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?

Men might have the knowledge but they cannot have the understanding.

I really don't get this? So should all academics in any subject that may ever cover feminism as a topic be female, so that when feminism comes up a man isn't talking about it? It just isn't practical.

It's just a question of teaching the syllabus, which hopefully was written by at least one woman.

People have given examples about history and literature.

I think the question is “is this the best you can get?”

So - to give an example. Suppose you learning about Roman civilisation. Time travel has been discovered and someone goes back and collects a Roman soldier. That Roman soldier then gets A levels, does a history degree, a Ph.d in Roman history and gets a job as a lecturer.

Who do you want teaching you about Ancient Rome? The Roman soldier or someone else with identical qualifications who was born in 1976?

Personally I would say that qualifications plus experience is better than just qualifications.

With feminism 50% of the population has the experience. There are a lot more women around than Roman soldiers.

So I would wonder what is wrong with an academic institution that can’t attract someone with both experience and qualifications. Why does 50% of the population not want to work there? Either they are consciously or sub consciously biased against women and so make it very hard for women to get qualifications there. Or it is just a crap institution that can’t get the best (experience plus qualifications) and so has to take the inferior option.

Either way - I would not choose to learn there.

Obviously you have had some bad experiences with men from what your attitude is like. Wake up, we all have! Doesn't mean I am going to put all men down

Are you one of these 'cool wives' I hear about?

You asked your partner their opinion on whether men could teach feminism for fucks sake...and then expected is to say 'oh well, if he says so it must be true'.

Literally could not make it up. And you say I should wake up? Wake up and what exactly?

This is why even females that don't yet understand feminism should also not teach feminism.

''It's just a question of teaching the syllabus, which hopefully was written by at least one woman.''

Can you see the contradiction there? If a man can deliver the material then he can write it. The fact that he can only ever have the view of a bystander is not irrelevant.

Feminist studies and women's studies have been replaced by 'gender studies' in many universities.

Michael Conroy (who seems to have disappeared off twitter, what happened?)

I am off twitter as it is a fetid shithole but looks like they got him off too.

*IncrediblySturdyPyjamas

No I am not a wife. We just respect each other as human beings.

Mum - you misunderstood what I meant by ‘history, philosophy, literature’ - I meant these aspects of studying feminism in an academic context. I believe that a person’s sex (or any other inherent attribute) should neither preclude or advantage them in delivering academic content, basically.

I’m pretty agog at this thread otherwise though - yes JS374phina has been more than a little ridiculous in running to ask a man because the women are disagreeing (whatever your intention was, that is how it’s coming across) and immediately accusing people disagreeing with her of being man-haters - cliché much - but scathingly labelling her a ‘cool wife’ isn’t really cricket either - I thought WTGLWGH was going around here a short while ago, perhaps we can all stick to that - counter the arguments but avoid personal attacks?

If its just reading from a script, any lecturer can teach in physics. Or advanced maths.

Can I just say, I have not 'gone running to my man and asked him for his opinion'... he is someone I respect the opinion of. If my partner had been a woman would your opinion have changed?

Read 'men in feminism' on wikipedia. The argument we are having now has also been going on for a while amongst activist and writers. Some women believe the same as you whereby men cannot effectively be feminists and people like me that think it is vital to the cause.

Read 'men in feminism' on wikipedia.

Lol @ Wikipedia.

Brilliant.

Did you watch Peach Yogurt yet? You know, an actual feminist?

If its just reading from a script, any lecturer can teach in physics. Or advanced maths.

Somewhat belligerent point there, but to counter, clearly knowledge and understanding of a subject is required, as well as an aptitude for engaging students, explaining clearly, facilitating discussion/debate etc. I think we’d all agree that an aptitude for teaching isn’t dependent upon sex - so, to the posters who are arguing that feminism cannot be taught by a man, is your point that a man cannot understand feminism - his sex precludes this? I disagree.

Allies support the work that needs doing. They don't try to run the campaign.

Somewhat belligerent point there, but to counter, clearly knowledge and understanding of a subject is required, as well as an aptitude for engaging students, explaining clearly, facilitating discussion/debate etc. I think we’d all agree that an aptitude for teaching isn’t dependent upon sex - so, to the posters who are arguing that feminism cannot be taught by a man, is your point that a man cannot understand feminism - his sex precludes this? I disagree.

Tell me then, how they can explain them getting the wage for doing so and thus preventing a woman from earning that wage?

JS374phina - FYI, Wikipedia is a notoriously unreliable resource across the board but especially so on feminist issues, and has form for being manipulated by men’s rights activists, so not a great source to cite in feminist debate. Also, you cited your partner’s sex as a reason to consult him on this issue as it was ‘divided amongst women’ (your words). So you made a point of asking a man, it’s disingenious to now say you would have done this in the same way had they been female.

Tell me then, how they can explain them getting the wage for doing so and thus preventing a woman from earning that wage?

I disagree they are specifically preventing a woman from earning a wage, as I don’t agree that the position must be filled by a woman.

The thing is though that men's oppression of women is why women NEED feminism. So to have a man, who contributes to our oppression and benefits from our oppression, stand up and lecture students - including many females - about a movement brought about BECAUSE of him and his fellow men feels very wrong.

How are they stopping a woman from getting the wage, the department employs x amount of people (ideally an equal split of men and women but obviously not always) say they have 10 people employed, and 10 seminar groups so they all teach one, all 10 people are getting a wage but 5 seminar groups are going to be led by men.

What about when people are taught marxism? Is it necessary for the tutor to be a communist/working-class/a marxist?

Is this PURELY an argument for degrees that revolve around feminism (so women's studies for example?) or any degree that might discuss feminist arguments/readings at any point?

I disagree they are specifically preventing a woman from earning a wage, as I don’t agree that the position must be filled by a woman.

Oh dear. Even if a women didn't have to fill the post, a woman still didn't get that job, even though one was probably available that had actual experience in being a woman - so just pretend that one of those types of women had gone for that job - how can a man explain why they got the job over a woman.

Was it the experience? Nope.

Was it the qualifications? Nope.

What else? Apart from patriarchy - would qualify a man to get the job over a woman?

And that's not even to wonder what kind of message is it giving to the female students. They are bound to wonder why is a man lecturing ME on feminism. It tells them, when a man is lecturing on feminism rather than a woman, that men are better than women...even with a movement for and about WOMEN!

Cross posted with Sturdy but yes...that's how I see it as well.

I suspect that a male lecturer will be more likely than a female lecturer to emphasise/promote men-friendly postmodern liberal feminism.

I suspect that a male lecturer will be more likely than a female lecturer to downplay the historical and ongoing importance of women-centric radical feminism.

incredibly because maybe the man has experience/qualifications in other areas that are also necessary for teaching in that department? Like has written novels or is American or has a specialism in a subject that is covered in the degree programs offered (just thinking about my degree experience).

So, in my uni department (art, media, american studies) they offer creative writing, american studies degrees, and a few modules in comics studies etc... so someone who has experience of creative writing, or specialises in comics studies, or is American would have more experience. They then might also have to teach feminism if that's on the module syllabus. That's how a man might be hired over a woman.

If there's a specific degree in women's studies, or a whole department, then you absolutely should have women teaching, but in most places the degree gets stuck in to another department where existing faculty has to teach it.