December 19, 2002
Ho ho ho
Don't have time to write, so go read Lileks on spreading Christmas cheer. Funniest bit I've read in months (and also accurate to my mind) follows
(LILEKS) James : the Screed
You know, if every %u201CWoman%u2019s Studies%u201D department was closed, and the student loans were used to create businesses that hired women instead of studied them like tragic butterflies impaled on the patriarchal pin, we might be better off. Granted, we%u2019d be without PhDs theses like %u201CRape Symbolism and Beatrix Potter: A Rake%u2019s Progress,%u201D but the culture would survive; the only noticeable effect at all would be a 17% decrease in Frieda Kahlo poster sales, and a 50% decrease in 33-year old college students.
Posted by Swerdloff at December 19, 2002 08:35 AM
I'm sure some of you will be surprised at me saying this, but oh my god, no kidding. Swerd, I have a feeling you never took women's studies at Vassar, but as someone who did, and was consistently shot down for asking "irrelevant questions" (usually of the "can't we talk about something other than how *bad* women have it??" ilk), I gotta say good good good point. And yeah, why did that class have more "special" (read: old) students in it than any other? And why were there 4 men when the class started and 1 when it ended? And why did the lesbian-in-training get the prof's applause when she told her story of high school oppression, but when I asked the visiting lecturer who worked at a rape crisis center what she learned about the men who rape, why did this same prof snap at me, "the men are really not the issue here." what gives with liberal arts colleges treating women/gender/minority studies as studies in pulling sad faces and shaking our heads at the horror of it all? Isn't there a hell of a lot of work to do if that's the case? Good god.
Thanks for the piece, at any rate.
Ho ho ho!
http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/021213/how_to_ruin_american_enterprise_2.html
