I'm afraid not. For some reason, women's studies don't come up very often on NT. Go figure.
Originally Posted by Fanatic15
Meth, let me know if you ever are going to write a book. I'd be trilled to read it.
My wife always criticizes me for writing long winded, thought out responses to the various threads on NT, and it is responses like these that give me reason. She insists that I am writing to a bunch of teenagers, but there are at least some people who take the time to put out quality posts. I really do appreciate your input, and I'd like you to know it was not in vain, because there is plenty I can come away with from reading it. You have opened my eyes, or at least stimulated thought, to the potential of this field. I will admit, I dismissed it in the past, but would likely not be so quick to if I were to repeat my education. My two choices for my Humanistic Inquiry requirement were Classical Mythology or Women's Studies, and I went the mythology route. In hindsight, I probably would have came away more relevant knowledge pertinent to today's society, and I suppose I could say I regret it. I did enjoy Classical Mythology, but to me what I learned is useless trivia. I've already completed my B.A., but maybe there is a chance I can indulge myself at a local community college. Thanks again for the attention you've paid to this thread, it's one of the few quality threads I've participated in on this forum, devoid of the immaturity found in every other thread.
Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm grateful that you found some of the replies in this thread useful, it certainly validates the effort. We'd be better off if more people were as open minded as you.
Honestly, I often run into the same concerns that your wife raised with regard to my own posting on NT - but the prospect of engaging young people in this type of discussion is precisely what makes it so worthwhile. I may be 10-12 years older than the average NT poster, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from one another. It's a great audience to write for and communicate with. I know I've gained a great deal from it, particularly in better understanding people's thought processes. Every now and then you'll find out that you've affected someone in a positive way and that certainly provides impetus and motivation to keep going.
I'm glad to hear you're interested in exploring women's studies and, of course, you can certainly do so without taking a formal course. Mythology has its value, too, (though I never thought so when we learned, in typical Eurocentric fashion, Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology year after year in grade school) and I do think it's still quite relevant to contemporary society, as indicated by the work of Joseph Campbell and others. Not only can we find parallels in fiction, but in stories that serve a similar explanatory function to mythology in filling the gaps between "known" and "unknown." There's a great deal of racial mythology within our society, for example. So, I wouldn't say that you made the "wrong" choice, because you certainly got something out of the courses and you still have the opportunity to learn about women's studies as well whether you take a college course or not. Taking a community college course could be a great idea, but I don't want to leave you with the impression that academia somehow holds a corner on the field. In fact, part of the conversation in this area revolves around the privilege of producing formalized knowledge: who has the power to generate "formal," "objective," or "valid" knowledge - and goodness knows universities are nothing if not dens of privilege. The nice thing about the community college course, though, is that you'll have that built-in community of students to converse with and a professor who's at least familiar with the literature but, again, there's something to be said for autodidacts as well. You can plot your own course and discuss the arising issues with others in your life, perhaps including your coworkers. I think the process of challenging ourselves with these varying perspectives allows us to relate better to one another. You may find, for example, that you'll better relate to your wife of your coworkers as a result of the experience. I bet your coworkers could learn a lot from you, too, if you discussed some of the issues together. If nothing else, you could borrow their reading list as a point of reference.
Imagine if you could go from being frustrated by these two women's studies students and summarily rejecting the field because of it to exploring it on your own and growing as a result. It's difficult to envision a better outcome to this thread than that.
Sure, I completely agree, and I'm probably the youngest here. It's only natural to be frustrated if someone repeatedly states somethingyou've already heard or something you don't get. I know I do. It's topics like these that remind us that we mustn't attempt to keep oneideal/perspective/concept and reject all others. We must perservere (sp?) to understand what (or who) we do not through hopefully peaceful relations... orlearning from the past to avoid making the mistakes those who came before us made. I myself would be considered unorthodox, and I agree with who would say so,but it's the differences that make life what it is.
Besides that, men and women (according to behavioral genetics) supposedly inherit some behavioral traits that allowed their ancestors to survive and continuetheir line. Things could be very different in n years.
