Jonathan Dean, himself "a male academic active in gender studies," is skeptical. He says "my academic engagement with feminism and gender issues has been nothing short of life-affirming."
[G]ender studies courses are extremely friendly and supportive environments. In contrast to the stuffiness and conformity of many academic settings, gender studies students and scholars are tolerant, friendly, and enlightened in their attitudes to race, sexual orientation and transsexuality. Gender studies is invariably more sociable than other academic settings, and all kinds of people are welcome, so long as you are willing to engage with people and ideas in a considered and respectful manner.So long as...
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If you're not inclusive to jerks you're discriminating against the majority of the population. Shame on them!
Always a caveat. We love you...but!
There's consensus among gender scientists: males are scum.
The science is settled!
If men behaved as gentlemen and women behaved as ladies we wouldn't need Gender Studies.
Conserve Liberty: If men behaved as gentlemen and women behaved as ladies we wouldn't need Gender Studies.
Do we really need Gender Studies now? As far as I can tell, it's a way for people to practice rhetoric. But if you're going to practice rhetoric, why limit yourself to gender? All your arguments will become boring and predictable.
"Gender Studies" are a waste of neurons. In fact I strongly distrust any major or degree that involves two words, most especially so when the second word is "Studies".
When works like Ensler's Vagina Monologues -- described by Camille Paglia, no less, as "ravingly anti-male" (and she did not mean that as a compliment) -- are considered "great" there is a certain lack of intellectual rigor prevailing.
Imagine, if you will, praising a work that was ravingly anti-black, or anti-woman ... which emphasized the importance of having a "penis mind", or a racist mind.
Or you can examine the Queer Theory subset of Gender Studies: all gender is a socially-derived CHOICE. Yet they define sexual orientation as an innate characteristic, hard-wired from birth. Mental midgets.
When I brought up -- in a pub discussion with a professor of Gender Studies -- the obvious internal contradiction presented by Queer Theory she attempted to dismiss my intellect by insisting that it was "both /and" and that "either /or" thinking was the sign of a weak mind.
So I asked her "So it has to be either 'both/and' or nothing, right?" She concurred heartily, never sensing the trap into which she had just stepped.
The big question, then, is why any thinking person with halfway cogent faculties of reason and logic would ever even bother with such a blatant waste of time, effort, and money.
Gender studies sucks.
I've especially had great difficulty with French. Was the noun masculine or feminine? Way too hard to keep straight.
But studying sex! Now that's easy ... and fun!
. . . do we need Gender Studies now?
Well, to be pedantic, we can't define need until we agree on want.
My point is if people were simply kind and considerate - words that in the modern context don't fully convey their meaning - the conditions that cause "want" for Gender Studies would not exist.
What kind of job can you get with a degree in gender studies?
Conserve Liberty: My point is if people were simply kind and considerate - words that in the modern context don't fully convey their meaning - the conditions that cause "want" for Gender Studies would not exist.
People are different and people want to understand how those differences effect their actions, so they can better interact with them.
I could see rationalizing Gender Studies on the basis of kindness and consideration!
And the "if people were simply kind and considerate" argument could be used to rule out prisons, the capitalistic system, religion... so many things. Makes me pretty certain no one has ever been kind and considerate.
Studying men in gender studies seems like studying bicycle-engineering in marine biology.
Of course men are welcome in gender studies classes, so long as they know their place!
It's so helpful and empowering for the womyn to have a punching bag present.
Roux-
You know the people who corporations hire to come in and give talks to workers after there's been a sexual harassment complaint...
"he encountered "anti-male discrimination," decided to go after MSc degree in gender, media and culture at the LSE’s Gender Institute"
This is self-contradictory.
Conserve Liberty: ...if people were simply kind and considerate...
Last person who said stuff like that got staked to a tree.
"What kind of job can you get with a degree in gender studies?"
Chicken sexer?
"[G]ender studies courses are extremely friendly and supportive environments. In contrast to the stuffiness and conformity of many academic settings, gender studies students and scholars are tolerant, friendly, and enlightened in their attitudes to race, sexual orientation and transsexuality."
Sounds like a support group instead of a college course.
"stuffiness and conformity" = academically rigorous and legitimate.
Oh my God!
Your link took me to a picture of Eve Ensler, one of America's leading feminazis, and one of the ugliest fucking things I've ever seen!
I'm blinded!
Any college major with the word "Studies" in it is a waste of time and money.
With this kind of horrible shit around, it's no wonder that Dying Fetus recorded Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog.
Full lyrics here for those so inclined.
Down with the patriarchy! Fight Amerikkka's phallocentic, racist oligarchy! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, this is how the feminists and the rest of the Lefties got their way.
Time to take the institutions back the same way.
Let's get a few things straight. The dominant ideas, approaches and insights of the vast majority of academic disciplines are produced by, for and about men. This does not necessarily make them bad ideas, but it does mean that there are entrenched gender biases in most fields. In my own discipline – politics – the key undergraduate texts are overwhelmingly by and about men. And yet this is seen by most as unproblematic, as natural or inevitable.
And so we should replace them with female biases?
So if I understand him correctly, the historian who writes about WWII and all of those MALE generals and soldiers is biased.
Is MSc. an abbreviation for Master of Science?
What is the science in gender studies?
Sometimes I took college courses because I thought I might get laid. I don't think you can get laid in gender studies.
Studying men in gender studies seems like studying bicycle-engineering in marine biology.
BRILLIANT! A thread-winner, ladies and gentlemen!
Crap. Genders.
A thread-winner, fellow beings!
GS is a haven for bad students.
You all realize it was women's studies graduates that were responsible for taking Shakespeare out of many curriculums because his writing was sexist. They can have my copy of Hamlet when they pry it from my cold, dead, hands.
Considered and respectful = no serious disagreements with the party line.
"Considered and respectful = no serious disagreements with the party line."
I can see someone deciding to take gender studies because they encountered sexism against men, expecting to find people who were concerned with sexism directed at someone for their gender.
It takes a whole lot of idealism, but I can see it.
And someone with a whole lot of idealism is likely to be more disillusioned when they find out the truth.
Considered, respectful, accepting, etc., is a place fiercely defended against anyone who might rock the boat. It's comfortable because uncomfortable things are excluded.
I wish Forbes would use even more scare quotes in their article so I could know exactly where they stand on this lawsuit.
Roux said...
What kind of job can you get with a degree in gender studies?
If you're willing to stick with it, you might qualify for an academic position.
Many government jobs just call for a degree and don't care about the subject.
Then there's the gender greivance community doing consulting at lawsuits, anti-discrimination seminars, etc.
But in the real world of private industry, I believe any of the "Angry Studies" degrees is actually a strike against a job applicant. After years of hearing about how they've been discriminated against, what kind of attitude are they likely to bring into the workplace? Why would any rational employer want to bring that into their organization?
Gender studies will no longer be needed at universities when the percentage of female students is equal to 100 percent. Sometime in the next 20 years, based on present trends.
To say Gender Studies is hostile to men is akin to saying the People's Liberation Army is good for people.
Everyone needs to read The Misandry Bubble, the most comprehensive article on anti-male bias in society.
Roux,
What kind of job can you get with a degree in gender studies?
A very well-paying public sector job.
Gender Studies makes people more employable in the Obama economy than, say, engineering does.
I took a class on gender theory and international relations during a master's course in Australia. Some interesting stuff, but a lot of illogical nonsense as well. The funniest lecture, however, was when I raised the issue of potential sociobiological differences between the sexes. Basically, these subfields rely on a (now discredited) model of complete Skinnerian behaviorism to make any sense at all.
"You all realize it was women's studies graduates that were responsible for taking Shakespeare out of many curriculums because his writing was sexist. They can have my copy of Hamlet when they pry it from my cold, dead, hands."
Hamlet? Pfui. How about Richard III? They can have my Dick when they pry it from my cold, dead, hands!
As far as London goes, demographics suggest anti-masculine bias is a problem with a short shelf life once Sharīʿah becomes official.
Here in the United States, a good first step against this would be to for sensibly governed states to cut all public funds to any Studies department at a public university.
Private schools, and idiotically run states will continue to fund this nonsense, and go bankrupt. Hopefully we'll have a federal government in place that won't bail out these institutions dead set on pumping out another generation of grievance mongerers rather than critical thinkers.
Drain the swamp. No more tax money for colleges -- not even tax exemptions.
@Jason teh Commentator said: And the "if people were simply kind and considerate" argument could be used to rule out prisons, the capitalistic system, religion... so many things. Makes me pretty certain no one has ever been kind and considerate.
I realize I long for a social order that never existed and never will exist.
You conflate failures of individual behavior with failures of institutions.
People ruin everything. It is our nature.
You, sir are no gentleman.
One of the biggest problems in this country is the neutering of the father image. The MSM has gleefully participated in the process, perhaps believing they are leveling the field. As a result the number of families without a male father figure has plummeted. Young men, instead of living up to a firm and confirming model instead sink into alcoholism and video games. One author who has struck at this problem is Mr. Ed Louis Cole (now deceased) who wrote books such as "Maximized Manhood" and "Strong Men in Tough Times". I have no problem with affirming females, but does it have to be at the cost of destroying men?
One of the biggest problems in this country is the neutering of the father image. The MSM has gleefully participated in the process, perhaps believing they are leveling the field. As a result the number of families without a male father figure has plummeted. Young men, instead of living up to a firm and confirming model instead sink into alcoholism and video games. One author who has struck at this problem is Mr. Ed Louis Cole (now deceased) who wrote books such as "Maximized Manhood" and "Strong Men in Tough Times". I have no problem with affirming females, but does it have to be at the cost of destroying men?
Jonathan Dean must be one of those "conscious men".
A nation without gender studies programs is like a fish without a bicycle.
In contrast to the stuffiness and conformity of many academic settings, gender studies students and scholars are tolerant, friendly, and enlightened in their attitudes to race, sexual orientation and transsexuality.
Could he possibly be more pompous and arrogant?
These women are ayatollahs, plain and simple. Gender scam studies. Male-bashing studies, etc.
One of the problems with Gender Studies Departments in universities is that members have a say in the conduct of university affairs and sometimes get into positions of power from which they enforce their beliefs. A university person who disdains gender studies and/or their core beliefs has very little chance of survival in universities. Can anyone name a university which has several strong faculty voices which consistently oppose Gender Studies? No such camp of opposing voices within academia exists -- nor would such a voice stand a snowball's chance in hell of surviving in academia. I stopped donating to my alumni association once I learned that a Gender Studies faculty member became Dean of something or other.
Al, you posted it twice:
"As a result the number of families without a male father figure has plummeted."
I thought the second time you would correct yourself . . . you mean:
"As a result the number of families with a male father figure has plummeted."
I hope he makes as lucrative a living as he deserves...when governments have to focus on core functions and leave the frills to the marketplace.
Nomennovum:
You're in luck! The Academie Francaise has just ruled that, from now on, all nouns will be feminine. Except, of course, 'connerie...'
I hope to god this man's lawsuit wins. That will set a precedent, and then the floodgates of suing against misandry will open.
Cracks in the dam...
Everyone ignores the obvious.
All "Gender Studies" groups are made up almost entirely of females.
Think. What is it that females have exclusive control of that men will do anything to obtain.
I don't want to be crude but it starts with "P" and ends with "Y".
I'm sure that both the males and females in "Gender Studies" would dispute this. But as was repeated ad infinitum during the Clinton years. "Everyone lies about sex."
But this reasoning does very well under Occam's Razor.
There is a line about ridicule in there isn't there?
What kind of job can you get with a degree in gender studies?-Roux
I want to know who's hiring anyone with any "gender studies" classes at all on their transcript.
Then I'm going to do business with their competitor - even if it's Chinese.
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