Education or Fornication?

“It is at this time that their academic achievements begin to decrease as they are coerced into compulsory heterosexuality and trained dependency upon a man, that is, for economic survival.” This blurb is from the Homophobia reading by Suzanne Pharr. As it was written in 1997, I don’t exactly know where she is coming from. As I said in class, I can’t remember ever feeling as if my purpose of going to school was to find a man to provide for me. I don’t believe anyone I knew really felt that way either, even with the understanding that it, in most cases, wouldn’t be a direct statement to the child. I feel like if that were the case we would realize it now looking back and college wouldn’t be such an important time. On the other hand, I do realize that in some families that is the main objective, whether it’s directly told or they do it subconsciously. I found this article online and though it doesn’t directly relate to going to school to find a man to depend on, it instead focuses on how women are still dependent on men. Most of these ideas are different than what they used to be, but they still all focus on the central idea of women’s dependence on men. The ideas given in the article seem to be much more realistic than the idea of going to school to find someone to marry.

http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/why-are-women-still-dependent-men?page=0,0

Response to "A Day Without Feminism"

Everyone knows some history about women, but when I read “A Day Without Feminism” by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, I would be lying if I said it didn’t shock me a little. It’s strange to think how much has changed since the 70’s. I can’t even imagine growing up when many of our parents did, when men basically weren’t allowed to watch after kids. I don’t know if it would be harder to be an adult or a child in those days. Teenagers and adult women had to deal with crappy birth control and unaffordable or no child care. Men were not trusted to be with kids and therefore were not allowed to teach classes below the sixth grade. This also meant they couldn’t spend as much time with their own children. If you were a kid back then, there were books that were socially accepted or not depending on your sex. At school or in their free time girls weren’t allowed to play baseball or take high math classes. Instead, women were put in charge of planning, decorating and cheering on the boy’s sports teams. Even now there are no women football teams or wrestling teams. Though many girls would still turn these down just by their own choice, these aren’t even an option through childhood let alone when you reach high school. I feel like a lot of people take what we have now for granted. Reading this article really allowed me to see how thankful I really should be that I can read the books I choose and go to school, not to meet a husband, but for a career to build my own family off of.