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Author Topic: Feminism in high school
Papal Bull
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posted 16 February 2005 05:37 PM      Profile for Papal Bull   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yup, I have met a teacher that is actually teaching proper feminist perspective in high school! My english literature teacher has actually began teaching us about the various forms of criticism and the one that we have focused on was feminist criticism. I found it absolutely fascinating, although I found something more than slightly alarming. The students reactions were that more alarming than alarming point. I noticed from a lot of the females in the class nothing but animosity towards feminism, in fact, I'm the only person in it that feels that feminism is a necessary movement in today's society. I also found that various people that claim to be progressive were disparaging the discussion and making rabidly anti-feminist comments, espcially the males. Although I'd have to say that a lighter story for the first real jump into this somewhat hard topic would've been nice, it seems that cannot be changed now. I cannot remember the story that we first studied, but it was a little over the top, and featured a dead woman cursing her husband for causing her to get cancer. I found it a little bizzare. But luckily we got to study a story called "Belisa" which was a really compelling story that I loved to read.

I'd just like to know from other babblers if there was/is anyother attempts at bringing feminism to high-school students...


From: Vatican's best darned ranch | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
kuri
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posted 16 February 2005 05:48 PM      Profile for kuri   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I wonder if some the girls were anti-feminist because they didn't want to appear to be "man-haters" in front of the boys? Just a speculation.

I think it's awesome that your high school teacher is introducing feminist perspectives into your English class. I didn't really get the benefit of that until university, so I can't really answer your question unfortunately except to say that I suspect discussing individual feminist issues may be more successful than talking about feminism in a general way? It can sometimes bring it home a little better.


From: an employer more progressive than rabble.ca | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged
spatrioter
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posted 16 February 2005 06:03 PM      Profile for spatrioter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Despite attending a Catholic high school, I too was fortunate enough to have feminist teachers who taught from a feminist perspective.

My favourite was in my OAC Modern Western Civilization class, where we debated such things as whether Napoleon was an enlightened despot, given his less-than-enlightened attitudes towards women.

I also noticed the hostility towards feminism in high school. I think it's seriously a problem, that many young people (including women) seem to have a hatred for the word. I honestly don't understand it, because the same people will fight to the death in favour of women's rights, but they just won't dare call themselves the dreaded 'f' word.

I think it has to do with the characterization of feminists in popular culture, and ignorance of what feminism entails, as opposed to an ideological opposition to feminism.


From: Trinity-Spadina | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
shaolin
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posted 16 February 2005 06:07 PM      Profile for shaolin     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We had a grade twelve course in women's studies at my highschool. However, this was back in the day before they got rid of OACs and all the really great stuff that went along with it. I must admit I never took the course as I was busy trying to fast-track so I could get out as quickly as possible, but many of my friends did and it was a great introduction. Everything from female genital mutilation to women's emancipatory efforts in other countries.

[ 16 February 2005: Message edited by: shaolin ]


From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jul 2003  |  IP: Logged
molly-tov
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posted 16 February 2005 06:54 PM      Profile for molly-tov   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
years ago i took feminist theory in an alternative highschool named SEED. now i am doing an honour's degree in women's studies and i can say that in my experience, the resistance to feminism is beyond belief. i attend three universities to graduate and i have attended many "gender" classes. it is here where i have witnessed the most hostility. i find it shocking that people continue to berate feminists by alligning them with nazis and other haters (feminazi and man-hater). it truly saddens me that people waste their minds and energy accusing feminists of this, when feminisms are really commited to the goals of equity and equality for all. also, male privilege in the classroom is painfully high, regardless of the male to female ratio.
From: hali | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Reality. Bites.
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posted 16 February 2005 07:20 PM      Profile for Reality. Bites.        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think the term "feminazi" is very useful in what it reveals about the person using it. It lets me know their thinking is so far away from mine that there is no common ground. I've also found that those who use it aren't even objecting to what some might call "radical" feminism, but usually to basic dignity for women.
From: Gone for good | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 16 February 2005 07:57 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
That's unfortunate, Papal_bull. I found the same thing when I went to university as a mature student (started when I was 27). So many of the women (some still girls - 17) were so defensive against feminism. And yet, if it weren't for feminists, they wouldn't even BE in university, and certainly not in programs like science, medicine, law, etc.

I think I've pretty much come to the conclusion that it's a stage that many (if not most) teenage girls just have to go through. As long as peer acceptance and status for teenage girls is, for the most part, based on their acceptance by guys (whether as girlfriends or just as "cool girls"), I think most teenage girls will go through this stage where they go along to get along, and assimilate.

Until they get sick of it.

[ 16 February 2005: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
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posted 16 February 2005 08:02 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hey P_B, I just asked Dave about your post. This is a class he's in, right? I've known that teacher for a few years now, and always liked her.
From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Hailey
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posted 16 February 2005 11:46 PM      Profile for Hailey     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I appreciate that it's a feminist-centered thread so I'm not sure if I am welcoming to ask questions or not.

With a brief exception for a year where I took some classes at the high school I was home-schooled so there are some things I do not understand.

quote:
Yup, I have met a teacher that is actually teaching proper feminist perspective in high school!

Is feminism taught as an option? Or are you meaning that that perspective is being integrated into core subjects? Is that curriculum based or is the teacher bringing her own perspectives to the table?

quote:
I'm the only person in it that feels that feminism is a necessary movement in today's society.

May I ask how this subject comes up in english literature? Is it a course on women in literature or ?

quote:
so I can't really answer your question unfortunately except to say that I suspect discussing individual feminist issues may be more successful than talking about feminism in a general way?

I would imagine that that is correct but I'm still trying to see how it fits into the class. Is it part of the curriculum approved by the province or is it a teacher's belief system?

quote:
We had a grade twelve course in women's studies at my highschool.

I've never heard of that! It makes sense as an option.

And I did find a strong bias. I remember when I ever SAID I was taking a women's studies course assumptions that I wasnt comfortable with being made about me.


From: candyland | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
ShyViolet
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posted 16 February 2005 11:52 PM      Profile for ShyViolet     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
hailey, when feminism is brought up in english (at least in my senior english class) it was brought up as a literary criticism perspective. we also looked at others, but i forget what they were. they were just trying to show us different ways of examining and analyzing literature.
From: ~Love is like pi: natural, irrational, and very important~ | Registered: Aug 2004  |  IP: Logged
Papal Bull
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posted 17 February 2005 12:06 AM      Profile for Papal Bull   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by oldgoat:
Hey P_B, I just asked Dave about your post. This is a class he's in, right? I've known that teacher for a few years now, and always liked her.

Yes, yonder Dave is in the course. Much heckling has ensued from the likes of your O'Neill paper editors. And a few genuinly good points have been brought up, but ask him in all honesty, how the female's have responded.

Hailey: We're responding to things like Chaucer by critiquing them from various view points. I think we're eventually going to get down to the Marxist stuff soon. It isn't being forced on us, this is an optional course. And it says right on the course outline we will be studying "feminist criticism"

[ 17 February 2005: Message edited by: Papal_Bull ]


From: Vatican's best darned ranch | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
Hailey
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posted 17 February 2005 01:02 AM      Profile for Hailey     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Thanks for your answers.

And after I thought about it even in the absence of a feminist-oriented optional class there is some literature that would just naturally lead to such a discussion.


From: candyland | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
verbatim
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posted 17 February 2005 01:17 AM      Profile for verbatim   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
P_B if you're reading feminist-related stories in class, I recommend "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell. It's a short story, and makes important points, but not so subtly that high-schoolers will miss them. I read it as my introduction to Feminist Legal Theory, and thought it was quite good.
From: The People's Republic of Cook Street | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Sandy Kemsley
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posted 01 March 2005 05:49 PM      Profile for Sandy Kemsley        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
There's a program on W Network next week (March 8th) called "I Was A Teenage Feminist", targetted mostly at young women but also those of us who were teenage feminists back in the 70's. The website here lists two of the target audience groups as:
quote:
  • The teenage girl, just as she is dropping in her self-esteem, just as she is confronted with conflicting messages of how girls are supposed to act, just as she is developing her own identity. The teenage boy just as he is learning how to become a man, how to relate to women.
  • The college-age woman who, filled with images of man-hating activists from the 70s, who won't self-identify as a feminist because she believes it will make her "unfeminine" and unattractive to men.

There's some very interesting clips from the video on the site that ask about young women's opinions of what feminism is, and some have a strong feeling that it is something that will make them unattractive to men so are reluctant to identify with it. The program might be a good complement to whatever is being discussed in classrooms.

I especially like the t-shirt that they have for sale, that says "I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy".

[ 01 March 2005: Message edited by: Sandy Kemsley ]


From: Toronto | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged

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