The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Gender Theory: Beyond Parody

Posted on | July 4, 2014 | 75 Comments

Breanna Fahs is a feminist, but you probably already guessed that, right?

Breanne Fahs is an associate professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University, where she specializes in studying women’s sexuality, critical embodiment studies, radical feminism, and political activism. She has a B.A. in women’s studies/gender studies and psychology from Occidental College and a Ph.D. in women’s studies and clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. . . . She is the director of the Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group at Arizona State University, a group that engages students and faculty to fuse activism and rabble-rousing scholarship . . .

Professor Fahs is the author of a new biography of Valerie Solanas, the radical lesbian feminist and paranoid schizophrenic who shot Andy Warhol in 1968. But it is her teaching at Arizona State that has now landed Professor Fahs in the headlines:

Female students at an Arizona university have been offered the chance to earn extra credit by not shaving their armpit hair for a whole semester.
The unconventional offer was made by women and gender studies professor Breanne Fahs as a way to get her students to challenge social norms.
Male students on the Arizona State University course are also able to apply for extra credit, but to qualify they have to shave all their hair from the neck down.
Fahs . . . encourages her students to document their experiences in a journal for the 10-week semester.
She said the social experiment helps students analyze society’s attitude to genders, with female students facing ridicule for having hairy armpits, and the men gaining insight into how much pressure is put on women to stay hair free.
‘There’s no better way to learn about societal norms than to violate them and see how people react,’ Fahs told ASU News.
‘There’s really no reason why the choice to shave, or not, should be a big deal. But it is, as the students tend to find out quickly.’

You want to see pictures of this “social experiment,” just to prove I’m not making this up? Maybe I should go back to school, get a Ph.D., and become a Women’s Studies professor. The girls in my classes would get extra credit for making sandwiches, and the boys would get extra credit for eating them — the sandwiches, I mean.

 

Category: Education, Feminism

Comments

75 Responses to “Gender Theory: Beyond Parody”

  1. M. Thompson
    July 6th, 2014 @ 1:11 am

    It’s a subject where the seriously Weird turned pro a loooonnngggg time ago.

  2. rehammmagdy
    July 6th, 2014 @ 4:15 am

    yyyyyyyyyyy

  3. Redwine123
    July 6th, 2014 @ 4:35 am

    And qualify for gov’t cheese for the rest of your life.

  4. Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – 150th Edition! » Pirate's Cove
    July 6th, 2014 @ 8:52 am

    […] The Other McCain delves into gender theory […]

  5. Free Weed for the Poor and Weekend Links
    July 6th, 2014 @ 9:00 am

    […] Other McCain has many good blog posts up including this one by Stacy on “Gender Theory: Beyond […]

  6. Dana
    July 6th, 2014 @ 9:20 am

    Why were there any male students in those classes to get the extra credit offer in the first place?

  7. Dana
    July 6th, 2014 @ 9:28 am

    But, let’s be honest here: women in America do do ridiculous things in order to be seen as attractive. I can’t imaging standing close to a mirror, holding a brush full of black goo ¼ inch from your eyes, to pain on your eyelashes . . . but women do this all the time. I can’t imagine trying to walk in 5″ stiletto heels, but women do it all the time, just to look good for men.

    If Katie Couric ever did anything of value, it was to help get rid of pantyhose; I can’t imagine how women could ever have worn those stupid things.

  8. News of the Week (July 6th, 2014) | The Political Hat
    July 6th, 2014 @ 12:02 pm

    […] Gender Theory: Beyond Parody Breanna Fahs is a feminist, but you probably already guessed that, right? […]

  9. LLC
    July 6th, 2014 @ 2:10 pm

    In some places, it’s also good for an HR position. That’s about it.

  10. cabensg
    July 6th, 2014 @ 2:45 pm

    Please don’t forget to credit the Psychs.We give to much credit when we assume the left came up with the idea of segregating us into whiny victim groups on their own.

  11. cabensg
    July 6th, 2014 @ 2:56 pm

    You’ve answered your own question as to why they do it. If it’s useless as a career, helps create a victim class and promotes sexual activity of any kind they’ve helped create the society we live in today. It’s only truly non-nonsensical if it has no effect.

  12. cabensg
    July 6th, 2014 @ 3:03 pm

    I don’t think men need to go to extremes unless they want to. Personally I like a little less caveman look to my men but I’m supposing if it was the right guy a little extra fuzz wouldn’t matter.

  13. cabensg
    July 6th, 2014 @ 3:04 pm

    If only they actually turned out baskets instead of basket cases.

  14. cabensg
    July 6th, 2014 @ 3:06 pm

    You underestimate what our K-12 is turning out.

  15. Jeanette Victoria
    July 6th, 2014 @ 3:22 pm

    Ha! Awesome turn of a phrase

  16. Jeanette Victoria
    July 6th, 2014 @ 3:26 pm

    I’m a ed school drop I made a feeble attempt to get my masters in eduction. It turn out I don’t have much if a tolerance for stupid PC make work this was in the late 80’s Trned out to be a bad movie on my part as I was offered a job teach Psych techs at a local JC. The less “real world” qualified person got the job because she had the masters in education. I I was told that straight to my face

  17. cmdr358
    July 6th, 2014 @ 5:43 pm

    At the DNC perhaps?

  18. DeadMessenger
    July 6th, 2014 @ 7:04 pm

    See, those classes would actually be useful.

  19. DeadMessenger
    July 6th, 2014 @ 7:07 pm

    You are to blame, you white male oppressor!

  20. DeadMessenger
    July 6th, 2014 @ 7:14 pm

    I’m a nerd, too, and I don’t get it either. It’s not like I was going to college for my health or anything. (To quote my Dad: “Less learnin’, more earnin'”). To pick my major (engineering), I went through the Occupational Outlook Handbook seeking the choice in which I could make the most amount of money in the least amount of time. And now I work as a computer wonk. Haha

  21. DeadMessenger
    July 6th, 2014 @ 7:15 pm

    I was just wondering that myself. Good way to pick up chicks, maybe?

  22. Dana
    July 6th, 2014 @ 9:23 pm

    I’m not sure that attending a class where the women are being taught that even a meaningful glance constitutes rape is a particularly wise place to pick up girls.

  23. Misanthrope
    July 6th, 2014 @ 11:01 pm

    What could that hideous creature possibly know about female sexuality? Besides what a vibrator could teach, that is.

  24. DeadMessenger
    July 7th, 2014 @ 12:29 am

    Them boys don’t look all that intelligent. I mean, they shaved their body hair for extra credit.

    Not that I would’ve ever paid money for a BS “class” like this, but if I had, I’d have been in the Dean’s office every day complaining about this sick beyotch.

  25. Anonymous
    July 7th, 2014 @ 10:43 am

    She’s just another hideous, self-entitled, morbidly obese woman who hates white men for finding her unattractive. I suppose if she dyed her hair blonde and got some tattoos and hung around prison visiting areas she might meet a “diverse urban yoot” named Dar’quiavious or Deludicrous who’d give her the dick. But no self-respecting white man would touch that. And she knows it. And instead of fixing the problem that’s in the mirror, she chose to make her bitterness into a career.