Why Is Feminist the New "F" Word?

Recently in my English classroom, my students read several poems by women authors. With the notable exception of Harper Lee, none of the other works which are in our standard curriculum were written by women. Quite ironic, considering that the Sophomore year is supposed to be one of inclusion.

After reading these poems, some of which include "Marks" by Linda Pastan, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" and "Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich, "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood (God, why can't we teach The Handmaid's Tale?), "One Perfect Rose" by Dorothy Parker, and "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy, the discussions which ensued flattened me.

Marks

My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
Mu son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass / Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.

-Linda Pastan (1978)

After reading the above poem, my students first expressed outrage that a mother would even consider abandoning her motherly duties because she was being judged. "Isn't that her job?" one student asked. This poem led to a pretty lively debate about the roles of men and women in our society today, and I found myself in awe at the backwards ideas my students hold. Discussion topics ranged from equal pay in the workplace to the amount of work done by women in the home. I cited studies which show that today it is still common for women to earn less than men even in the same job and that even in households where both parents work, the woman is the primary caregiver and household chore performer. "So what?" they replied, "Men do most of the outside yardwork."

They didn't really have a response when I wondered what outside yard work was being done from November to February when the grass did not need to be mowed. One student even went so far to address the issue of equal pay in the work place with the following statement: "If a father and a mother are both doing the same sort of job, then the mother is probably going to be more worried about her house and kids and won't do as good a job as the man and shouldn't get paid as much." It was through sheer self-preservation that I did not immediately go over and choke the living crap out of him.

Other students brought up the issue of women in sports. "Women's sports are boring," "Girls shouldn't play with boys," "I could never play with a girl on the team" and so on. Needless to say, my female athletes were not impressed. Many of the girls in the room jumped in to shoot this argument all to hell, thank goodness.

My biggest issue, though, was with the girls in my classes. I would guess that maybe three girls spoke up in favor of feminism in any sense of the word. Why has feminism become such a dirty word? According to Webster, a feminist is one who "advocates for the social, political, and economic equality of women." What is so terrible about that? Plenty, if you believe the conservative talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, the coiner of the phrase "feminazi." I fail to see how the equality of women would be enough to make a man quiver with so much fear that he is forced to compare an entire movement based on equality with the mass extermination of the Jewish people. Is he worried that the women will conduct their own holocaust? Does he really think that the equality of women will decimate the population of men? Now we all know that Limbaugh is a kook, but why do my female students buy into this garbage?

Every day I see incredibly intelligent girls pretend to be dumb in order to attract attention or to avoid the wrong kind of attention. Why do they feel the need to do this? If, as these girls seem to think, we don't need feminisim any more, then why do they play off gender stereotypes? Obviously some sort of double standard is at work here. We need to educate our young girls so they see the need for a new class of feminists. Let's all work together to make sure they get A's.