A Cornell University student stripped during her senior thesis presentation. The student, Letitia Chai, gave her honours presentation wearing her underwears after her professor allegedly questioned her sartorial choice during the trial run of the presentation earlier that week. On Saturday, over two dozen people stripped to bras or boxers, with about half the room remaining in states of undress for the entirety of Chai’s thesis, the Cornell Sun reported.
“The first thing that the professor said to me was ‘is that really what you would wear?’” Chai told the daily. “I think that I was so taken aback that I didn’t really know how to respond.” Reportedly, the professor told Chai that her shorts were “too short” and that she was making a “statement” with her attire.
She also mentioned that the professor, Rebekah Maggor, who teaches the Wednesday section of PMA 3815 Acting in Public: Performance in Everyday Life had told her that she would attract “men’s attention” away from the content.
“I am not responsible for anyone’s attention because we are capable of thinking for ourselves and we have agency,” the 18-year-old student was quoted by the daily.
Soon after the professor went out to talk to Chai and then asked her student what her mother would think of her clothing choice. “My mom is a feminist, gender and sexuality studies professor. She’s fine with my shorts,” Chai answered.
When Maggor then asked Chai what she was going to do, she replied, “I’m going to give the best damn speech of my life.” Chai stripped down to her bra and underwear and walked back into the room, and presented her thesis in those clothing.
Later, taking to Facebook, she invited public to her final presentation, however, not taking any names of fellow students or professor. During the introduction of her thesis on Saturday, Chai walked into wearing the same clothes she had worn in class. “Strip, everybody!” a teary Chai said she stood in solidarity with people who have been asked to “question themselves” based on others’ perception of their appearances, stripping down to her underwear again in front of the room.