Hi all,
It's interesting to read all these posts on The Female Man, because I
think I had every one of the reactions described, each in turn.
I think I understand Mike Levy's student who accused him of being
hopelessly non-gen-x. I used to feel that feminism was directed to my
Mom's generation, in hopes of changing "girls" to "women" in the eyes of
both men and women. My generation, of course, no longer suffered from
such outdated notions: I played sports, I fully intended a career, my
male friends were never condescending, etc.
In the last four years, college years, I've become aware of more subtle
forms of sexism (just like racism as become less overt). For example, the
practice of showing women atheletes as passive beauties or sex-objects,
rather than in the powerful and active roles they play.
I can still see, though, how women my age might claim that "they
themselves have never been victimized by sexism and never will be." In
many instances sexism today is less obvious, and therefore perhaps more
insidious: a comment by an apparently egalitarian professor on a female
student's appearance is hard to justify as sexism rather than something
specific to the individual student.
The Female Man made me angry at first. Why start fights so blatantly?
Isn't there a more effective way to raise consciousnesses? Must she
whine?
Upon the second reading (I wondered why FM was so popular/talked about) I
was mostly impressed by Russ's courage. How can one woman assault so many
assumptions at once and expect to get away with it? How can she write a
novel that is so obviously a polemic and call it fiction?
Upon the third, and last for now, I was impressed by Russ's skill,
creativity, wit, and elegant writing. All of these had been mostly
obscured by my two earlier gut reactions. (kind of like an inability to
enjoy a well-crafted, well-acted film because of some violent scenes...)
Now, I can mostly put aside the earlier reactions and dwell in phrasings,
in some very quotable notions, and some careful plotting of the J's
interactions.
However, Mr. Levy and other professors of the Female Man, I'm sorry to say
that I doubt I would've reached stage three within the time frame of your
class. I most likely would have left with the same frustration your
students expressed, and the overwhelming notion that our poor gen x was
being oppressed by baggage from previous eras!
I do still think the last, but I would change oppressed to "oppressed and
enlightened and colored by previous eras."
Rarely can I watch my thoughts evolve so blatantly as they seemed to in
response to the FM, which i daresay, was part of Russ's point.
Andrea Klein
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