The Pros and Cons of taking Gender and Women Studies

As some of you may know, I'm studying 'Gender and Women Studies' as a minor subject at university. I use the term 'Gender Studies', when talking about what I study, as I'm aware that people will judge me for doing Women Studies, which is pretty bad of me. In fact, I'm going to permanently adopt the 'Gender and Women Studies' title for it. This minor thing leads onto a con argument - I have sadly learnt that people of today (and even years and years ago) don't honestly think that women are oppressed. I can tell you from my studies that the things women go through - maybe not in this country or obviously visible - are pretty bad. Awful, in fact. Of course that ranges from place to place, depending on where we're talking about and how culture and treatment of women has improved, or not improved, there.



I recently got involved in an on-line comment argument. The comment section was below a video of a girl walking down a pavement in New York City back and forth for 10 hours - an experiment to see how many times the girl was harassed by men also on the street. Many people (all men, that I could see) commented with words like "take the f**ing compliment", "you should be grateful", "it's only because she's beautiful, it's her fault" and "how is saying hello and how are you harassment?!?!" The fact is that this woman did not provoke or invite any of this attention. Some men in the video commented on her figure and what she had on the back of her jeans, saying "Dayum". I basically lit up inside in a bad way, like an angry fire with a good amount of coal. I replied to one of these guy's comments, telling them that it IS harassment, since harassment is unwanted and disturbs someone (the exact definition of harassment that this guy used to defend his own argument...!)

In reply, I got called "lil princess" and "a sexist little bigot", and was told that following me 90,000 miles down a public highway was anyone's right, so the guy in the video stalking the woman for 5 minutes, staring at her and making her feel uncomfortable was absolutely fine. I also got told by this man that the woman in the video in question was wanting the man to stay by "keeping up with his pace". She did not acknowledge him in any way and did not invite this attention. I wouldn't have watched this video if I hadn't enrolled on my course, and yet it has made me even more angry to see people viewing evidential videos in this negative way - the exact behaviour that it is trying to stop: men thinking that women should tolerate this and deal with it 'because they are women'. No-one should have to deal with this, full stop.



A benefit of studying GWS (positive light...SCHWOOM) is that I've discovered a lot of like-minded people, who feel similarly to me, and I've also benefited from other views. The fact is that Feminism is not one thing. Not even two. There are many many different views taken by feminists, many different kinds of feminists, and many feminists who don't call themselves 'feminists' because they're scared of the word's connotations. Connotations which have come about through social prejudice and myths. I got asked the other day, "So are you a feminist then?", like it is something you decide to be and have to have extreme views for. The interesting thing is that before I came to university, I didn't call myself a feminist. I too believed that feminism was some thing crazy powerful women believed in and argued about and aggressively waved lots of banners for.

My view now after being actually EDUCATED about this is that a feminist is someone who believes that men and women should have the same rights, equal opportunities and equal treatment in society.



Just because there have been radical feminists in the past doesn't mean someone is going to 'get you' if you call yourself a feminist. We should all call ourselves feminists for the sake of womankind. The reason why 'humanist' has less effect is that it is not acknowledging the dominant oppression towards women. Most of the people reading this will be from a relatively balanced environment in terms of gender. Of course, if you look closely, it's really not! But in comparison with countries like, let's say, in the Middle East, we are way way ahead in the fight for equality. In certain countries, women aren't allowed to DRIVE because it isn't their 'role in society'. How flipping crazy is that. And who decides these roles? Who thinks they are so good and mighty that they can force women to have less freedom and ability to earn money than men?

I've also had my eyes opened to the way gender is portrayed in certain TV shows, and popular culture, especially within the media (magazines, for example). Why are women constantly told "the 10 best products for glowing summer skin" or "exercises for flat abs"? Those things don't exist in male magazines or on adverts for men's products... The thing is I always feel like I need to buy these products to feel better about myself and do the best I can do for my body, when we shouldn't really be pressured to buy anything like this. We need less product advertising and more positive articles because teen readers are highly impressionable. I should know - I've bought a ridiculous amount of things in my time that I saw in Glamour and Cosmopolitan, including make-up, under the impression that it'll get me both more accepted by my female friends and more liked by guys. When really, the only person that gives a toss about what you put on your face is YOU. If you like wearing certain things, I say go ahead and wear them. Today I wore my favourite gold shirt that people say looks like tin foil but I don't care because I love it. If you don't like wearing certain things, don't wear them. As I once read, 'the world is going to judge you no matter what so live your life the way you f***ing want to'. With exceptions of harmful things to others of course. (Swearing also isn't really necessary here, but I think people think it's necessary to use it - it grabs attention. We kinda need to address how unnecessary it is to worry about what others will think of your appearance. If we all didn't care, our mornings would be so much easier).

Do you call yourself a feminist? I'd be interested to know, oh dear reader, what your answer is to this question and why.

This subject is something I feel very strongly about now. My final point I need to make is this: if anyone criticises Women Studies as a course I will personally metaphorically kick them in the butt. They will receive many Howlers (in Mrs Weasley's angry voice). It is not a 'dossy' subject, it is not 'dead easy' and it is not for 'raging feminists'. It is just as important as any other subject, if not more, because it addresses extremely relevant issues in today's society.

That's me for today.

Rhiannon x

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