Can a man teach feminism?

[lucydogz]

Reading the Guardian colour supp today, an article about gal dem quotes 2 young black women saying they were shocked, when taking a class on Feminism at Bristol university, that it was taken by white man.
Firstly, I see no relevance in his race. But why shouldn't a man teach Feminism?

If the subject has any academic rigour to it then there's no logical reason why the sex of the lecturer should be relevant.

How people can make the argument that men can teach Feminism in a world where women cannot even get our most basic medical needs met because of the underlying male bias in every aspect of life astonishes me.

What men will teach is what that man thinks Feminism is or should be. That is how we got the substitution of "equality" for "the political movement for the liberation of women". Men mansplaining Feminism.
Most people already know more than they want to on that subject.

Well said thebewilderness

My thoughts exactly.

Teaching does not mean promoting or supporting.

You can teach facism but that does not make you a facist. History teachers, teach the rise of Nazism without being Nazis.

Feminism is a political theory with many different aspects, in the same way socialism or conservatism is. Teachers of political theory will teach all these and while the will have their own views that should not influence their teaching of the various theorem.

As we all know feminism has a variety of iterations, no one will support or promote all of them. A good teacher will present all of these.

Feminism is an academic subject. Posters are presenting their ideas of feminism- and that's fine - but a teacher must also present opposing ideas and criticisms.

In my experience at degree level lectures will make you aware of their own bias so you can treat them like any source of information.

@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 .

@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.

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.

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.

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?.
.
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.
.
Please Google the definition of feminism..it's not a cult ! use Oxford dictionary if you must.

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.

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.

Google Lol.

That should sort it.

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.

"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".

@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.
.
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

to prove their understanding/support for the cause**

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.

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

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.
.
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.

@italiangreyhound

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

wasn't born in France** correction to last post
.

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?

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

Seems like a free for all.

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

-wine? What wine?-