Now that it's finally over, I think it is safe to say that shopping period always brings out the best and worst in stereotypes. Whether you shop departments like it's the biannual sale at Nordstrom's or you have got your next two years of classes set in registrar stone, you're bound to at some point find yourself discussing the merits of departments, faculty and ending up in Friday classes before noon.
In this way, however, we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions. I may not have any background in geology past living on the San Andreas Fault and driving carefully around "Caution: Falling Rocks" signs, but after over two years here I can easily tell you what Quakes for Flakes entails.
But try bringing up taking a gender studies class to your average Ratty table and there is utter silence. We might understand quantum physics and "Anna Karenina," but few of us really pause to think about gender studies.
In all honesty, what kinds of people would you initially assume take a course called "Advanced Feminist Theory?" To some it might be a stereotypical vision of the combat-booted, flannel-suited "feminazi" sitting around a table with other women plotting the demise of man. To others it might be an equally caricatured figure - an activist, a tree-hugger or a radical liberal.
However you slice it, it's an unfair and unfounded image of a completely legitimate discipline continuously perpetuated by these negative conceptions of feminism and gender studies in American academia. And with the political climate increasingly pushing women back into the private sphere while eclipsing their public rights, it should only make sense that a field like gender studies would be considered paramount to understanding and interpreting current events. But why isn't it? Why don't we consider taking an intro to Gender Studies as integral to a well-rounded education just as we would a class on international relations?
Either we're too scared of showing up or too ignorant to even think about these issues. I'm here to convince you otherwise.
In fact, just thinking about it, a little under a year ago our campus was abuzz over the production of "The Vagina Monologues." Students lined up in droves to see it - artists, athletes, musicians, activists and scientists. The crowds were diverse in interest, in background and in thought processes. And the discussions afterward in the Gate, at Antonio's and the next day on the way to class were inspiring. Whether they hated it or loved it, somehow everyone had something to say on issues of genital mutilation, orgasms, domestic abuse and abortion. No one probably asks your average economics major what he thinks of sex trafficking on a day-to-day basis, but it's about time someone did.
This is where gender studies classes come in. Far more than just an open forum for whining about the plight of females, I can honestly say that I've witnessed some of the most eye-opening, thought-provoking discussions on campus in these classes. We don't just read a Simone de Beauvoir text; we unpack, analyze and internalize it using our knowledge from other classes - one day I counted references to biology, history, philosophy, computer science and ethics in just 50 minutes - to produce an empowering web of knowledge and theory.
So when I walked out of the Smitty-B classroom doors last spring after each and every feminist theory discussion, I wasn't just set with a page of notes on game theory or the 1848 revolutions. Rather, I felt like my Brown education had come full circle. I was synthesizing two years of college level thinking into this class, applying theory from all walks of academia into my comments during discussion and bringing what others had said on topics ranging from pornography to women in science into my life.
But at the same time, I'm not satisfied with these amazing classes consisting of a small group of passionate intellectuals who, on the whole, are just like me. We're all pretty liberal, we're all pro-choice, and we're predominantly women. It's not surprising that some days I felt like we were just preaching to the choir, never really impacting anyone beyond ourselves.
And that's where you come in. In order to make these classes true forums for intellectual debate and growth, and to eventually dispel the aforementioned pejorative connotations of gender studies itself, there has to be more diversity of thought and background within these courses at Brown. So go ahead and shop around; you might be surprised by what you find inside.
Courtney Jenkins '07 wears heels.
