I woke up today with a fresh mind. I feel like I can think more critically and clearly. It is somewhat strange because now I am questioning myself why am I here? At first, I thought I was here to learn about women history and how they evolved through time to break the barriers to where they are now. However, it seems more like finding myself to me. I am not only learning about women and leadership but myself as a person, a leader, a female. I have only just begun to realize that it is ironic how we are in a "Women and Leadership" class but yet it is somewhat contradicting the purpose of the whole class. This is just my opinion and I do not intend to speak for all of us but we have a capstone project due this Thursday about what we hope to bring back to our community from this experience but it also have to involve a topic we learned/came across in class. When I got the feedback from our professor, I thought to myself, "why is she asking me to focus merely on females instead of the youth as a whole?" I honestly feel like we should focus on the youth as a whole instead of ostracizing the female from male because if we're focusing only on the female, then it is contradicting the whole idea of feminism to end sexism. That is my opinion and the reason why I am against the professor's idea of focusing on females. Maybe others will get upset because I think this way, but being the western kind of leader that I am, I like to balance out things and ideas. I do not wish to choose the females over males although this class is about specifically women and leadership. Maybe I think this way because of personal experiences and how I was brought up but I am glad that I have my own opinion. I do appreciate the class for the confidence that it has implanted in me but I think that they should allow males to join the class too.
That is all for now because I am going to finish up my capstone project and maybe reflect on what I had just realize. Until next time ... bye!
The 2017 Vanderbilt Cohort Has Been Selected
7 years ago
2 comments:
Meuy,
Your comments are very thoughtful and I will be interested to see how they develop over this next week.
I appreciate your wanting to be a leader for "youth as a whole". You described your position very well.
I look forward to hearing about your capstone project. You are doing a lot of good thinking and reflecting here. Thanks for sharing it.
Meuyyy--When I read a post like yours I know in my heart that it was worth every penny to send you back east. You've demonstrated with just this one post that you have a mind of your own and you're willing to take a leadership position to voice your opinion.
It doesn't matter whether you're right or not (and in this case you and I share the same opinion), but what's important is that you're thinking for yourself and you're willing to express yourself and that's what we want.
In the premise that you've been given, exchange any reference to women with a reference to black or brown people. Exchange it for straight or gay. Exchange it for Catholic or Muslim. Now ask yourself whether this revised premise would be acceptable but I'm betting you already know the answer.
We see all too often that when people fight for equal rights, they frequently substitute one sort of bigotry with another. Equal is supposed to be equal--what's so hard about that to understand?
Once one race, one gender, one sexual orientation or one religion is accepted above and beyond another, it's no longer "equal" and an injustice exists. Whether it's still the same injustice or whether it's replacing an old injustice with a new one, the problem still exists.
So what have we gained except that maybe someone who was oppressed yesterday has become the oppressor today?
When you're in a math class you can't very well argue that 2+2 does not equal 4. In a math class, this is a given--an immutable fact.
When you're in a poly sci class, a philosophy class or just about any other social science or humanities class, you're allowed to have opinions and there are few immutable facts. You're allowed to think for yourself and develop your own ideas and come to your own conclusions.
Of course, you can't just throw wild ideas out there without having to defend them. Voice your opinion but be ready to back it up with some strong rationale and reasoning. This is what makes you a leader, Meuyyy, whether you're a woman or a man.
It's like our Presidential race right now. Many voters will choose Obama because he's black just as many chose Hillary because she's a woman. Many more, I suspect, chose one or the other because they thought they're leaders in spite of the color of their skin or the number of Y chromosomes. Leadership is leadership, Meuyyy and you're seeing that right now.
Of course, you understand that no matter how legitimate your argument might be, your prof has the right to set the premise of this piece of work. It's like being out in the work place: no matter whether the boss is right or wrong, at the end of the day she's still the boss.
What you can do, though, is make your argument to her so in future versions of her class she may see the wisdom in your thinking and revise the premise.
Then again, she may be set in her ways and see that you're a traitor to your gender for even bringing it up.
At the very least, though, you might want to discuss it with her either in private or in your class so she can listen to your thoughts and you can listen to hers.
I would never suggest that because she's older and you're still young that your viewpoints are any less valid. What I will suggest, though, is that there may be something behind what she's doing that you may be unaware of. You can finish your class without knowing what that is or you can approach her and try to learn. After all, isn't this still a college where the prof is supposed to impart her wisdom so you can learn from it?
By the way--I apologize for my lack of responses to your posting this past week. Life just enveloped me and I've only now come up for air. Between marathon city council meetings in Pinole and Richmond, and those darned familial obligations that seem to pop up--plus my new iPhone came in and I had to spend at least a few minutes to figure out how to make a call--well, the next thing I knew The Ladies from Brown had posted another 50 times and I was WAY behind. A call from Charles Ramsey a few minutes ago directed me to your post and once read, I absolutely had to respond to let you know you were on the right track (at least in my book--and that's the important one in my house).
Hang in there, Meuyyy, and keep those brain cells working in high gear. I like where they're taking you.
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