Here is an excerpt from one of her posts at Reassigned Time:
… When I decided to become a professor, I was under the naive impression that I’d be entering a world in which gender didn’t determine my identity quite so much as it would in other professions. I thought all of the theorizing about women and all of the lip-service to feminist ideologies meant that by becoming part of this world – the world of the intelligentsia – that I’d be less regulated by sex/gender stuff. I also thought that all of this education would introduce me to people who had broader ideas about sex/gender than the people I knew from my working-class upbringing. To some extent, this has been true. But to another extent, I’ve seen the ways in which women are put in their place in this world to be more insidious (and as such, more diabolical). People may be more politically correct in this world, but they are often just as sexist at rock bottom.
So what does it take to be labeled “a bitch” or to be labeled “crazy”? Having an opinion. Expressing unhappiness. Pursuing ambitions above one’s station. Getting uppity about an issue. Speaking one’s mind. Refusing to take no for an answer. Refusing to make nice or to smoothe things over. Being too dynamic in the classroom (and no, Sexist Student, I don’t think that “taking horse tranquilizers” would make me a better teacher – nor do I think that I’m “too much of a feminist” to be qualified to teach). Not accepting being pigeonholed into the role of “Professor who listens to students’ problems and will cut them some slack,” in the way of Mommy or Big Sister or Best Friend. Saying no. Saying yes.
In other words, you’re going to call me a “bitch” or call me “crazy” no matter how hard I try to play by the rules. So why not just call myself Crazy and be done with it? All of the momentum that would be gained by calling me Crazy is lost if I just say, “oh yes, I’m crazy, didn’t you notice that sooner?” I’m not going to spend my time and energy trying to refuse that label. There are more important things to talk about. …
Read the whole thing here.
