Women's Studies: No Apology Necessary

Off Our Backs, Nov/Dec 2003 by Schmidt, Heather

I am an advocate of Women's Studies education writing this commentary from my perspective as a past Women's Studies student and instructor of an introductory undergraduate course at a large mid western university. Women's Studies provides a space for students to be heard and embraced, especially women and men not reinforced in mainstream society. Women's Studies also gives us a forum to speak and hear about culturally silenced or taboo issues. It is sometimes the only place for women and men to get certain information. For example, I have brought in student speakers on topics such as sexualities (complete with vulva puppet and sex line resources), racist representations of Native Americans, and a feminist perspective on globalization. Most of my students indicated to me that this was new information and several of them expressed dismay at not being introduced to it earlier on in their education.

With that said, it is often difficult to calculate the impact of Women's Studies on women and men. How does one "track" the changing of minds and lives, or its measure of importance? Sometimes I think we underestimate the impact that feminist education has on our students because most of us need to compost information over a period of time. Women's Studies did change me, but it took several years for me to integrate it into my lived contradictions, to be able to reconcile the new truths with the old.

For me, I entered a world, albeit slowly and proceeding with caution, that I might not have explored otherwise. How freeing for me to learn of possibilities: you mean I can love women, like that!, not everyone gets married?, God and feminism don't have to be enemies!?

So yes, I do believe that women's studies remains vital because oppressions are still lived realities and because we live in a society that still suppresses information, solidarity (especially among women), and political activism. Feminism is one of the only movements recognizing the interconnectedness of all forms of oppression. Women's Studies, ideally, is an educational forum that promotes that understanding.

Does information get distorted and misinterpreted? Yes, some always does. Inevitably as a quarter draws to a close I am witness to someone who still manages to define feminism as a state of being Cindy Crawford "feminine." And yes, some students are taught (or conclude) that anyone can identify as a feminist without any commitment to feminist principles such as the eradication of racism and homophobia. Feminism does get shrink wrapped and reduced to solely one mainstream issue like equal pay. But I think anytime we make a social and political revolution into an academic major, there is bound to be some dulling to the edge. It is nearly inevitable, especially in the context of varied feminist pedagogy. But that does not mean academic institutions cannot be an important and valuable venue for feminism.

Thus, I am an advocate of Women's Studies as long as we do not lose our radical focus. A male student, required to take my course, came to my office to talk with me. Without hesitation, he firmly asked me if I was going to grade him unfairly because he's a man. He offered for evidence the "fact" that Women's Studies advocates man hating and "liberal" opinions, and he was therefore uncomfortable being a white male in my class. My response was, it's not a bad thing to be uncomfortable sometimes. I followed with the old, "this is an opportunity to look at our own privilege and learn from each other's experiences." But what I really wanted to say was "Look! People die, some slowly, some not so slowly, so others can be comfortable." The bottom line is-if Women's Studies does not make us all, even the instructors, uncomfortable, then yes, we have lost touch with the purpose of feminist change and Women's Studies as one vehicle for it. If we are not always exposing intersecting oppressions-focusing on sexism only, for instance-we do a disservice by reinforcing white heterosexual patriarchal privilege. If we are not feeling rage at the realities of racism, sexism, queer-hatred, patriarchy, poverty-and providing a space for collective rage to be transformed into radical change-then we have failed miserably.

Women's Studies education is not without its faults, and yet remains important. Feminism is radical if freedom from oppression is considered radical. No apology necessary. Yet, it is not an end in and of itself. We feminists need to commit to consciousness-raising outside of the classroom, put our politics into practice, and refuse to let an academic version of Women's Studies be the sole space to learn about feminism and social justice. As bell hooks urges us in her recent publication Feminism is For Everybody, we need to take feminism to the streets.