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skumar's picture

Response to Lustick and McIntosh

Lustick writes in her post, "..the more challenging issue is how to adress this need without  empowering some groups and disenfranchising others." I agree that McIntosh leaves out (purposely?) the restoration of a 'happy medium' in cirriculum. This idea brings me back to the general phenomenon we have been exploring in CFS thus far--that there exists no certainty, no fixedness. To address the need that Lustick presents is, perhaps, counterproductive. I say this because I do not think it is possible to empower every group in a single course; there will always be a sort of disenfranchisement that disregards some groups. That, I think, is the essence of the challenge McIntosh is dealing with in her paper.

For example, let us take this course: Critical Feminist Studies. While the course suggests feminism as an umbrella term, as a notion that applies to  races, to genders, to cultures, to homes, to indentities... I do not think the cirriculum does  "justice" to every group. We got a glimpse of Latina feminism and maybe south asian feminism, but what about jewish feminism? chinese feminism?. Particularly, though, I think CFS cirriculum ignores the voice of males...not F-to-M males or M-to-F males but individuals who biologically and socially identify as male. Bind was a homosexual male...but does Binh stand for all heterosexual males?  In relation to McIntosh, she mentions that in seminars some (academic) groups will say that they cannot "get further in [their] field." I agree more so with this seminar group than with McIntosh. I felt like McIntosh was a little too idealistic, and much less realistic than I would have liked. She mentions math and biology, but natural science and math cannot explore women's perspective/women's issues in math. Having taken math courses at Bryn Mawr, I did not notice a way in which the department has tried to incorporate the voices of women. Sure, there may be more opportunities for "gendered" summer programs or funded grants or scholarship, but in terms of actual classroom instruction, I do think a professor's teaching instruction is altered in any way (the classes/the department is not any less challenging to better suit an all-woman atmosphere). How can you have a math class that integrates discussion of race? It is the nature of the subject, the content of the area of study, that intrinsically inhibits inclusion of all groups. I think that is another dimension of the challenge McIntosh is facing in this endeavor--the challenge to include everyone.

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