Blog 3

It's funny that when people think of academia, they think of people with broad knowledge and experience, but it seems that is somewhat of a myth. In the last couple of weeks I have been witness to and heard of two extremely sexist professors’ remarks.

The first instance was in one of my classes in which we are reading a Jane Austen novel. The professor began discussing Austen’s own view of feminism, and according to the professor, her view on feminism was more advanced that “some” (meaning all) feminists today. What was Austen’s view? According to this professor, she viewed the oppression of women as also creating oppression for the men of society. And the reason this is an advanced feminism? Because “some” (again all) feminists today believe that men have had their turn to rule the world and now women should have complete power. To add to the loveliness of this narrow view of feminism is the professor’s constantly talking about celebrating diversity.

The other occurrence of sexism from a professor happened to my best friend when she went to a professor to ask for some advice. She had emailed the professor telling him that she wanted to meet with him because she wanted to do some more in-depth work in her field of study and he is one of two professors at IPFW that works in that area. So she met with him for about an hour, and she had what she considered a decent meeting until right at the end. Before she left, he felt the need to tell her that in her email she came off as overassertive and arrogant. One might wonder in what way she was overassertive and arrogant; well, apparently she had told him in her email that she was “very determined” to succeed in her field. That’s all it took for the professor to think of her as overassertive. I find it hard to believe that if it were a man who went to a professor with an assertive attitude that the professor would feel it appropriate to advise him that a more docile attitude was needed.

Both of these professors are huge disappointments to me. These two men make me think of the quote by Sir Francis Bacon that “knowledge is power” in a new way. With knowledge one can become helpful or with it, one can also stifle others.