I've finally gotten the chance to take a class that is very important to me: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies.  I'm considering making Women and Gender Studies one of my majors but I wanted to wait until I took the class and experienced what it was like before declaring.  The class so far is brilliant.  The professor is wonderful and the reading is very important to me: whether it's an article as to why feminism isn't "dead" or whether it's a piece dispelling myths about feminism, I find everything insightful and relevant to my daily life.  There is one small issue, and this is an issue that comes up for many people in many classes: some of the people in the class.

On the first day of class, we were assigned groups and ask to "find out about the other members in the group."  After discussing majors and what year we were, I decided to change the discussion and make it a bit more relevant to the class.  I said, "I think it's a pretty fair assumption to make, but are we all feminists?"  A vital fact to mention is that my group consisted of two women and three men.  The men were mostly silent or nodding, except for one that exclaimed, "I wouldn't ever call myself a FEMINIST!" with indignance.  To this, I calmly responded, "Oh, then would you call yourself sexist?  Because feminism mostly works for equality between sexes."  He sort of shrugged and looked away.

Today, I had this class again.  Apparently, this guy went to one of his friends (who openly dislikes women, namely feminists) and complained about "a short blonde girl who yelled at him about feminism."  (I would like to note that, as is a misconception with feminism, my calm statement about feminism was interpreted as "yelling" and "angry.")  This friend decided that it was necessary to join the class "to back his friend up."  Today was his first day in class.

Throughout the class, these two thought it necessary to make homophobic, misogynistic, chauvinistic comments.  When the teacher said "When white men did research on the shape of skulls and intelligence they, of course, decided that the white male had a superior skull that made them more intelligent than other genders or races."  The two looked at each other and the one said, completely serious, "Sounds about right to me."  The other nodded.  When the teacher talked about her son that liked Broadway and wanted to be a "dance professor," the two smirked and nudged each other.  After the class was over, the two thought it was necessary to point me out and laugh to each other.  There were other examples, of course, but these are the ones that I recall off of the top of my head.  It continued throughout the entire class.

After the class, I found myself quite upset.  I go to a leading university and am generally surrounded by educated, civil people.  I questioned why these people were so threatened by my simple explanation of feminism.  I found my answer in some of the readings we were assigned.  One reason as to why people are threatened by feminism is that people, white males in particular, don't want to lose their own supremacy.  They recognize, directly or otherwise, that they have an advantage in society and don't want anyone to challenge it: let alone a strong woman.  It is the same reason why there wasn't racial equality for a long time (and, in many ways, there still isn't).  I also questioned why they thought that a boy liking Broadway was comical.  My answer was also arrived at somewhat easily: homophobia.  I read about many of the myths about feminism.  One was that feminisms are just "angry women."  I find it very interesting that, when men are angry, they get things done.  When women are angry, it is considered abnormal and unattractive, not to mention notable.  Another myth about feminists is that feminists are all lesbians.  If our society wasn't so riddled by homophobia, this wouldn't prevent people from labeling themselves as feminists.  Because many people still view being gay as a bad thing, however, this is off-putting to people.  These are only a couple of the many negative stereotypes about feminists that exist.  I would like to note that all of these issues were addressed in my textbook.

I find it very disheartening that, at a leading university, students still adhere to old and destructive stereotypes.  There are men in my class that honestly think that, to be worth anything, you must be a white male (or so it seemed, by their words and by their actions).  It's obvious to me that, even in our day and age, we must still work for equality: whether it's equality between sexes, between races, or between sexual orientations.  I hope that, within the course, some of their beliefs are dispelled and disproven.  In the meantime, I hope that their negative attitudes and belief systems are just that, and that they don't take actions based on their own harmful attitudes.  I also hope that you are all working for equality in your lives!  Wish me luck.