Letters to the Editor
LeCastor
Published Letters: 1916 Editor's Choice: 86
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Please, stop claiming that women are too stupid to tell when the media is disparaging them.
[Read the article: Closing the doors on single-sex education?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Trying to say that the clash between male and female is the same as race relations is, well, ridiculous. Go ahead and tell me that nothing holds women back today, while they are perpetually ridiculed, objectified, and demeaned on every level of popular culture. How come no men are ever holding the mop in the bathroom of the Mr. Clean commercials? Why can't the guy in the Nissan commercial just explain what a continuous variable transmission is to his SO?
Yeah, it's true, though i don't think women are perpetually ridiculed, objectified and demeaned on every level of popular culture. That's going a little far, and believe me, i'm a hardcore feminist. But what is your point? That because women are always demeaned, they need some paternalistic help to have confidence? That in itself is demeaning to women -- the assuption that they are fragile creatures who can't discern cultural messages and call "bullshit" on a lot of them, who need someone to tell them they're smart, because they don't ahve any inner self-confindence. It's patronizing, that kind of thinking, don't you think?
Besides, insofar as race relations go, African American and other minority women have lots and lots of problems, many of which could be helped enormously by attendance at an all womens college. An all womens college is not about race, it's about the WOMEN, silly!
REALLY? Oh, i'm dying to know what problems particular to african american women could be helped by all women's colleges, as opposed to going to a co-ed college.
Sure, it would be my ideal world if every woman could just ignore the fact that popular media sees her as some kind of bathroom-floor-scrubbing, baby-raising, sex-providing, automaton.
Again, i think you're really going to the extreme here. Plus, popular culture often depicts men in very unfavorable lights, but it seems to be okay, no one is saying men need all-male colleges to boost their confidence. Examples, you ask? Men who show emotions are whimps, men can't cook or clean or take care of themselves, men are overgorwn babies who just want beer, pizza and sex, men are aggressive, etc.
However the reality is that it is impossible to shrug off a LIFETIME of message permeating your brain. You might be one of the women able to toss it off and go about your life, or you might not. Or you might be one for whom time spent in a womens college is exactly what you need to enable you to stand strong in the face of sexist ideas for the rest of your life.
I still don't understand how being away from sexism and men helps women confront it and live with it.
I suppose it makes sense that to men, it's more important for women to be attending quarter a pitcher night at the local college bar and practicing drunken blowjobs while they miss their morning classes.
Oh jeesus, that's right, jo, all colleges and universities that are co-ed are sinful dens of fraternity-related exploitation, schools like Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, Binghamton, Middlebury, Hampshire -- all party schools full of sexist jocks... Get Real!
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"If you haven't done it, you can't understand it or talk about it" is a non-starter and the end of all discussion and debate
[Read the article: Early-rising Americans not ready for pretty childless women]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because, you can always drill down. instead of just saying, "you won't understand if you don't have kids,"
you could say "you won't understand because you're not a father (as opposed to mother)",
and then "you won't understand because you're not a caucasian father",
and then "you won't understand because you're not a caucasian father who is an investment banker", on and on.
You can always specify to the point of saying, "you won't understand because you're not me, and since you're not in my particular circumstances, you have no license to talk about it."
And that's the end of all discussion.
Experience-based responses are very valuable and interseting, but that is not the only valid input, and parents on Salon boards need to learn to respect other's non-parent opinions.
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Women Making Choices
[Read the article: Closing the doors on single-sex education?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anonymous,
Yes, you're absolutely right that people should be able to choose what they think is best for them. Women-only colleges are legal, just like country clubs that don't admit Jews, and male-only golf courses. But do you think there is no value in discussing the merits of these institutions, apart from the legality question?
As for the question of federal funding, educational institutions do receive a lot of federal and state tax breaks (Bob Jones University famously lost its tax-exempt status for, inter alia, banning interracial dating), not just subsidized loans. So yes, your taxpayer dollars are going to support these colleges. in the recent supreme court case of FAIR v. US, universities argued that they should be able to receive federal funding without admitting military recruiters onto campuses because of the don't ask, don't tell policy, and the supreme court essentially said, tough cookies, if you want to not admit the military, say goodbye to your funding.
Feel free to spread your message, but realize you are not going to change the minds of women who have had a positive and life affirming experience at a single-sex school. With all things equal we should all be in support of women making the choice that is best for them and only them, regardless of whether it is a choice you would make yourself.
(1) You'd think that if women-only colleges provided such wonderful educations, the women coming out of them would actually be able to change their minds about issues, regardless of personal experience.
(2) This statement seems to foreclose discussion of various choices women make -- what's the point then of discussing the issues of stay-at-home vs. working moms? Let's just be in support of womeing making the choice that is best for them and only them, regardless of whether it is a choice would make yourself, and stop discussing any of these things, or criticizing other people's choices, right? As intelligent, independent women, can't we discuss these things?