Women's Studies..from a transman

[Wren]

Odd title..

Anyway this year I ended up ..accidentally taking a women's studies course in Uni. I was dreading it because.. as opened minded as I might like to feel, I'm not to comfortable in something billed as "women's studies". I went into class wondering if everyone there would be this uber power feminist lesbian type person (fyi: I am ashamed of myself for the stereotype). And being a gender-different person I never like being in that kind of setting.

Turns out.. the prof is a Transman. He has every credential possible in women's studies and is a really charismatic, knowledgeable and eloquent lecturer. I would never have thought that he was once biologically female. I didn't know that my school had a transman in the faculty at all. ..Then again, maybe that's why we have trans washrooms, and a non gender segregated residence rooms.

[Valeria]

I've known multiple trans males who majored in Women's Studies, so this doesn't seem too surprising to me. I also know a trans female majoring in it.

Women's Studies casts a critical eye upon conventional constructions of gender (among other things), so it seems natural to me that gender-variant folk would be drawn to the area.

[Cai]

That's pretty awesome that you have a trans professor, and a campus setup that facilitates things like that (although please tell me by "trans washrooms" you really mean unisex, trans washrooms would be a discrimination problem in my eyes).

I'm also in a women's studies class this semester - it's a psych class entitled "Women in the Workplace". On the one hand, it's great, because we're talking about breaking down stereotypes. On the other hand, d if I have to listen to people screw up the usage of sex vs gender or talk about what a "typical" man or woman is one more time, I think my head is going to explode. Unfortunately, there's not a good way to correct some misconceptions without (inadvertently or deliberately) outing myself as trans, and I'm not comfortable doing that in front of a classroom of 40 people.

[ZenFrost]

I've considered taking women's studies, it seems like an interesting subject because it focus on gender as a whole and not just strictly female.

[Alan]

Gah, I hate my women's studies class. I am a feminist and all for equity, but seriously, that class is going to turn me into a male-chauvinist pig. I cannot BEGIN to describe everything wrong with it. At least, not without hijacking the thread.