Women's Studies

From Dictionary.com

Women's Studies: noun. A program of studies concentrating on the role of women in history, learning and culture.

From Merriam Webster

Women's Studies: the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between and gender.

First known use: 1972.

So, I majored in Women's Studies for my undergrad degree. I can't count the number of times I've told people what I majored in and was met with a blank stare or a "What is that?"

I usually reply with the fact that it was an awesome interdisciplinary degree at my school where I could take classes all across the spectrum from French to sociology to religion. But with this definition I'm leaving out the most important part of women's studies, a mention of I don't know... WOMEN!

I'm pretty sure that I do this to minimize the fact that I spent two years studying women and "women things" because I don't want to seem weird. Because, even after becoming a self proclaimed feminist, its still awkward for me to explain why I love my degree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of anything, I just have a hard time truly explaining why I do the things I do. Especially when it comes up at the beginning of a conversation with someone I don't usually know that well.

So my goal for this year, is to come up with a better definition for women's studies. And a better reason for why I enjoyed studying it so much. Because if I can't talk about it and why I love it, then how can I expect anyone else to learn about it?

It's a work in progress. But I'll let you know how it goes.

Have you had a similar problem or situation? What about when you say something feminist and people give you strange looks?

Welcome!

Hello all!

I decided to start this blog because I wanted a place to collect all my thoughts about feminist related things. The content will probably be pretty diverse and perhaps not what you would generally think of as “feminist” but things that I am looking at or see in a feminist light.

I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies and ever since I’ve been out of school I have the urge to write long paper-esque reviews of books or just about things I’ve been thinking about. I guess that’s what happens when the majority of your classes are seriously paper driven. So, in lieu of writing papers… because that would be sort of pointless since I’m not in class right now, I’m going to write blog posts! Honestly I’ll try not to be pretentious… because I don’t think that’s how I really am.

I don’t think that just because I have a Women’s Studies degree I know everything there is to know about women or feminism or whatever. I definitely do not. The vast expanse of my ignorance is probably shocking. I took a lot of great classes that I loved but there is just no way you can study a movement that’s been around for 100 years in 4 semesters.

So, a little bit about myself:

Age: 21.

Current Occupation: Student (going back to school for nursing)

The moment feminism clicked for me: I really wish I could remember this. I took a Philosophy of Feminism class before I went to Florida State and I’d like to think it was during this class. I wanted to major in French but I couldn’t because of some stupid requirements so my advisor told me to pick another major. I went back and forth between criminology and women’s studies for a while reading about both before finally deciding to do women’s studies. I got to school and started taking my classes and loved every one of them!

Favorite classes I took: I loved my Women’s Health Issues class that I took with a nursing instructor. This is actually the class that made me think about becoming a midwife, pairing my love of feminism and love of medicine.

I also liked my Contemporary Muslim Women class and my Voices of Oppression class I took my final semester.

Favorite topics to read about/research/think about: Feminism (duh!), sexism, pop culture, women in the media, feminist childbirth and parenting, reproductive rights, and so many more.

Future occupation: Currently I’m taking pre-reqs to get an accelerated Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing so I can be a nurse for a while. Right now my areas of interest are Labor and Delivery and Emergency Medicine. I would also like to eventually return to school and get a Master’s so I can become a Certified Nurse-Midwife. I would really like to be in a practice with other Midwives and provide home births.

Well there’s a bit of the basics. Have you got any more questions for me? I’d love to answer them.

Coming up I’m working on a starter list of my favorite feminist minded books!