Pedagogy Part III
Reading through Siebler, I thought she made some really excellent points. Not only was the text written in a very accessible manner–which I appreciated–but by working through her sixteen tenets and later, discussing how three individuals enact feminist pedagogy I felt I was getting a pretty good “lay of the land.” But I got pretty upset reading her conclusion. Here, she writes “I do not believe men can be feminists because they do not reside in that position of gender disempowerment. Men can only work toward feminism (men can be profeminist, but not feminist) because they inherently embody an identity on which the systemic oppression those gendered female is built” (199-200). This came on the heels of her writing about how outdated the slogan “Feminism is teh radical notion that women are people” because it excludes Blacks, Hispanics, queers, transsexuals, transgendered people, transvestites, children, the poor, etc. (199). This seems to me a bit contradictory and to me, a bit infuriating. My wife tells me that one of the reasons she was interested in dating me was because she viewed me as a “feminist.” And, I might add, my wife considers herself a feminist with a very social justice agenda. When she heard this, she also got a little irate. Because, according to Siebler, I can’t be a feminist. I’m just part of the problem, so all I can do is be pro-feminist.
I’m not sure what to do with all of this, other than say it really bummed me out. To be honest, this course has really complicated what feminism is, and who can be called a feminist and who can’t. I return to what I mentioned in my post last week–I think that a lot of the 16 tenets Siebler lists are admirable things to strive for in the classroom, and they are things that I would like to consider including. And indeed, my final project looks to engage feminist pedagogy with expressivist pedagogy (much to Harriet Malinowitz’s chagrin, I’m sure) because I think that these pedagogies–and a lot of pedagogies under the composition umbrella–should be in conversation with each other.
But yeah. I guess men can’t be feminists. Yeesh. What a bummer–and a shocker.
