Grrr...
Womyn make me feel grumpy today.
I feel a little out of line because I'm not particularly interested specifically in the women's studies program here, but seeing that the meeting that is scheduled for tomorrow is women-only bothers me. The Womyn's center is a decent idea, I think, especially functioning as a place where women who have harmed by men know they can go to not be around men. Still, I think the big problem with certain feminist schools of thought is that they leave men out of the picture. To be more general, they're like the Black Panthers of the femenist movement. I feel that excluding men from a meeting about women's studies without and express reason is incredibly discriminatory.
My biggest problem with the schools of thought of which I speak is that they close off the lines of communication to a great extent. I'm a firm believer in the concept of discussion. Men and Women will never understand each other if they keep adhering to certain social norms and ESPECIALLY if they think that because that the other sex is part of a problem, they can't be part of the solution as well.
It is completely true that women have been opressed in alot of history, and I recgonize the patriarchal system, but I still feel like guys don't necessarily have the outlets they need for support in many cases. A Men's Center here on campus would be laughed at, but as I've expressed before, Men often have issues that they could benefit from sorting out with other conscientious listeners. Still, a) A place like that is VERY rare and b)Society trains them to sort things out on their own because its not masculine to show weakness of any kind. I know there are the double standards where men can be seen as players and women as sluts, but at the same time, a friend of mine pointed out that men often do alot of the work in the courting process. Women have alot of power there, so I feel like certain connections can be made to why the aforementioned stereotypes come about. I don't think they are acceptable by any means, of course, but there is evidence beyond just men complimenting each other for "conquering" women.
I'm considering getting a group of men and women together to see if we can catch people going into or coming out of the meeting to find out why they decided to make it women-only and then maybe ask their opinions about some things. Again, I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I feel like in alot of cases, people fight for things without thinking about where others are coming from necessarily. I guess I've got alot of thinking to do.
I feel a little out of line because I'm not particularly interested specifically in the women's studies program here, but seeing that the meeting that is scheduled for tomorrow is women-only bothers me. The Womyn's center is a decent idea, I think, especially functioning as a place where women who have harmed by men know they can go to not be around men. Still, I think the big problem with certain feminist schools of thought is that they leave men out of the picture. To be more general, they're like the Black Panthers of the femenist movement. I feel that excluding men from a meeting about women's studies without and express reason is incredibly discriminatory.
My biggest problem with the schools of thought of which I speak is that they close off the lines of communication to a great extent. I'm a firm believer in the concept of discussion. Men and Women will never understand each other if they keep adhering to certain social norms and ESPECIALLY if they think that because that the other sex is part of a problem, they can't be part of the solution as well.
It is completely true that women have been opressed in alot of history, and I recgonize the patriarchal system, but I still feel like guys don't necessarily have the outlets they need for support in many cases. A Men's Center here on campus would be laughed at, but as I've expressed before, Men often have issues that they could benefit from sorting out with other conscientious listeners. Still, a) A place like that is VERY rare and b)Society trains them to sort things out on their own because its not masculine to show weakness of any kind. I know there are the double standards where men can be seen as players and women as sluts, but at the same time, a friend of mine pointed out that men often do alot of the work in the courting process. Women have alot of power there, so I feel like certain connections can be made to why the aforementioned stereotypes come about. I don't think they are acceptable by any means, of course, but there is evidence beyond just men complimenting each other for "conquering" women.
I'm considering getting a group of men and women together to see if we can catch people going into or coming out of the meeting to find out why they decided to make it women-only and then maybe ask their opinions about some things. Again, I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I feel like in alot of cases, people fight for things without thinking about where others are coming from necessarily. I guess I've got alot of thinking to do.