The Maldenism Club is Malden High School’s newest and one of its most unique clubs. The club focuses around resolving controversial issues and advocating resolutions for them. The advisor of the club is history teacher Kerry Veritas. The club meets after school every Wednesday in room BR460 at 2:30PM.
Veritas believes the club is about “mostly gender equality, with women’s and girls’ issues being at the forefront.” She explained that the origin of the club came about from two students, seniors Carri Medina and Marwa Khudaynazar, who are president and vice president of club. Veritas and the students “were having a discussion over these issues, and [Medina and Khudaynazar] told [Veritas] that [she] should start a club.” Veritas responded to them, stating “that [they] should start a club.” Afterwords, she agreed to be the advisor. Along with Medina, and Khudaynazar, senior Sajeanah Cadet was appointed as the social media coordinator, junior Victoria Savini-Burke as event coordinator, junior Gaudenz Brookes as treasurer, and Blue & Gold member junior Tenzin Dorjee as secretary.
Veritas admitted that “this is an issue that [she has] studied in [her] life, and [she has] incorporated it into [her brand of] teaching history, so [she] thought [she] would be a good fit [as] the advisor.” As the advisor, Veritas believes that the purpose of the club should be to “discuss and share experiences, both from the boys and girls [perspectives] in the club around issues with sexism and gender identity, but ultimately, [they] hope to make some changes in attitudes in the school and locally, [as well as to] participate in events that will help women outside of MHS.”
Club president Medina explained that during the meetings, “[they] engage in discussions about what is happening in the world and on social media relating to gender equality, such as white feminism and women of color.” “While [they] do talk about [negative] things going on around the world, [they] try to think of ways to improve these [issues] around MHS and beyond.” Medina personally hopes that the club will accomplish a “change in perspective, and a change how people treat others.” She believes people should join the club because “these issues affect everybody, no matter what age, gender or race”.
According to Medina, the club was named “Maldenism” because [she] “did not want to call it ‘feminism club’ [since] it has a negative connotation to it.” Rather, she wanted “to attract people… [specifically those] who are openly pro-gender equality.” And so the club came up with Maldenism as its title “because it is really about the people of Malden,” explained Medina. “If [they] are making a club about change, [they] have to start here, in this school, in Malden.”
Vice President Khudaynazar intends for the club to change people’s perspective on feminism. She notices that “when people think of feminism, they think of ‘man haters’.” She looks “to bring the issue back to equal rights, gender equality, sexual orientation and on what feminism really is.” One of the main topics discussed in the club is gender equality, and she expressed that “[the club talks] about the social construct of what a women is and what her purposes are in society, while comparing them to the roles and purposes of men in society.” The club wants to see “what kind of gaps there are between men and women in all aspects of life.” Khudaynazar hopes the Maldenism Club will “bring feminism back to its true definition and emphasize the importance of gender equality.”
The club does plan on taking action of making change possible. Khudaynazar mentioned that “[their] first purpose is to educate, and through educating the students of MHS, [they] will lead up to [their] action.” In addition, Veritas hopes that the club will be able to “participate in events that will help women outside of MHS.” Medina looks forward to the impact of the club’s actions in hopes of changing certain perceptions that only women have had to face.
The Maldenism Club is open to everyone in MHS looking to end stereotypes against women and to promote gender equality within the Malden High School community and beyond.
