City_Baby

Makes me sick. I just got back from the 4th time we've met this semester, and I just want to get out, although, I can't, because I "need" the course to graduate. I'll try to keep this brief. So the professor starts the day off by talking about "women's culture" as opposed to "men's culture" and goes into how "women do things different and so do men." She mentions how a matriarchy is a "fantasy reality" of hers. I'm starting to fall out with her here, but it gets better. In her discourse about how "men and women do things differently" she begins to talk about manners of speaking to use as evidence saying that, "It's been observed in many cultures that men and women do speak differently." Fine. So I sit and listen as the class begins piping up, the few men speaking with obvious male guilt, one girl saying how it is "arrogant" how "men always speak like they know what they are talking about." and the rest of the women lamenting the fact that they just CAN'T get their points across. Am I hearing this correctly? Are these people REALLY convinced that their gender dictates SO much of them as an individual that they CAN'T GET THEIR POINT ACROSS? Are men in this class so convinced that because of their gender that they are doomed to be arrogant assholes every time they open their mouths? Jesus... So, I go up to my professor after class and I say, "Ok, regardless of gender, is there not an objectively good and bad way to reason?" "Yes" "Ok, so then why should it matter when we are trying to solve a problem what gender we are? Why can't we, as an individual, apply logic and rationality to things, and arrive at a conclusion or compromise?" "I don't think there is an objective truth." "No no no, not objective truth, but objective logic. Logic doesn't have a gender. One gender isn't "really" illogical and one isn't "really" logical. You said yourself that gender was a social construct, yet you are perpetrating the very idea you claim to decry. You are telling women that they, because they are women, speak passively and are unable to "keep up" with men, and that if they want to, they must "speak like men." Why can't we just speak as individuals?" "You're becoming abstract. I don't deal with abstractions or philosophy. I am an anthropologist. I deal with experiences." "Well, in my experience, my gender has very little if nothing to do with how I reason and conduct myself in problem solving. The method for this does not, and never has relied on gender. Reason is objective." "Objective... that's such a male word... you're speaking from your male head now, Ashley." This is the kind of class I'm going to spend my semester in? She admitted to me while walking to her office that "she deals with collectives, because that is where experience comes from" and she "does not care about philosophy." I don't know. A fellow philosophy major sits behind me... she tapped me on the shoulder mid class and said "Is it just me, or is this conversation getting pretty weird?" Beyond this, I can already tell that she grants merit based on gender, that is, she feels that I ought to have pride simply because I am female. I do not believe in this. I do not believe that me being female, or white, or black, or gay, or straight, or male, or w/e else merits me any pride. It's an arbitrary thing. Uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Sorry. Needed to vent. Opinions?

Boom, baby. We will eat your heart (and mind) for breakfast. Better run fast.

Hey all, just thought I'd say hello in the intro forums. I'm a young student attending university for philosophy and I'm still trying to figure out why none of my professors will talk about Ayn Rand with me. Well, keep in mind, my university is covered in flyers saying "Katrina Broke New Orleans and Capitalism isn't Going To Fix It!" So... maybe not the best place to bring her name up. So, I am here to talk about Ayn Rand. Dullest intro ever.