First of all, I am
going to share my experience. Last semester, I was taking a speaking class in
another school. One day, I had a speech about “legalizing prostitution in the
U.S.” which I chose myself. Before the class, I asked my teacher to fix my notes
for the speech. Then, she asked me “Why did you choose such a controversial
topic?” I knew this was a tough topic, but I had been learning about gender
studies and women’s studies. Also, I wanted to take classes about it at Chico
State. Then she said, “why are you studying them? They are useless because you
cannot make money by those knowledges.” At that moment, I literally got mad and
I tried to counter with her but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t only because she
was my teacher. She was a person who would grade my speech and my whole
semester.
There are two
critical points in this story. The first is her role as a teacher in the
school. She might say it is just her opinion, however, she was a teacher who
educates students. She should not try to diminish the student’s curiosity. Even
if she strongly believes gender and women’s studies are not useful, she is not
supposed to say such a ridiculous thing to a student because we cannot even
counter with her because of her privilege…
The second is she
slighted gender and women’s studies. IAC Publishing states that “Gender studies
allows people in different social environments to solve gender-related
conflicts by providing a common understanding regarding gender identity and
relationships.” Also, Hilary Watchler, who is working for a major women’s
health organization in San Diego, proposed “When you major in Women’s Studies,
you study politics, theory, literature, history, sociology, and psychology, all
with a feminist perspective. You discover and ask questions that no one’s ever
challenged you with before.” No doubt gender studies is not only for LGBTQ
people and women’s studies is not only for women. Their goals have not been
attained yet. Furthermore, there shouldn’t be a hierarchy among the disciplines
because the connection with the future job is just one of the reasons to study.
When people more deeply understand the importance of these two studies, and more
students take these classes, their social issues are more easily settled.
References
“What Is
the Importance of Gender Studies?” by IAC Publishing
“5 Reasons Why You Should Major Women’s
Studies” by Hilary Watchler
By Minori
Sakurai
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