femifist

I attended 2 campus’ of Penn State University from 2000-2003. I was a Women’s Studies major with a minor in Sociology. I then transferred to the University of Texas @ San Antonio where I was forced to switch my major and my minor because Women’s & Gender Studies (as their program was called) was not offered as a major.

I am currently reading a book called Professing Feminism:  Cautionary Tales From the Strange World of Women’s Studies, by: Daphne Patai & Noretta Koertge.  This book took me back to my college days, sitting uncomfortably in classrooms, fearful of speaking my mind.  AND here’s why:

I attended a branch campus of Penn State in Beaver County PA for 2 years.  I was the ONLY Women’s Studies major in the entire school.  There were NO Women’s Studies classes.  I took a ton of Sociology, Philosophy and Literature courses.  Most of my peers did not seem to think twice about my choice of major, but some professors in the school all but harassed me.  A professor of English, in a class called Intro to Composition, confronted me several times in front of the entire class saying that she didn’t know why anyone would major in Women’s Studies and blah blah blah.  It was completely unnerving!  So one day, I finally confronted her.  We ended the meeting in tears.  She had not known that she had been treating me so badly.

I then attended the main campus of Penn State (University Park) for 1 year.  This was a much different setting because there were hundreds of Women’s Studies majors and minors.  Now I was facing a different dilema, it became pretty clear in which classes I was permitted to speak and which classes I should just bite my tongue.  I was called a racist in a Race and Gender course by means of a “you people” comment directed towards me by and African American woman because I made an innocent comment regarding flesh-colored bandaids and white priviledge.  Later an African American man in the same class got up and violently shook his chair at me.  He apologized profusely after class, saying that he was trying to be an RA and he didn’t want this incident to hurt his chances.  The professor did nothing to de-escalate either incident.  I was completely apalled.  None of the other Caucasian students ever joined class discussion for fear of alienation or a blatant attack.  A few students approached me in private and confessed that they felt uncomfortable too.

Finally, I ended up at the University of Texas @ San Antonio where Women and Gender Studies was a relatively popular major.  I had a Chicana Literature class where Chicana women in the class spoke and everyone else did not.  I would leave the class sometimes in tears.  The readings really meant something to me and I was disheartened that I could not freely discuss how I was feeling simply based on my whiteness.

The “Women’s Studies Conflict” in Profession Feminism is the division or lack there of between feminist activism and academic study.  Should the 2 be combined?  Does drudged up and encouraged anger make Women’s Studies courses a hostile environment?

Here is my personal opinion:

For me Women’s Studies was feminist studies and I liked it that way.  I have never liked the division between feminists though.  By division, I mean that as feminists we are not unified because we have sectioned ourselves into many smaller slices.  We are separated by gender, race, socio economic status, sexual orientation, age…etc.  Then we are divided again into even smaller slices between feminists with opposing views such as porn is okay and anti-porn, pro-choice and pro-life, to name a few. 

I have studied feminist writings by white women, black women, Asian women, Native American women, Hispanic women, lesbians, heterosexuals…  I have known feminists that are men, women, transgendered, pro-choice, pro-life, gay, straight, bi-sexual, older, younger, professional, homemakers….and the list goes on.

Just because I am pro-choice and another feminist may be pro-life, that does not mean that can’t find a different issue that we can stand side by side, fighting.  We both believe in equality for women or we wouldn’t consider ourselves feminists.  I think there needs to be a mutual respect for our differences and a marrying of our commonalities in order for feminists to unit.

So I’m white, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t known poverty, struggle, discrimination, hatred and bigotry.  I can find a piece of myself in writings by women of all walks of life.  It’s a little something called empathy.  When you look at me, all you can see is my whiteness, but do not think that I could not possibly identify with someone of a different race or sexual orientation.  We have all struggled.  I do not wear my struggles like a badge.  You just see a blond, heterosexual, young woman when you look at me, but what you get is a bisexual feminist, who grew up so impoverished that her family didn’t have running water or electricity until she was in second grade.  What you get is a girl that had her life threatened every day of middle school for being a “dyke” even though she wasn’t out to anyone.  I could go on and on….  My point is, we are different yes, but the point of Women’s Studies to learn about women of all types.  Allow me to understand you.  Let me tell you what a particular passage means to me.

Share your opinions with me in comment form.  I always welcome any new ideas and discussions.

I should go back to school and become a professor of Women and Gender Studies…