College Classes: Gender Studies = Women's Studies.

CedMon · 2012-09-11T16:28:37+00:00

See your Dean, bring proof, request that the course be changed to include additional modules that reflect the courses name of "Gender Studies" or that the course be renamed to "Womens Studies" to more accurately reflect the content of the course.

Bring sources, studies, news articles to back up all of your claims.

ChaplnGrillSgt · 2012-09-11T16:29:25+00:00

Drop the course and file a complaint with the department. Explain that the course was sorely lacking in any topic diversity considering it is supposed to be a diverse course. Suggest they change it to Women's Studies or something less misleading as you were expecting to cover men's issues as well as gender neutral, queer, etc.

You should still have ample time to pick up another class.

EpicJ · 2012-09-11T16:07:53+00:00

When it was called women's studies it was labelled as sexist because the it tended to have an attitude men's studies is everything else, make sure you keep copies of all of your work and scores, make sure you always back up your points with sources and studies

vonoshbagosh · 2012-09-11T18:38:40+00:00

I am in the EXACT same position!

I am a 28/f, and have been an advocate for mens rights / fathers rights for the last 6 years. I too am in a Gender Studies class at my college. Fellow students and staff know of my position, and have encouraged my research in the field. The problem is, as you have noticed, relating our readings and work to the POV of an MRA is daunting.

I have begun to break down readings, even the way they address subjects (i.e. Sindloke's privilege piece Of Dogs and Lizards) the dog is referred to as a man, and the lizard a woman, thus creating a subconscious bias against men in the story.

I have worked with my instructor to make sure that my voice is heard, and my opinions are welcome, but that courtesy doesn't come from everyone in the class. All of my presentations and artifacts are over mens subjects.

I am currently working on a website over father friendly media, and hope that for my capstone, I can really present a valid argument that will possibly widen our gender studies to actually include subjects FOR men.

All i can tell you is to keep at it. I am trying to tell myself that even though the women in my class look at me as if I am a traitor.

sarimas · 2012-09-11T17:23:33+00:00

We have a separate class, Study of Men and Masculinity, at my university.

stemgang · 2012-09-11T23:13:37+00:00

Female is a gender. Male is a hate group.

Black, Hispanic, or Asian are races. White is a hate group.

Try not to be a white male.

gddc33 · 2012-09-11T16:31:41+00:00

Agree with dropping. It is worth fighting/protesting about but doing that while in the class is a bad idea.

SDcowboy82 · 2012-09-11T20:32:31+00:00

Bring a lot of facts, statistics, and studies in your notebook / computer. Be assertive yet respectful. Or, you know, drop the class.

Yildir1m · 2012-09-11T16:18:24+00:00

It's sad that the closest we can get to a study of the masculine gender is through a feminist course which doesn't even give gender a fair examination. There is no fighting this as well as getting a decent grade. Get out, get out now. Perhaps, I'm just too jaded with the university system.

no1elsehasthisname · 2012-09-11T17:03:18+00:00

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2012-09-11T19:43:29+00:00

Report her to the administration after having taped her. Or ask if it is okay to tape lectures. Ask about the choice of books and why it is not inclusive of both genders.

buster2209 · 2012-09-11T17:10:54+00:00

"So I am asking you, fellow Redditors and MRA's, what can I do? How can I fight this injustice?"

Take engineering or another traditionally male dominated degree. they tend to be absent of this type of horseshit

rightsbot · 2012-09-11T16:00:17+00:00

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apotshot · 2012-09-11T18:32:00+00:00

Dude, this class should be an easy A. Just humor them and get the easy A. Don't drop or make an issue of it. It'll just get you "watch listed."

No need to make enemies so early in your college career.

I hate to say "man up", but you should. In this case "manning up" refers to letting women think they're right, it's not like you have to date any of these people, it's just a couple of hours per week of nonsense.

Good luck.

Sporkboy · 2012-09-11T19:33:47+00:00

I've got to go with the guys that say "don't fight a course while you're taking it." Either drop the course and then to talk to people or keep your head down and pass. However, should you go with the second option, you should take notes on specific issues you have with the course to have a nicely documented package to present with your complaint after the fact. Hell, that may even look better since it will be a "I sat through the entire course and have the following issues with it" versus "WTF is this shit? -drop-"

rottingchrist · 2012-09-11T17:14:04+00:00

Why are you taking such a paedagogically bankrupt course anyway?

no1elsehasthisname · 2012-09-11T17:46:10+00:00

If you make too much of a fuss during or after class with the professor your grade will suffer, trust me, I'm speaking from experience. If it's a required class just get through it but drop it otherwise and talk to the dean.

I agree with the person who said if it's not in writing it doesn't exist, so write it down take notes about your experiences in the class if you choose to finish. An entire semester of documented discrimination is quite a bit for someone to just blow off.

FFFaux · 2012-09-11T18:54:42+00:00

What you've already done, stand up, speak your mind, and study like a motherfucker, so that the prof has no choice but to give you an A.

purrit · 2012-09-11T20:51:07+00:00

A little Off-Topic, but seeing this got me to thinking - Feminist/Gender Studies are far more pervasive and persuasive in academia than African-American/etc. Studies, aren't they?

Why?

JediMasterSam · 2012-09-11T20:51:58+00:00

Obligatory joke that history is men's studies.

ChaplnGrillSgt · 2012-09-11T21:42:47+00:00

Welcome to "higher learning". I'll tell you: It doesn't stop there. Your only refuge will be the hard sciences: biology, chemistry, etc. But even then, it'll crop up... example:

I took a nutrition course, a fucking nutrition course and I'd say 2/3's of what we did had a serious gender-slant on it. Hell, we even studied female genital mutilation. The only connection to "nutrition" was the fact that malnourished women had compromised immune systems, and the procedure ("female circumcision") opened them up to infections.

ChaplnGrillSgt · 2012-09-11T17:17:14+00:00

[permanently deleted]

ENTP · 2012-09-11T19:33:57+00:00

Ignored*

Bring your phone to class, and record everything. A great app for this is "Tape-A-Talk"

lockedge · 2012-09-11T21:18:35+00:00

I would give it a little more of a chance. At my uni, my first year "Women & Gender Studies" course spent the first two or weeks bringing up some basic theory, and then after that started getting really inclusive and open for debate. I would declare myself a Men's rights activist, as I don't believe I do enough on a local scale to have earned such a moniker (too busy with trans-related stuff), but I'd bring up some points dealing with men and the TA and prof would ensure that I had an equal spot on the floor to discuss my POV and that no one's experiences would be dismissed (because silencing and erasure can happen on an interpersonal level.

Sometimes, you get profs that lean toward some theories more, and some profs that lean toward others. I would try to be patient, bring up the issue with your TA or prof, and have a calm discussion with them. Perhaps I'm just lucky and have had incredibly nice and reasonable profs through my undergrad experiences, but I think if you're patient, and express that you are there to learn and expect a fairly comfortable learning environment, that accommodations will be made, and you'll get some clarity on the content of the course.

I remember when I signed up for my 101 class, friends mocked me, telling me to just wait for all the women in the class to hate me because I was "male-bodied". Well...there were some moments early on that were a bit iffy, but I soon realized that while women were focused on a fair bit in the class, the prof would generally do all she could to ensure the class was aware how each and every issue affected men, how it affected those who fall between the binary. Nothing in-depth would get taught without investigation and analysis into how it deals with Gender, as a WHOLE.

Again, you might just be unlucky, or I might just be lucky. Or you might need to give the class a bit of a chance. There's only one designated "Masculinities" class in the WGST category at my Uni, but I've never been in a class within that field that didn't spend a fair bit of time discussing how it affected gender as a whole.

Ma99ie · 2012-09-11T21:20:33+00:00

Scan the syllabus and show it to us.

Perpetualinvalidity · 2012-09-11T22:00:48+00:00

It's not just "Gender Studies" That does this. It's anything to do with family as well. I'm in a class called, "The History of the Family to 10,000 BCE". And our topics for the first month? How the family started matriarchal, and with the rise of religion, how women were made second in the household. It then just goes on and basically outlines how major world events affected mothers.

Jonas223XC · 2012-09-11T22:20:46+00:00

I took a gender studies class last fall, and there was nothing that we read that was written by a male author. Absolutely nothing. We had ~3 to 5 articles to read every week for 15 weeks and not a single article was written by a man.

Some of the women that we read were pretty reasonable, but you cannot have a fair debate about gender issues when you only get the opinions of one of the genders. Granted, some of writers that we read were pretty reasonable, but others were straight up insane. I forget who this particular article was written by, but basically the entire article was making the argument that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. Not making that up. People seriously believe that...

It goes without saying that the course, despite being titled "introduction to gender studies," only talked about women's issues. This is of course because the only gender issues that are worth discussing in a gender studies class are women's issues.... /s

southernasshole · 2012-09-11T22:56:59+00:00

I am currently taking a Gender Studies course

And there's your first mistake, not only is it useless, its widely known as feminist brainwashing 101.

phantom_nosehair · 2012-09-11T23:37:46+00:00

At least raise awareness without being a dick. Make some flyers contact some Dean(s), write letters. Even if you don't solve an issue yourself, use the old feminist tactic- raise awareness. It can be a good lesson for a college student. Don't try to change things overnight, or take it too far, but do something rather than nothing.

DavidByron · 2012-09-12T00:58:57+00:00

Gender neutral = women only. Pretty much the usual. Apparently this shit is what happens a lot when you're an oppressed group. Who knew?

truthjusticeca · 2012-09-11T16:13:32+00:00

Do you think you can get any of that recorded on hidden video or just sound?

Xenoith · 2012-09-11T17:29:35+00:00

And thus another brood of tumblr feminists was born. It's also amusing that they'll use classes like this as an arguing point about how they're much more educated on the topic.

ChaplnGrillSgt · 2012-09-11T18:21:44+00:00

OP, please listen to me because I'm the only one in this thread that actually knows whats up.

"Gender, Culture, and Society".

Is a general course heading and the class offered in that category changes every quarter or semester - when you registered for the class you neglected to read the under-heading which told you what specific class dealing with gender, culture and society you'd be taking.

If you take this to the dean, you'll look like a moron.

ChaplnGrillSgt · 2012-09-11T18:43:08+00:00

I fear that my grade may be affected because my views and opinions do not align with those of the diehard feminist professor.

I know that at my University, there is a policy that allows us to make appeals on our grades if we feel that were judged unfairly(i.e. on race, religion, beliefs, etc). You should check and see if there's something similar at your school.

TerriChris · 2012-09-11T21:43:25+00:00

When you graduate you'll see organizations with "Family" in the title are women services. For example, "Family Court"

ManUpManDown · 2012-09-11T22:03:15+00:00

My advice is that you either drop the class or stay in and be very vociferous when you have a valid point to make. Do not back off under social pressure. Easier said than done, I know. Do not back down from making substantive points (in a civilized and mature way of course) even if the professor pulls you aside and claims it is becoming "an issue" (feminist professors do this a lot; they often think their classes should be "safe spaces" for female viewpoints, not fora for rigorous intellectual exchange). You will regret it later if you just keep your mouth shut.

If the grade is your primary concern, ignore the above. Drop the course or keep your mouth shut.

justforfunds · 2012-09-12T01:45:33+00:00

I'm skimming comments but I do have some advice. I took a multiculturalism course in a pretty liberal leaning state school and it effectively dissolved into a feminism/LGBT studies course. This professor apparently felt that african, asian etc. cultures were irrelevant and all that mattered were LGBT and feminist issues. The class overall was pretty poor when compared to the description of what the course should be about. I thought I'd be taking a course to discuss the impacts of multiculturalism on technology/society/popculture yadda yadda.

Anyways I digress. The point is, don't be a douche or standoffish or try to refute every single thing that is discussed. If you are honestly confused about something or feel something is worthy of greater discussion simply do so in a respectful manner. It's not in my nature to be overly confrontational but on a few occasions in the class I had to request a source for some of the more outlandish sounding "facts" about our present cultural situation. I always did so as respectfully and non-antagonistically as possible.

I was pleased after the prof basically attempted to dismiss one of my questions and move on that one of the radical fembots actually seemed to have had enough and interjected about how she felt it wasn't in the spirit of discussion/education to effectively turn the class into what reddit would call a circlejerk.

Long story to basically say: being a douche won't get you anywhere, being overly argumentative will just ruin other peoples class time, if you can't hang or at least take something from the course just drop it. Either way you should file a complaint if you feel you are in a class where honest open discussion or rebuttal to claims isn't available.

idontgiveitout · 2012-09-12T01:59:34+00:00

What would be awesome is if another student from your university sat in on your class (perhaps a female) and backed you up. You should see if anyone on /r/MensRights goes to your school.

2012-09-12T05:56:19+00:00

Good to have you on the team! My women's studies course made me join the MRM also!

2012-09-12T06:29:26+00:00

Drop it and find a better professor. I took English Comp 2 and all we studied was feminist literature. We had to read a story called "A jury of her peers", apparently one of the classic feminist writings, well, that story was horseshit. In that story a woman murders her husband and gets a sympathy from her female friends because her husband was distant and "emotionally unavailable", so nobody says anything during investigation and she gets away with murder. So we had to justify it by writing an analysis. Thats actually when I realized that feminism is a one big joke. I dropped that class and never looked back. It really depends on your professor because my friend who took the same class never had to read any of that feminist shit.

cronus85 · 2012-09-12T06:56:53+00:00

I hate to be the dissenting voice here but you may have to suck it up and write up essay. You are going to get marked down for going against the grain. I am assuming you are undergrad so at this stage it is best to stick with the main theories. You don't have to use this positively mind you, but I would suggest that you present the ideas of the prevailing or mentioned feminist ideologies in a "this is what they think" style.

If this is something you feel passionately about, then maybe when you are post grad you can present opposing positions. It would be a nice change from the current slant on academia's take on gender studies but I imagine this was just an interest course and if this is the case I would just tow the line for marks.

For anyone reading though, gender studies at some universities do provide a more balanced view. I had a mate who did some courses and they did focus on mens issues.

duglock · 2012-09-12T15:06:00+00:00

Be careful OP. The university system is deeply leftist, hence the feminist indoctrination. When I was in school I got black balled all the way up to the provost level for daring to show proof of professor retaliation (lower grades) for daring to have a different opinion. Took a threat of a lawsuit to get my grades changed.

I'll go ahead a and tell the story as I know people will ask. Had a teacher (female) who constantly degraded/slammed men, etc. Every time I called her out on her bullshit I was kicked out of class. (Censorship - sound familiar?). All of my assignments/papers I turned in were given a grade in the 20-30 range. Complained all the way up to dean level and was told it was all in my head. I was friends with a girl who took the class a year before and I turned in a paper that she wrote that she received a 97-98 on the year before. I got a 40something again. Brought the proof and was threatened with expulsion for cheating. Threatened lawyer, was told to stop going to class and drop it and I would get a B for the semester. Good times.

PurpleVNeck · 2012-09-12T18:14:15+00:00

I'm pretty sure they're called Gender Studies in order to include Transgender persons. They don't really care about men. Sorry. :(

oofoow · 2012-09-12T20:03:46+00:00

I took a class called "sociology" that turned out to be "women's studies".

Welcome to college in America - just repeat what your assistant teacher is telling you and you'll pass the class. You aren't in college to learn anything, don't forget that.

2012-09-11T21:21:25+00:00

It's an indoctrination course.

What else did you expect?

WhiskeySeven · 2012-09-11T16:58:50+00:00

Playing devil's advocate here:

Firstly your post reads like a massive troll. What's the injustice here? You took a gender studies course OF COURSE IT'S ABOUT WOMEN. How old are you? Why are you arguing in class to begin with?

Secondly for 99.5% of the entire human existence either directly or indirectly men have dominated every domain of every field. History is almost all men. Science. Art. Theater. Hell even prophets and gods are men. Gender Studies is just putting into perspective the gigantic chasm between today's much more egalitarian (but obviously not perfect) reality and yesteryear's. When women study this shit they're gonna get pissed off - obviously - because whether we men like to admit it or not, they were oppressed in almost every way a mere 100 years ago.

You, as a prospective man have to understand this and come to it with an open mind - no, don't drink the kool-aid, and no, don't think that all men are evil monsters - just learn about their perspective and try to understand their deep-seated issues that bubble up when they study this. Radical Feminists are certifiably insane, I've taken a Women's Studies course and my teacher who was a PhD in gender issues even said so - she said that holding radical ideas is by definition a rigid mindset that can't come to a common ground. Dworkin and Mackinnon and the rest MUST argue for the demise of modern society because there is no way they can coalesce their projections into any reality without it requiring the downfall of humanity (I'm serious here. They advocate the destruction of civil structures and a sort of revolution. Fucking batshit).

So don't say "hurr Professor, men aren't getting fair treatment in custody battles" because that's not the course AT ALL. If you want to argue that and be topical you should look at sociology courses or 300/400 level gender studies courses. The course is studying Feminism (according to your book). You're studying another sociology book, treat it like a history/anthro book and leave it at that. Don't argue, just listen. Your perspective will open and when you choose to defend men's issues you'll be THAT much more informed, and THAT much less ignorant and therefore THAT much more effective.

Just accept the truth: women in academia are a radically new group, they have negligible representation in all of human history yet hold 50% of the power (if not more) in the class room. There are no pioneers for them to look up to - from Aristotole to Nietzche to Picasso to Bach to Newton to etc. - Gender studies courses try to show what early feminists did and how it has affected society in order for women to enter academia.

That's why crazy women like Dworkin are given so much credit when for all intents and measures she's just a nutjob who shouldn't be quoted. Mackinnon is a women I'd love to argue against, she's just so wrong but so well read and educated that she'd crush me with her rhetoric but then I'd learn from it and beat her in round 2. That's my big turn on.

tl;dr Don't be an idiot, you're in the wrong class if you think you're supposed to discuss male issues.

edit: come on guys, I'm trying to be reasonable but it's infuriating getting downvoted when I spend a decent amount of time formulating my thoughts. This is supposed to be a discussion that can somehow, maybe, kinda help OP - a circle jerk advocating going to the Dean and demanding a Men's Studies course (!!!) is just the kind of scorched-earth bitterness that gets nothing accomplished. Supporting equal rights or men's rights has to have some sort of respect for history. Men were in charge, and 50 years does not overshadow 50,000 years. A gender studies course is a feminism course, the history and sociology of feminism. It's not fair that there is no course about "modern man and his troubles" and I'd love for there to be one but that's a separate topic.

If you disagree I want to have a discussion about it. I want to learn why you disagree. A blind downvote on what I figured was a very fair post is just disappointing, or worse, oppressive.

Popular-Uprising- · 2012-09-11T21:26:14+00:00

I walked out of my anthropology course the first day for similar reasons. Drop the class and file a complaint.

RomeFlower · 2012-09-12T00:55:33+00:00

There is nothing you can do, we live in a female dominated society

1 Tom Martin

2 youtube video by Tom

3 court rejects claim

4 a voice for men

herbandmargie · 2012-09-11T17:31:43+00:00

Seriously.... Why?

Let that piece of shit course be run by feminists. Take other courses and concern yourself with a future. That degree and those courses mean nothing except for being a manager of some feminist organization.

Just drop class and move along, you are picking the wrong battleground.

levelate · 2012-09-11T19:37:29+00:00

[permanently deleted]

2012-09-11T19:18:48+00:00

Video record everything, then edit the very worst examples of their bigotry into a video to put up on YouTube.

gambit87 · 2012-09-11T18:04:09+00:00

History = Men's studies

RampagingDragon · 2012-09-11T17:35:24+00:00

Just take Men's studies, aka history.

Title	College Classes: Gender Studies = Women's Studies.
Author	ChaplnGrillSgt
Upvotes	267
Comments	241
Date	September 11, 2012 3:58 PM UTC (13 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/zpoy3/college_classes_gender_studies_womens_studies/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/college-classes-gender-studies-womens-studies.1013748 https://theredarchive.com/post/1013748

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