Thursday Lecture
Posted by erinoestringer on March 5, 2013
I really enjoyed our guest speaker Thursday. I felt like she engaged myself, and probably others, with the topic of gender studies. I know personally I always roll my eyes at this topic expecting to hear some female rights lecture and why I’m pushing female progress back into the stone age. (Yes, I had a gender studies professor tell me this.) I actually enjoy gender studies when its presented as the study of both genders and the topics they influence, such as popular culture. Ms. Branham gave a very eventful discussion on the topic and gave some great insight of gender in pop culture.
I liked the point she made that there is gender IN pop culture, gender AND pop culture, and genderED pop culture. Gendered pop culture would be like men’s pop culture, such as Spike TV. Gender IN pop culture is people that symbolize their gender in pop culture, such as Beyonce. Then gender AND pop culture refers to them as separate. However, as we discussed, separating the two is not possible. It is kind of like separating personal traits, or saying “I am a college student and a female, but I am not a female college student.”
Great presentation, very funny woman.
ryannpopp said
i wish i wouldnt have been sick, so i couldve been on campus to listen to the guest speaker. Gender studies is just so interesting in it’s self. But like you said whenever you hear “gender studies” you kind of think of the female progress, i mean i know i do. Ive never really heard the male side of gender studies, and i think it would be nice to be well rounded in knowing about both. Though women have come a long way, and i makes me proud of what the women in history have done to be able to seen as equals in society today. i cannot imagine living back in the day where the women were expected to stay home all day and cook, and take care of the kids…i dont know about how the other girls feel about it, but i dont know if i could be in the house with with kids all day, especially back then whenever families would have multiple children, no thank you.
erinoestringer said
I couldn’t agree more. I feel so lucky to have had women before me make the steps so I can attend college, vote, work, etc. So I feel guilty when I catch myself rolling my eyes at “gender studies” and that preachy attitude about the topic. The lecturer was definitely not like that.
Sam Ford said
I find Dr. Branham’s choice of research projects quite interesting and fascinating, and I’m glad this provided a good chance to introduce you to WKU’s gender studies program. I urge everyone to keep an eye out for the classes they offer (and Dr. Branham in particular), as well as some of the special events they sponsor.