How Gender Studies Opened My Eyes

"That's how it is to be a woman," words my wife said in response to my off-hand comment: "every time I walk around campus, I can't help but think about how it must be to be a woman with a man walking behind her." I hope she's not thinking that I am some guy checking her out or that I am the type that would attack her... Am I walking too close or too quickly behind her?

Until this class, I was unaware of the reality that women have to live in, that my wife has to live in; my sister. It made me angry that men are portrayed this way, that we have a notorious reputation for being despicable, untrustworthy, and all-around deplorable. But then I realized that I am not this way, my father is not this way, that there is still hope for us men and this world. This class has made me think about those arduous situations, those difficult thoughts that eat at you in the night. The people of my class have given me hope and a new expectation for the male sex of this planet. Not every man in this world is the Devil and that humanity is redeemable.

Of course, Gender Studies has taught me more than how to be gender-deprecating, it has made me more tolerant and accepting of the human self as a whole; we are all trying to tread water in a world that is often-times faultfinding and frigid. There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me..I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love. I'm a whole, complex package; take me..or leave me. Accept me - or walk away. Don't try to make me feel like less of a person just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be, and don't try to change me to fit your mold..If I need to change, I'll make that decision myself.

Dr. Von and my classmates have shown me this semester that: if you love yourself, good and bad, what others think of you is nothing; all we can do is accept others and demand that we are shown the same courtesy.