The Mythic World of Women’s Studies

Posted on | September 18, 2014 | 38 Comments

Are you tired of reality? Do you feel that you are being oppressed by facts and logic? Then you should consider majoring in Women’s Studies at one of our nation’s elite universities, where your liberated consciousness is protected from these hateful forces of patriarchy.

Just ask Sarah Blugis of George Washington University:

Why you should take a women’s studies class
On the first day of a women’s studies class, instead of spending the first few minutes evaluating the professor, students’ eyes immediately focus on those considered the bravest students in the class — the men.
Spotting male students in these classes is fairly rare. Most have only one or two men, who are consistently asked for “the male perspective” or need substantial warning before discussion of the menstrual cycle. . . .
Only a small percentage of the GW student body — about 90 to 100 students each year, according to the women’s studies department — choose to take introductory-level women’s studies classes at all. . . .
Learning about past hardships is how we come to appreciate the status of women today. Courses like Athletics and Gender, A Study of Women and Media, and Women and Politics also enlighten students to the disadvantages with which women continue to struggle.
Most people are familiar with the statistics: one in five women experience an attempted or a completed sexual assault in college, and women earn 77 percent of what their male counterparts do for the same work. But there are other issues not so obvious to the untrained eye: These include sexual objectification of women and girls in the media, everyday examples of rape culture like street harassment and the lack of female representation across the political spectrum. . . .

See what I mean? Those statistics with which Sarah Blugis says “most people are familiar”? They are both provably false, as Christina Hoff Sommers has demonstrated. But at George Washington University (annual tuition $48,760), the so-called “facts” don’t matter! This is the beauty of Women’s Studies, where you can send your daughter to spend four years in a mythic world of unicorns, leprechauns and phony statistics that prove to her how horribly oppressed she is.

How does life on the campuses of our nation’s elite universities differ from life in the oppressive “real” world? For one thing, the mechanisms of patriarchal heteronormativity are inoperative at any school where tuition exceeds $40,000. Emory University in Atlanta (annual tuition $45,008) has an Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life. The Office of LGBT Life proudly lists the university’s proudly LGBT faculty and staff, from which I’ve culled this list of female Emory employees who call themselves “lesbian”:

Leslie Harris (Associate Professor, History and African American Studies);
Beverly Walker (Assistant Supervisor, Building & Residential Services);
Joy Wasson (Academic Degree Program Coordinator, Department of Religion);
Valerie Molyneaux (Director, International Programs, Goizueta Business School);
Danielle M. Steele (Assistant Director, Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life);
Marsha Howard (Assistant Operations Manager, School of Medicine, Division of Animal Resources);
Bonnie Jean Woolger (Manager, Digital Imaging Group of the Woodruff Library);
Kim Fugate (Associate Director, School of Medicine, Simulation Lab);
Rachelle Lehner (Assistant Dean for Staff Development, School of Medicine);
Anne Rector (Program Director and Administrative Professor, Law School);
Kathy Britt (ILL Lending Coordinator, RW Woodruff Library);
Melissa Gilstrap (Manager of Communications, Laney Graduate School);
Johanna Hinman (Associate Director of Education, Department of Surgery);
Catherine Shiel (Senior Research Analyst, Development);
Rebeca Quintana (Program Administrator, Master’s in Development Practice, Laney School of Graduate Studies);
Michelle Hammond-Susten (Clinical Care Coordinator Social Worker II, Emory Trauma & Anxiety Recovery Program, Dept of Psychiatry, Emory School of Medicine);
Laura Zajac-Cox (Instructor, Division of Physical Therapy, School of Medicine);
Deb Floyd (Director of Student Affairs, Law School);
Lauren Gay (Special Assistant, Carter Center);
Patricia Del Rey (Adjunct Professor, Women’s Studies, Oxford College);

This list of self-declared lesbian faculty and staff at Emory does not include three other women staffers who described themselves as bisexual, nor does it include another 11 women (at least, I think they’re all “women,” but gender is a social construct) who prefer the label “queer,” a category that includes Dona Yarbrough, director of the Center for Women at Emory, as well as Lynne Huffer, a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

So, 20 lesbians, 11 queers and three bisexuals. We have not been able to confirm rumors that Emory may begin a “diversity outreach” program, if they can find any heterosexual women willing to work there.

Category: Education, Feminism, Gays, Sex Trouble

Comments

38 Responses to “The Mythic World of Women’s Studies”

Ray Zacek
September 18th, 2014 @ 1:31 pm

Has anyone ever done a study on how much college costs could be REDUCED if all this gender-based administrative claptrap was jettisoned?
DeadMessenger
September 18th, 2014 @ 2:18 pm

And not just that, but LGBT offices/studies, African-American offices/studies (sorry, you’re not African-American, you’re American), etc. If these groups want to have clubs, then they can knock themselves out. Seems to me that while you’re at university, you’re a university student. And it also seems to me as if women’s studies, LGBT studies, African-American studies and so forth only serve to foment intolerance and lack of inclusiveness and cohesion.

Instead, substitute mandatory classes on logic and critical thinking (which would, of course, necessitate dipping into the non-liberal educator pool – if you can find any – to teach.)
DeadMessenger
September 18th, 2014 @ 2:18 pm

Loved your opening salvo, McCain…
CrustyB
September 18th, 2014 @ 2:21 pm

“So, 20 lesbians, 11 queers and three bisexuals”

Sounds like the beginning of an epic “walked into a bar” joke.
Durasim
September 18th, 2014 @ 2:38 pm

For some reason, it reminds me about the options at a photocopying store.

Lisa Simpson: I’d like 25 copies on Goldenrod.

Clerk: Right.

Lisa Simpson: 25 on Canary.

Clerk: Mmhmm.

Lisa Simpson: 25 on Saffron.

Clerk: All right.

Lisa Simpson: And 25 on Paella.

Clerk: Ok, 100 yellow.
McGehee
September 18th, 2014 @ 2:54 pm

Logic, critical thinking, and history, geography and civics — though these should still be offered in elementary school, where the implicit logic of the fundamentals have a chance to take hold.
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 3:37 pm

I like to see study on the unemployment rates for the various victim studies students versus the graduates overall. If I owned a business or was in charge of hiring for one I’d automatically reject all gender and ethnic studies grads based on the assumptions that they would eventually sue the business.
The Mythic World of Women’s Studies | That Mr. G Guy's Blog
September 18th, 2014 @ 3:43 pm

[…] The Mythic World of Women’s Studies. […]
Mike G.
September 18th, 2014 @ 3:47 pm

How about this claptrap from a South Carolina university? http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/clemsonuniversity-wants-intimate-details-of-studentfaculty-sex-lives/
Steve Skubinna
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:01 pm

Seems reasonable. If any man is reckless or careless enough to immerse himself in the cesspit of current college indoctrination, signing up for a Wymyn’s Studies course is a small additional roll of the dice.

Either that or he’s got big brass ones. But the smart and masculine men know better than to waste their time and money this way. They go get real jobs in the real world. Nope, the “men” you’ll find haunting these classes are either very dim would-be pickup artists or completely PW.

Glad that I’m the age I am. This nonsense was just getting started forty years ago, so I could manage to pick up a diploma from a decent school with my self respect intact.
Steve Skubinna
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:03 pm

That goes for any “Studies” major. You can’t go wrong assuming that any curriculum with “Studies” in the name is worthless and the holder of such a degree will be nothing but a liability.
HarlemGhost
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:27 pm

and every single one of them is using their MALE fathers last name … even now they are oppressed …
Ray Zacek
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:43 pm

I can’t imagine any of them would have any attitudes or aptitude that would recommend them to any prospective employer outside of nonprofits pursuing a political agenda compatible with the grievance mentality.
DeadMessenger
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:48 pm

Well, since they were too stupid to figure out what might make them legitimately marketable, I suppose that would be their only hope for income. Although, I suppose there’s also “community organizer”.
DeadMessenger
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:50 pm

I vote PW.
DeadMessenger
September 18th, 2014 @ 4:54 pm

Oh good grief. Really? If my parent’s lawyer couldn’t get me out of that crap class, I’d give ridiculously and impossibly high numbers to those questions, urging the administration to prove I’m wrong. Frickin’ idiots…
NeoWayland
September 18th, 2014 @ 5:43 pm

Every one of them here, yes.

I’ve seen some examples when they choose a new name.

It. Is. Not. Pretty.
Wombat_socho
September 18th, 2014 @ 5:49 pm

Yep.
kilo6
September 18th, 2014 @ 6:12 pm

Related to your comment,
Check this out:

8th Grade Exam from 1895, Salina Kansas
http://www.exchangor.com/1895exam.html

Critical thinking skills have been deliberately removed from the forced public schooling system a long time ago.
kilo6
September 18th, 2014 @ 6:17 pm

Any names that include Sappho?
M. Thompson
September 18th, 2014 @ 6:18 pm

The classes the smart man takes to get easy credit are the Freshman classes about interesting things like Natural Disasters, or French I.
NeoWayland
September 18th, 2014 @ 6:49 pm

It’s the strange compound names, like Wolfwomyn or such.

You can probably blame the neopagans for that. There was a lot of intersection in the Sixties and Seventies.
maniakmedic
September 18th, 2014 @ 7:04 pm

I may not be a guy, but the majority of my friends for a good portion of my life have been guys and one thing that seems to be a consensus among the straight ones is that if you’re female and you dress even the tiniest bit provocatively, you will be the focus of their attention and their thoughts are going to start moving in the sex direction. It’s biology. If this didn’t happen on some level, the human race would disappear. Just because a guy looks, doesn’t mean he’s going to touch. These women really need to get over themselves. And by their metric, I’m guilty of “sexually objectifying” certain men. If you have a fit physique, not quite bodybuilder muscular but clearly toned and strong, I’m looking. But I guess that’s ok since I’m “sexually objectifying” what feminists consider unthinking animals.

These women need help. Feminists, nobody is keeping you down but you. Your bitchy attitudes, your sour facial expressions, and your holier-than-thou dismissal of women who are happy with their lives as mothers and wives are what make people dismiss you, not the fact that you are women. Your histrionics make people not only not want to take you seriously, but makes them hostile towards you.

Funny that, how being an asshole makes people want to be an asshole to you. I need a government grant to study this phenomenon. I think $15 million should cover it.
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 7:32 pm

Quite.
Mike G.
September 18th, 2014 @ 7:52 pm

I’ll volunteer as a subject for a small stipend…say…$150,000. (Of course, I’ll have to practice at being an asshole.)
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 8:49 pm

Wait you’re saying there’s a living to be made just being an asshole?
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 8:52 pm

I’d also like to apply (and I’ll work cheaper than Mike) I can provide copious references.
Bob Belvedere
September 18th, 2014 @ 8:59 pm

I’ll give ya one.
Bob Belvedere
September 18th, 2014 @ 9:01 pm

Woah…’leprechauns’, McCain?!?

They’re solid members of The Patriarchy – you should know that.
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 9:47 pm

I knew I could count on you.
M. Thompson
September 18th, 2014 @ 9:54 pm

You could just be an ambulance chaser.
Adobe_Walls
September 18th, 2014 @ 10:40 pm

Little honor to be had in that (with a very few exceptions).
M. Thompson
September 18th, 2014 @ 11:08 pm

No honor, but plenty of filthy lucre.
ZION'S TRUMPET » A World of Debauchery and Perversion.
September 19th, 2014 @ 7:33 am

[…] The Mythic World of Women’s Studies […]
Steve Skubinna
September 19th, 2014 @ 3:18 pm

For my Fine Arts requirements I took some Drama courses. They were a heck of a lot of fun. On the other hand, many people pursuing a major in Drama were more than a bit off.
Steve Skubinna
September 19th, 2014 @ 3:19 pm

Yeah, there’s a lot of overlap with Wiccans there.
NeoWayland
September 19th, 2014 @ 4:08 pm

Pretty much. But not just Wiccans.
Daniel Freeman
September 19th, 2014 @ 10:31 pm

20 lesbians, 11 queers, and three bisexuals walked into bar. The bartender shook his head and said, “The Weight Watchers meeting is next door.”