EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION: ‘I Want to Be Obsolete. Instead, I’m Afraid to Teach,’ she writes. Give us a break already.
A recent rant by a University of Washington Bothell professor of gender, women and sexuality studies perfectly encapsulates why so many of the general public have begun to say Hey, waitaminute.
In her Ms. Magazine piece titled “I Want to Be Obsolete. Instead, I’m Afraid to Teach,” Julie Shayne, co-creator of the Feminist Digital Center, begins by listing an MS NOW-style litany of complaints against President Trump (he was impeached twice! He was listed in the Epstein files! He appointed people to his administration “credibly accused of sexual assault”!) …
… and then proceeds to check off virtually every politically correct box a far-left academic possibly can while simultaneously making the points of opponents who advocate fundamental change in the academy.
In one of her classes, Shayne says “students learn via the power of feminist writing that their voices matter. Every text they read and every guest that comes to class validates their rage at being denied full bodily autonomy and emotional security” (and they “deserve to be enraged”!).
She also teaches “feminist, gender and queer social movements” where students learn about “activist histories” and “acquire the skills to research and publicly document other marginalized histories.”
What’s more, Shayne says academics in her field “teach that gender is not biological, and thus patriarchy and misogyny are learned structures, not scientific facts.” (The WNBA’s Brianna Turner, like University of Guelph professor Charles Macaulay, among others, agree, ripping the International Olympic Committee’s recent decision banning trans women from competitions.)
Regarding that patriarchy, the instructor of the courses “Doing Gender Justice” and “Rad Womxn in the Global South” (Shayne) says she fears watchlists “created by men” who allegedly don’t want her and like-minded peers to talk about how the “patriarchy regulates our students’ lives,” which would make it “dismantlable.”
And don’t forget how the patriarchy is busy “banning” books that explain how “gender power arrangements are learned”!
In her faculty bio, Shayne (pictured) says “I knew I wanted to become a professor a couple of weeks into my first Women’s Studies class.”
Well, sure. Becoming an “academic” is about all one can do with that field of study. And if you can find the right institution (which hasn’t been that tough over the last couple of decades), it pays pretty well, too.
Of course, books aren’t banned (why can you purchase them via the usual outlets?), and the “patriarchy” isn’t the sinister force behind it. It’s normal people merely questioning the appropriateness of certain materials.
Regarding fear of “watchlists” Shayne might want to heed what a Penn State professor said about them several years ago:
How can more free speech be a threat to free speech? …
You as a professor have the right to do what you want to do, but you better have the courage to stand up and defend it. You better have the courage to stand in front of 100 people at the high school who have expressed concern about your research.
Never mind, too, that the Left has its own watchlists. The College Fix and yours truly by name are listed on one of them.
Prof. Shayne’s latest work is the book “Joy Interrupted: 107 All-in Days for Kamala Harris” which (unsurpringly) looks at the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign “through a social movement theory lens,” and “explain[s] the misogynistic barriers” Harris (allegedly) faced.
MORE: No sympathy: College administrators and professors finally reap what they sow
