Today in my awesome history seminar we discussed a really dense, intimidating, intelligent book that is in many ways a diatribe about how other historians got things wrong. A couple of guys in my class really didn't like it. Before discussion started I overheard them wondering how the female author pulled it off. "She must have been like, sitting in the library for hours every day. Geez, she needed to get a boyfriend or something."
Really? Really? When you read her mentor's equally intense tome you didn't question his love life. Is it so painful to have your small mind challenged by a woman, Mr. Sweatpants and energy drink?
Granted, I'm not crazy about her style either. She seems like the kind of person who is such a Type A overachiever they give everyone around them hypertension. If she put work over family, I pity her decision to ignore the important things in life. Being a woman in academia is an especially hard balance - all of us aspiring girl professors worry at times when, if, and how having a family will fit into the equation. (Not gonna lie, at times I feel like I am waiting out grad school until I can just get married and have babies.)
But don't you dare imply that girls can't be or shouldn't be intense scholars. Whether we have boyfriends has nothing to do with it.
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ReplyDeleteI've noticed that William and Mary seems to nudge Seton grads towards feminism.
ReplyDeleteIT'S JUST AS OUR ELDERS FEARED.
(I kept the browser window opened while I studied, glanced over, noticed a typo, deleted the comment and corrected it in a new one, and now there is a deleted post reading "This post has been removed by the author." Thanks for commemorating my shame, Blogspot!)
I guess WM contributed to my condition, but I would count Mrs. Carroll, Mrs. Hickson, and Mrs. Pogue among my "strong female scholar" icons.
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