Why not Women’s Studies?
That’s what I want to know when people ask why I’m taking courses in WS. Through classes in Women’s Studies I’ve learned that our cultural memory is shockingly short. Between the Pussycat Dolls and Race-car driver Barbie, I didn’t know I was a feminist until I was in my second year of university and learned the real history of the last 20, 50, 100 years—years that saw women struggle against all odds: culturally, religiously, politically, to finally gain the simple right to be known as persons legally under the law. Then, later, gaining recognition as citizens with the right to vote and contribute to the political life of our nation.
In my own life, I felt like women were offered only two stark alternatives. On one side were the inevitably hairy and unattractive feminists, radical, violent and angry at men and the whole world for pretty much everything. On the other side, I saw glamorous media darlings promoting female empowerment by exposing almost everything in order to gain power from their gyrating, athletic, sexualised bodies. Women’s Studies is about all of
this, and everything in between. It is about race and gender, about discrimination and sexual orientation, and for me, Women’s Studies has taught me about representation and uncovering the meanings of the words and images we use to talk about women and men and the state of the world.