Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE FEMINIST CLASSROOM 89will agree not to repeat the remarks." This confidentiality rule is criticalin classes in which the instructor encourages students to reveal whethera family member, boyfriend, or stranger has molested, raped, battered, orotherwise victimized them.The general effect of feminist pedagogy is described in a 1990 "Reportto the Professions" by five women's studies leaders:Women's studies students typically undergo a profound transformationas they claim more knowledge. They pass through an identifiableseries of moments of recognition. . . . Such insights arefollowed by moments of empowerment in which patriarchal frameworksand perceptions are modified, redefined, or rejected altogetherand replaced by a newly emerging view of the self andsociety. The difficulty and complexity of this process . . . cannot beoveremphasized. . . . Breaking what feminist writer Tillie Olsen callsthe "habits of a lifetime" is no trivial matter. It is accompanied bythe full range of human resistance, by continual attraction and repulsion,denial and recognition. 4Professor Susan Arpad, who has been teaching women's studies coursesat California State University at Fresno for almost fifteen years, describesthe powerful effect the courses have on both student and teacher:It is a radical change, questioning the fundamental nature of everythingthey know. ... At its worst, it can lead to a kind of psychologicalbreakdown. At its best, it necessitates a period of adjustment.... On a daily basis, I talk to students and colleagues who areeuphoric as a result of their change of consciousness. ... I also talkto other students and colleagues who are stuck in a stage of angeror despair. 5There are some solid scholarly courses offered by women's studiesprograms, where the goal is simply to teach subjects like women's poetryor women's history in a nonrevisionist way. Unfortunately such coursesare not the norm. In their report, the women's studies officers includedthirty-seven sample syllabi, of which the Rutgers "model syllabus" wasgiven pride of place. Buried among the thirty-seven syllabi were two thatwere relatively free of ideology and pedagogical gimmicks.One of these was a course called "Southern Women: Black and White"given by Professors Susan Tush and Virginia Gould (the report does notsay where they teach). The students read well-regarded historical and