I think it would be wonderful if you pointed out to those women who do
that. I rarely deferred to anyone in class, but then I was usually the
silent one who didnt speak out for the most part in class (I think that
had more to do with social class differences rather than sex difference).
But I rarely saw a woman defer to a man and I graduated from a small
college in Georgia.
Bertina
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, Sandra Taylor wrote:
> Bertina
>
> I have never excluded men from my postgrad ecofeminist subject. Couldn't
> under the EO policy of my Uni and wouldn't even if I could, but the
> presence of the occassional male student certainly changes the dynamics
> of a usually all-female class. Female students, with male students
> present, don't express anger (or any other strong emotion) and don't
> share personal information the way they do in all-female classes.
> Female students also spend a lot of time 'stroking' the male students
> and assuring them that 'of course we don't mean men like you when we
> criticise masculinity, patriarchy etc.' As far as deferring is
> concerned, female students in all subjects give their male class-mates
> more 'air-time' and are less likely to question or contradict male
> students than other female students. All of this is a challenge for
> feminist academics, but as you observed it does provide opportunities to
> illustrate the gender-based power/value differences in western society
> by confronting and analysing gender-based class-room dynamics.
>
> Sandra
>
