Critical Feminist Studies

I think Virginia Woolf would mostly approve of Bryn Mawr- for example many of our classes (like this one) do not have the same format as classes in big universities, because from what I’ve gathered at other schools there are too many students for the teachers to grade individual work and talk to students in the process of working- so almost all of the grade for classes come from big exams. Bryn Mawr has a different learning atmosphere than even my high school, (which is much smaller most colleges/universities) because here there is much more emphasis on learning than just the end grade. My friends at other colleges have so much more stress over their exams, which involves a lot of cheating, ect.  I talk here more with teachers about my work more that I ever have before, and their attention definitely makes me care more about my work. On the other hand it has been a bit different in some science here, where there is a more competitive feel, so she may not approve of that part. The issue about Bryn Mawr not accepting all female applicants poses another issue because it is not a place where all woman can choose to go- something Woolf wouldn’t approve of. Overall I think Virginia Woolf would approve of Bryn Mawr because we are getting a different kind of education, where it is less cutthroat, and more about figuring out who you are. I think that the Bryn Mawr environment would continue the truth of Woolf’s quote: "Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes."  

Who goes to Bryn Mawr College? Who is at the table?

Five types of students: undergraduate, graduate, McBrides, post-bacs (post-baccalaureate), summer students

Undergraduate has the most restrictions:

• Female-bodied
• Students who can afford $52,000+ tuition or benefit from financial aid
• Fluent in English
• Can perform well on standardized testing
• Have a strong basis in academics and/or extra-curriculars
• Perform well in writing

As a result (from collegeboard.com) 1st-year students:

• Geography:
• 14% In-state students
• 86% Out-of-state students
• 18% Non-Resident Alien
• Schooling:
• 64% in top 10th of graduating class
• 92% in top quarter of graduating class
• 99% in top half of graduating class

Who isn't at the table?

In connection with the world premiere performances of Fort Blossom Revisited 2000/2012 by John Jasperse Company February 24-26, Bryn Mawr College will host a Symposium on The Contemporary Performance of Sex, Gender and Embodiment on Saturday February 18, 2012 from 1-5pm in the Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall. Admission is free and open to all.

Fort Blossom (2000), choreographed and designed by Jasperse, is a 40-minute work in which the audience is invited to examine contemporary notions of how we experience the body as both owners and spectators. Simultaneously shocking and beautiful, it is being revisited and expanded into a 60-minute piece with lead support from Bryn Mawr College, funded by The Pew of Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance. The slow, sustained angling and partnering of nude dancers in Fort Blossom present direct and un-commodified experiences of the body alone and in relationship. Jasperse wrote that the work "sought to dilute the transgressive impact of the body--to allow us to perceptually acknowledge the body in all its facets as simultaneously special, even miraculous, and ordinary.” To reflect on the questions raised by Fort Blossom, Bryn Mawr hosts this one day Symposium with presentations, panel discussions and video viewings.

Presenting scholars and artists:

Hi all :)

I was thinking about the question asked during the class today. "Would Virginia Woolf encourage you to go to Bryn Mawr?"

My answer is no. I think she will not because of various reasons that I will not list here but save them for class discussion later.

Anyways, to see what other people think of women's colleges, I put "why women's college?" on the search bar and read some articles about it.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/05/21/why_we_need_womens_colleges/

This is an article written by the president of Mount Holyoke College in 2007. She mentions Virginia Woolf (for a sentence) and the article is about women's colleges. So I thought it was pretty relevant to us!

Good night!

When my small group started our discussion on how we define feminism I assumed that people would all have a similar definition, but I was wrong. We had a very hard time assigning a single definition of this word, and the more I thought about it I realized that feminism can have all different meanings depending on the person and context. Although I have read some feminist literature before and had brief conversations on feminism, I never really tried to think about the meaning of the word, and I’m very excited for what this class will bring me to think. Yes, I understand a basic definition of feminism, women being equal to men, but I want to learn more about the ways in which this goal was fought towards throughout history. Our group agreed that being a Bryn Mawr puts us in a bubble where I believe we have more respect for women because we see them succeed in all academic fields, and we are more defensive of each other for this. I feel that at Bryn Mawr students are much more supportive of a women’s choice to dress and act how she wants, and words like ‘slut’ are looked down upon. I really think this environment will make this material feel very relevant to my life, and I can’t wait to learn more about all the different meanings of feminism.   

I found that our Thursday in-class group discussions were very interesting, and that the questions were a very intriguing look into our brains. I've realized that I would love to have this discussion again with classmates- not only those who were in my group or in the class, but with others as well. Initially the questions seemed relatively straight-forward, but once we were all sitting down and put thought and effort behind our answers they became signficantly more difficult. All of the questions were very broad, and required more than just a yes or no answer- even, and maybe most especially, the question "Are you a feminist?" Feminism has a complex history of not only different waves, but different circles of thought within those waves that makes it difficult to just say 'yes' or 'no'. Some branches of feminism also have a very uncomfortable history of being exclusionary towards non-white and non-cisfemale women, which adds another layer of complexity to identifying as a feminist. Listening to everyone's reasons behind saying 'yes' or 'no' was very insightful, and I feel could potentially cause someone to rethink their own explanations, and the forces in their lives that made them say 'yes' or 'no'. Attempting to create a definition for feminism, at least in that short amount of time, would have been very difficult, especially since it was so easy to spend a lot of time on the other questions.

Based on some students' comments online, I would be very interested in knowing what their definition of feminism is, or potentially their multitude of definitions.

While reading The Goblin Market, I had trouble deciding whether the poem was about the events surrounding a girl's first sexual experience or an encounter with addictive substances. I felt it easily went both ways.

But sat down listless in the chimney-nook
And would not eat.

Laura's whole personality has changed at this point in the poem either from sex or drug withdrawal. 

Then sat up in a passionate yearning,
And gnashed her teeth for baulked desire, and wept
As if her heart would break.

Again, this line is ambiguous and, I felt, could be interpreted both ways.  Laura could be experiencing a serious desire to have sex again or she could be desperatly wanting to fulfill her next drug fix. 

Either way, I saw The Goblin Market as a cautionary tale for all types of addictions.  Whether it be a sexual addiction or substance abuse, the general plot of The Goblin Market could be applied to all sorts of addictions. 

Perhaps sexual and drug addiction were a focus because they were prominent during the time the poem was written?