One of the most prominent and recurring conversations on the topic of feminism is the idea of being a woman in a man’s world. A world built by and run by men with countless male-dominated professions where women are often the outliers. Whether it be climbing the corporate ladder in a male dominated business, taking STEM classes where you’re the only woman, or playing on a sports team surrounded by men, this experience is all too common for women and oftentimes it gets overlooked or ignored. It’s hard for men to understand this feeling. It’s not easy for anyone to fully understand something that they have never experienced themselves. This feeling and experience is something I haven’t been subjected to before, so it was something I really didn’t think about all that much. Not until I, a man, took a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies class this semester.
Stepping into a WGSS class for the first time was admittedly uncomfortable. It was a discomfort I had never felt before, and I grew to be okay with it. I was entering a territory where my experiences were in the minority. I knew from the beginning that I would be doing a lot more listening than I would talking.
The class revolved around discussing current local, national, and global events. It was meant to analyze topics in the news through a feminist lens. A lens that I’ve never really worn before. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t know enough about feminism to be able to. I was never challenged to. As the semester progressed and we settled into the material, I very rarely spoke up in class discussions. This was never because I wasn’t paying attention, it was, in fact, because I WAS paying attention. The experiences that my classmates were talking about were not that of my own, and I rarely felt like I had my own experiences that could equate. Also, I’m the type of person who has to recite something in my head like 30 times before I speak up in class, and that takes away from my listening. I wanted to give these discussions my full attention and I wanted to internalize what I was hearing. I knew from the beginning that this experience was important, so I took it very seriously.
Something that really stuck out to me about this class, which was perhaps the point of it, is how we can look at events from different perspectives and consider the ways different people are affected. The best example of this is the Israel-Palestine conflict and how this has affected women. Something I never would have considered is maternal care for Palestinian women and the scarcity of menstrual products. It’s something I never would have considered on my own because it’s an experience I am unfamiliar with. It’s also a perspective I’ve never heard before in any of my other classes throughout my education. This really encapsulates the idea of the feminist lens and how news events can be examined from different angles to gain a deeper understanding.
I’m really grateful for the experience that this class offered me. At first I thought I stuck out like a sore thumb in this class, and that may be true, but I grew to really appreciate being on the outside and expanding my perspective. I have a mother, I have a girlfriend, I have some incredible friends who are women. Existing in a world defined by the patriarchy was never something I could control. Being complacent with the system, however, is something I will never be.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 