in an argument, and when I need help, men often try to offer me a solution before I can finish talking, which causes the solution to not be relevant to what I need.
I think when this dream comes true, it could not only help women in the future but everyone. Think if everyone learned how to listen actively- things would be done more efficiently and easily, businesses would run better because of this.
Similar to Catherine Lanigan’s story, Mary-Claire Sei’s story provides a way for women to be taken seriously in the work place, school, and their daily lives- this is one of my dreams for the future. I hope by the time I get to my career I will be equal to my coworkers in all aspects.
Both of these speeches spoke to me as a woman, and Mary-Claire’s speech specifically has inspired me to learn to actively listen to give my peers the same space and time to explain themselves that I believe I should also get.
Not ignoring the other speakers from the Bailey Oratorical, they all had good, organized points on varying topics, but topics that I felt that weren’t relevant to myself.
Next year I’m planning on viewing the ceremony again. Again, I wasn’t sure to expect when I heard and read about the event, but I was very happy with the outcome of all of the speeches. I wonder what the topic will be for next year, and if any of the dreams from this year will come true even at least slightly come next Bailey’s.
