Feminism

[Beny]

Hm, that's weird. Sociology encompasses many things that history doesn't. Gender studies on the other hand encompasses many of the same things sociology does. Simply focuses too much on certain aspects of it often leading to mistakes and misconceptions.

I was memeing tbqh

 

[Varalir]

Personally I think joking is enough, meming should simply be a part of that.

This meme sucks.

 

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

personally, i think sucking is enough, you shouldn't have to specify what sucks because everything does.

 

[Calradianın bilgesi]

Simply focuses too much on certain aspects of it often leading to mistakes and misconceptions.

elaborate

 

[Varalir]

Gender wage gap, patriarchy, rape culture etc. Lots of misconception and conjecture when it comes to those things examined solely through a feminist lens.

 

[Calradianın bilgesi]

I don't think this is the comparative difference here. 'a course that examines exclusively different gender related issues in different disciplines like literature, philosophy, politics, psychology and sociology' vs. 'sociology with some gender related sociological issues in it' is the comparison. Examining solely through a feminist lens is a different choice from scope of the topics.

 

[Varalir]

Can you tell me of another educational route that examines a range of topics through an ideological lens?

But of course I understand. I just find it kind of useless (in a career building sense, besides creative ones). It's more like an intense hobby. I kinda feel the same about philosophy.

 

[Calradianın bilgesi]

I'm not saying it's OK to examine through an ideological lens(even though I will in a second).

I'm saying studying different kinds of topics does not imply some exclusive ideological approach in studying them. You have to describe the syllabuses or lectures of gender studies' courses in order to make this claim. Think it like 'european studies'. Making every european thing a single course is something different from examining it with a single ideology. Same thing goes for gender studies.

But using a theory or family of theories to examine a range of issues is pretty common game. 'Soviet Foreign Policy from realist perspective' or New Keynesian Labour Economics are all fair courses.

 

[Varalir]

Yeah then we're agreed and you're right of course there are more lenses. I forget our universities/colleges are a little.. Non-diverse compared to the big outside world  I still find these courses being taught in university a little.. Excessive? I don't know how to describe it.

And of course they may be taught without bias in other places. My experience of them in demonstrations and lectures has been unlucky I guess.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

But of course I understand. I just find it kind of useless (in a career building sense, besides creative ones). It's more like an intense hobby. I kinda feel the same about philosophy.

Almost everything you study in university is functionally useless. But that's not the point. Very few people study history and go on to anything even remotely related to it, but surely history is still important?

Can you tell me of another educational route that examines a range of topics through an ideological lens?

I think the problem is that you don't know what gender studies actually is. Even assuming feminism is an ideology, It's not just sociology through a feminist lens. The idea of gender and what it is can be quite difficult to answer and it changes all the time, despite being a central tenet in most cultures. It warrants its own area of study the same way you would study warfare or material culture or speech separately from history or sociology.

2ninjas

 

[Captured Joe]

Can you tell me of another educational route that examines a range of topics through an ideological lens?

I think the problem is that you don't know what gender studies actually is. Even assuming feminism is an ideology, It's not just sociology through a feminist lens. The idea of gender and what it is can be quite difficult to answer and it changes all the time, despite being a central tenet in most cultures. It warrants its own area of study the same way you would study warfare or material culture or speech separately from history or sociology.

I think it depends on the institution giving the gender studies. Looking at the curriculum, at least in Amsterdam it seemed very feminist allright.

 

[Vissy]

Feminist or not, it's unquestionable that gender studies is a valid field of study. It ties neatly into anthropology, for example - various cultures all around the world have had incredibly different ways of looking at and identifying gender. One thing to note there is that our two-gender model is certainly not the only template available.

 

[Varalir]

Well it's certainly a valid tool for anthropology. Don't know how other templates would work though.

 

[Moose!]

Seems to me that learning a specific framework that encourages you to examine society through a more critical lens might help to promote more generalizable skills that one could presumably put to use in all sorts of practical contexts by applying different relevant frameworks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Captured Joe]

So... history?

 

[Dystopian]

I think we can all see that gender studies could in theory simply be part of an anthropology course. Then later on you could take really in depth academic courses about gender and variations between cultures concerning it. The problem with the current gender studies curriculum (at least at my university) is that its taught by younger women with very little academic experience. I dont want to quote Gronsiir but the misconceptions that come up just make the class a joke when in reality I would really like to explore the role of gender throughout different cultures.

 

[Calradianın bilgesi]

Inexperiences academics might be a problem since this is not an old field. And I don't think it can be under any other course since the point of it is being interdisciplinary. Most of the times reading losta have even novels.
And to me it looks like the way you blame the course is very uncharacteristic of (at least my) uni education. Courses can be biased and it's fine. You're considered to be intellectually mature enough to take responsibility for your own intellectual development. If the course is weak in content and argument, and also factually wrong, well then that's a problem. But lots of the time a new lecturer who still has her Phd thesis in mind will often link the course to the thesis she wrote and make biased claims. But it's good that they offer arguments that's their forte. Some ollder academics like linking a standard course to their own research or sometimes offer a course directly on their research. The fact that these courses are biased diminish nothing of them. Noone owes to offer you a balanced worldview or anything as if you were primary schoolers.

 

[Varalir]

Why don't you want to quote me? 
I think I'm in the wrong in saying gender studies is a "useless" for lack of a better term because my experience of them is off. I forget that perhaps the courses are as different as the universities. I should say that gender studies in my experience has been very bad.

 

[Moose!]

So... history?

Sure. Many people say history is a useless degree as well, but I think the benefits of a liberal-arts-adjacent education have always been intended to be "liberal" in the sense of "freedom."

 

[Lord Brutus]

"The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know."  ----  Harry S. Truman