Can a man teach feminism?

@italiangreyhound and when it comes to slavery those who where slaved are the ones who where oppressed. So why would a male/female white teacher teach the slave trade to African people ? but it happens right ?
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you've again entered the same hole as other people on here who decide to pick and choose what feminism is all about. and feminism is about equality for everyone..You can't come up with your own definition, as that wouldn't make you feminist as you're clearly disregarding what feminism really stands for.

It's a fraught question.

There are a few courses on the UK in African studies. Most of the academic specialists (who have PhDs and publications) are African by birth or descent. Teaching in the UK, many of their students are white British. If a white student is profoundly interested in African studies, conpletes a Masters and a PhD in African studies and publishes academic work in African studies, should that person be denied employment in a department that teaches African Studies?

If a man studies for a PhD in sociology of women's employment, and publishes books confirming the social structures underlying the wage gap, should he be denied a position teaching women's studies in a Sociology department?

I don't think there are easy answers to these questions, from an academic perspective. However, the current reality seems to be that VERY few men study women's studies to that level.

So I'm torn between wanting more men to take Women's Studies and wanting to preserve Women's Studies lectureships for female academics.

@italiangreyhound

so it's ok for the rest of the world to look at you and say whoever teaches you feminism is none of their business ? WTF? are you even listening to yourself or reading what you're writing should I say?.
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You can't replace oppresion with oppression because that would make you a hypocrite not a feminist unfortunately

I think someone mentioned earlier. When you do your research you can contact the women on the high table of feminism through their PAs if you can get gold of them or look up any speeches they've made on YouTube or podcasts and take it upon yourself to get more Intel. University is 30+ hrs of independent studying, lectures are there for support.
Just as anyone interested in deeper meaning of religion would do. I'm sure they'd attent a local church or mosque etc and ask to speak to someone a little bit more spiritual towards that religion.
. Even though the subject was introduced by someone atheist.

schools/colleges/Universities might not have the resources to bring in a centenarian to discuss what it was really like to live In the trenches during the war. So they make do and any clever student will go off and do their own research if it's a subject of interest.

@Monday55 Who teaches you French, or the history on slavery, or Hinduism, is your business.

"You are no different than anyone who asks those above question. What you stated is discrimination."

The law permits some forms of discrimination. For example one can indeed advertise for a French chef, or for a male or female to do a specific role. I'd probably be unlikely to want to study a religion from someone who did not practice that religion either. Though I recognize for school kids etc it is not necessarily a big issue.

I think teaching of feminism is a role that one could be expected to be taught by a female.

Not all discrimination is legal or illegal, nor is all discrimination good or bad. There is definitely an argument to be made for the history of American slavery to be taught by a person of American of Afro Caribbean origin.

Although slavery is a massive subject which still exists today and affects people all over Asia, Latin America and Europe and elsewhere so not sure one could definitely say who should teach a subject on it.

For me, feminism is not about equality. So it's not about equality of opportunity for who teaches it. For me, I would not want to study a class on feminism led by a man. That's my choice.

White people are left as the only authority on teaching black history...

-wine? What wine?-

Why do teachers even have to have degrees or experience in a subject?

Seems like a free for all.

But Monday all those things are true. Whilst I would be quite happy to get a high school introduction to any of those subjects by the people you describe if I get past that level and want to speak French like a native I wouldn't accept a German teacher. Or if I wanted to convert to Judaism I wouldn't want to learn the deeper mysteries from a Buddhist.

I was thinking about leaving about the slave trade in y8 history. I think it is right that the subject was introduced to me by my very white, British teacher. At that level anyone can introduce the ideas. But if white pepper are left as the authority I. Teaching black history then you must see the very deep issues that that brings? Surely?

wasn't born in France** correction to last post
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@italiangreyhound

.why would I want to be taught French by someone who didn't grow up or was born in a French speaking country?.
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why would I want to be taught history on slavery by white people?
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Why would I want to be taught Hinduism by a Christian ?
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You are no different than anyone who asks those above question. What you stated is discrimination.

He was handed a handbook to teach feminism. They're given criteria to follow and it's up to to the students to do further reading and possibly prepare an essay or sit an exam on their findings.
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If he was making up shit of the top of his head then that would be a different scenario as he wouldn't have experience on what it feels like to be a woman in society. When students write essay and even exams at Uni they have to cite where they got their findings from, so they really can't just take his word for it, they'd need to do lots of research and analyse everything.

Why would I want to study a course on feminism taught by a man?

An academia is there to teach facts not to recruit anyone into feminism.

Oh for goodness sake. An academic is not there to just teach "facts". The smallest part of history is dates and reported events. The rest is theory. It's about the application of theoretical lens to a subject to interpret and understand.

If it was just about facts you could hand the closeSt student an encyclopaedia and they could read aloud to the rest of the class for three years.

You'd all be learned by then surely.

to prove their understanding/support for the cause**

@carfsofkittens you might be onto something. We should try and get the subject implemented first before we start fighting on who gets to teach it.
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Maybe make it a voluntary course whereby lecturers/teachers don't get paid to teach it...would that stop the whole stealing my wage non-sense ? As it certainly wouldn't be right to say only a women gets paid if they teach the subject and men can only do it for free to prove their support for the cause? pfft

"By taking a wage from a woman, they are already demonstrating they support patriarchy and thus cannot teach feminism."

Could you elaborate? I think I understand where you are coming from, the idea of it, but to me the reality of it just sounds ridiculous. It essentially supports stereotypes as it says "only a woman should do this". Flip side of "only a man should do this". The "taking a wage from a woman" suggests somehow that only a woman has the right to it. Why? One could just as easily say "only men have the right to be CEO". Is a male OB-GYN taking a wage from a woman?

Or taking it even further, you could say this about any white person "taking a wage from a black person".

It's all somewhat academic, unfortunately. In the UK there are no undergraduate degrees in Feminism, although students can do some Women's Studies as part of degrees in subjects such as Sociology, Politics or English Lit. There are a few postgraduate programmes in Women's Studies, but not many. This is according to a quick search of UCAS, but if anyone knows of hundreds of courses on feminism in the UK I'd like to hear about them!

So it looks like, in the UK at least, 'Feminism' is not an academic subject. There might be teaching on feminist theory in sociology or in political theory or in literature or history, or even I suppose potentially feminist philosophy of biological science. But neither women nor men are teaching Feminism per se. Which seems like a shame. Makes me want to email some universities.

Google Lol.

That should sort it.

I'm advocating that a lecturer will teach what you, thebewilderness, are saying and the alternative interpretations.

An essay may well then be set testing the different theories. A student will develop their own ideas that may or may not agree with the lecturers' personal beliefs. The essay will be marked on the strength of the critical analysis of all the different theories. So both egalitarianism and feminism may be critically evaluated.

A student who decides they know the 'right way' and only presents that will fail even if they are, in fact, correct in your opinion.

Undergraduate students are supposed to develop critical thinking skills themselves, not have someone do the thinking for them. Agree that the lecturer is there to teach the facts, often from opposing viewpoints, maybe get some discussion going in seminars. But the student should be able to go away, do further reading/explore the topic further themselves.

lol what a sick joke. If you have that mentality how exactly do you think black people who went through slavery should treat white people ? Should have they have the same mentality of accounting all the oppresions and segregation too in day to day lives?.
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In school I certainly had a white female teacher teach us the slave trade and all that happened, no one called her out to be racist or inexperienced. You're basically picking and choosing what to believe. A men teaches facts of feminism and you throw stones at him? Definitely a sick joke! He's there to teach not to recruit other feminist into the cause.
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Please Google the definition of feminism..it's not a cult ! use Oxford dictionary if you must.

There's endless examples and your example is sexist. because feminism is all about equality for all.

That is what men mansplain that Feminism should be, so it comes as no surprise they would center themselves in Feminism if they tried to teach it since they center themselves in all women's lives.

Feminism is the political movement for the liberation of women. Always has been and always will be.
You are advocating for egalitarianism. Different philosophy entirely.

@thebewilderness ...sorry but that's backward thinking.

It is a lifetime of observation.
You may dismiss it if you choose, but we did not get here by magic. We have had hundreds of years of men claiming they could represent women and teach women everything we need to know. Zombie lies never die.

@thebewilderness ...sorry but that's backward thinking..How can a lecturer teach about poverty when there's poverty in the world and yet they're getting a fat paycheck that makes them live above $1 a day poverty line?

read what last pp say...academics teach facts and that's all there is. in school my religious education teacher was atheist and yet they still taught us about these different religions. The teacher didn't know what it's like to be crucified on the cross and yet they teach about it.

There's endless examples and your example is sexist. because feminism is all about equality for all .