adiva_calandia

Rrrgh.

There is a girl in my feminist lit class -- you might remember her -- who I am more and more wanting to slap.

See, a year ago, this girl came across as the quintessential air-headed, blonde, pretty little rattling on at the mouth thing. Then she took some literary theory classes, some feminist theatre classes, and read some Judith Butler, and while she still tends to rattle on at the mouth a bit, and she's still pretty and little and blonde(ish), she's no longer air-headed. She's highly opinionated and not worried who knows it (see above link). This is the kind of behavior that often earns the label "bitch." I'm going to call her N.

Now. There's another girl in our feminist lit class, who I'll call A. A reminds me forcibly of N at the beginning of last year, only blonder and with even less brain-to-mouth filter. She said something unintentionally racist in class on Tuesday, and she tends to rattle on a little simplistically but very earnestly about the readings. Top quotes include "I consider myself a feminist, but I still feel like the guy should open doors for me and pay for dinner and everything, even though I know that's not feminist."

N has stated a desire to punch A in the face.

I have been suppressing an urge to take N by the shoulders and shake her and say Do you not recognize yourself a year ago in her? Give her a chance to learn, like you did! Give her the benefit of the doubt and shut the hell up!

N also stated today that the lecture one of the other students gave Tuesday -- which had the daunting task of covering about six readings, including one from A Room of One's Own, which, let's face it, you could spend eighty minutes just discussing that -- was ridiculous, because the girl was giving a fairly simple linguistic analysis of the readings. N followed this up immediately with an explanation to someone else that the class tends to go in a lot of directions because everyone's at different levels with the material.

So . . . you . . . recognize that not everyone is as smart or experienced or literate as you, and you still think they should all be catering to your skill level? I'm sorry, but the class is not about you, and discussions are what you make them. If you want more in-depth, higher-brow debate, either provide it yourself or seek it outside class.

And for God's sake, cut them some slack. You've come such a long way, baby -- give them a chance to do the same.

. . . I had something geeky and media-consumption-y to add but I forgot. Damn.