At the end of August I had no intention of taken any gender classes. I was only concerned with whether I was going to be readmitted or not. Once I finally found out I would be back in school, I met my advisor. She advised me that the fastest route for me to graduate would be to not signup for an internship but to complete an international & cultural management cognate. With this cognate the only two classes that I could take that would fit in my schedule were Sociology of Gender and Introduction to Gender. Having never taken a sociology class other than Introduction to Sociology I really didn’t know what to expect.
When I signed up for the two classes my initial thought was, “just shut up and get through it.” I knew that some of the issues that came up would probably push my feelings and thoughts. I was preparing myself for a semester long of man hating. I really thought the classes were just going to be about how awful men were, and how men ruin society.
Well I was definitely wrong. Through the first part of the semester in my introduction to gender class it was basically a review of what had been previously discussed in introduction to sociology, but in my sociology of gender class we learned about something that I really had no previous knowledge about. I did not realize the extent of gender ambiguity in some people. Just the statistics on how many intersexed people there are was shocking. I cannot begin to understand what it must be like for those people to live there lives in a gendered world.
I was appalled reading the book “As Nature Made Him.” How someone like John Money could knowingly destroy peoples lives, baffles me. I really believe that he was an egomaniac. The hot topic gave him a platform to be “king.”
It was not until the end of the semester when class began to be more like I thought it would be like. Everything in my introduction to gender class was really placing blame on masculine society for the mistreatment of women. Going to class really became hard because of the how the class made me feel like I was a bad person because of who I was. I felt like this quite ironic. I do not understand how it makes sense to blame one specific group based on gender or race while saying that gender and race should have no bearing. It is reinforcing the issues of gender and race. I do not understand why the feminist movement is based on inappropriate male dominance instead of basing it on the positives of the abilities of women. Hate towards a group of people will not positively effect how that group feels. I believe that the advancement of women has come to a point where it is no longer necessary to negatively fight for ground. The success of prominent successful females like Oprah, Sarah Palin, Indra K. Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi), Irene Rosenfeld (CEO of Kraft Foods) really needs to be shown and presented as reasons why there should be no biases towards women in the workplace. Being able to show success will go much further than negative hostilities.
I understand what youre saying and I realize it can be hard being a white male in such courses as gender or a race course.
ReplyDeleteBeing a white female, I have been in similar situations- the problem is that it is the fact that white men are responsible for atrocities and various things that lead to disparities between different groups of people. I think the main thing to remember is that while you are a white male, you are not THE white males that led to the problems. I think if you remember that, then it will hopefully help you. Also, I think being aware of various racial or gender issues and bringing that knowledge with you in your life is also a way of doing your part to help lead the path toward equality.