I am an elderly, soon-to-be-retired, almost dead white male. I went to
graduate school when new criticism was new, and am politically slightly to
the right of Russell Kirk. I am also a feminist, permit me to explain.
Twenty-three years ago my first child, a daughter was born. I was forty at
the time and was entranced by this beautiful and clever child and so spent
a lot of time with her. When she first began speaking intellegibly I used
to ask her what she would do when she grew up. Her prompted reply was "I
going to be a doctor and look after you when you are old." We both would
laugh.
Then one day she got seriously ill and spent three weeks in the hospital.
When she got home I initiated our litany, "What are you going to do when
you grow up?" Her reply was "I'm going to be a nurse." I asked her why and
she said "Men are doctors and girls are nurses", which is what she had
observed in the hospital. I immediately scoured Toronto for a female
pediatrician and spent the next fifteen years encouraging her to pursue her
own interests without regard to society's, or my expectations. She is
entering law school this coming fall.
I also teach a science fiction course at a local college and I try to
include feminist texts as they represent a sizable portion of the canon.
Besides, intellectual honesty requires that all facets of the genre be
presented to students, not just those that conform to my biases.
David Silver
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:21 PDT