I started another semester of school today, and it's the first time I've taken a non-night class in, oh, probably a decade. (I'm hoping to prolong my college career to so many years that I can say during my graduation, "When I started college, we actually had to attend classes, in classrooms, instead of the direct to brain download courses they have nowadays!") One of the benefits of taking night classes at San Francisco State is many older students tend to take those course since they've usually got full-time day jobs, so I never really felt that out of place; there was always someone else my age or older in the class. But today? Hoo boy. I was definitely the oldest person there, and I wouldn't be surprised if the professor is younger than me (but I sure hope not).
That said, I'm pretty happy with the class so far, which is called "Critical Study of Popular Culture." That basically means we'll be examining the popularity of the "Chocolate Rain" and "High School Musical" using Marxist and feminist theories. And I love crap like that.
Speaking of feminism, when the teacher brought it up, he asked how many people in the class considered themselves feminists, and out of about 100 people, five people raised their hands (one of them was me). Now, I would expect that kind of reaction from an introductory class full of freshman who think feminism is all about militant lesbians who want to castrate all men, but this is an upper division class. These people have had at least two years of college studies behind them--two years of SAN FRANCISCO college studies. And they're still afraid of the term "feminism"? My hopes for the future of womankind have dwindled considerably.
The only thing that raised my spirits a bit was going into the campus bookstore and finding a whole stack of Pee-Chees for sale! Alas, they weren't the classic peachy color; instead they had them in blue, pink, and green. And the graphics are different. But there's still a guy on the back cover with a basketball in his hands, perfect for rendering into a human head, if I only had the talent to draw that. Instead I'll just be adding the usual afros, black-eyes, and track marks to the Pee-Chee's exceedingly cheery athletes.
3 comments:
That's discouraging. I've come across the very same kind of thing in my ten or so years of scattered studies, more so as I get older and the students I'm surrounded by get younger. I thought maybe it was an east coast thing, but I guess not. Everything associated with the f-word is just not taught in the same way as other social movements are (and information about those movements is probably lacking as well). I have noticed a resurgence of that particular -ism lately, though. The only thing that bothers me is that often it's presented as something somewhat new. Granted, feminism has taken many a turn in her day but she's been around, if you know what I mean.
I'm partial to these gals, but even their slogan is "re-inventing the f-word"...I swear it was something like "keeping the f-word alive" not too long ago...
There have been so many "waves" of feminisn that I've lost count. Maybe the latest wave will get the young gals to fear it less. I sure hope so.
The more I thought about it, the sadder, and madder, it made me. In my mind, any woman who says she is not a feminist is basically saying she doesn't think she is equal to men, and doesn't believe in equal pay for equal work. I know that is a very narrow definition of feminism, but maybe if it were presented in that way, more women will embrace it.
But "feminist" is not as anachronistic a term as "suffragist" or "abolitionist." Of course no one would identify themselves with those words.
And I think you're giving these students way too much credit. I don't think any one of the people who did not raise their hands would say they didn't because they take it as a given that women have equal rights, and there's no more need to identify oneself with the cause of equal rights. (Which again brings up the question, even if you do believe that the idea of inequality for women in an alien concept, why does that mean you needn't identify with feminism anymore?) More likely, they do think that feminism is a term reserved for the radicals, and they would never want to identify themselves as the type of woman who would scare the boys away. And yes, I acknowledge that that in itself sounds like a pretty sexist thing to say, but seriously. Sit in a class for 15 minutes with these students and you'll understand how much a little feminist thinking could help them.
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