Feminism...and things.

OH SWEET JESUS BLOGGER HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY. THIS FEELS ODD.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before here (probably) but I'm an English Lit student. This is relevant because it means we don't explicitly study the evolution of, and the tenets of, feminism. However, we do spend a lot of time analysing texts for feminist angles. You might be forgiven for thinking that, on average, the students of my course might be better informed than say, a bunch of physics undergrads.

"Stand up if you consider yourself a feminist."

Which is why I was a little shocked when, in an "exercise of conciousness" at the beginning of today's lecture, only about half of the Lit undergrads in my year admitted to being feminists. And of that half, I would say the majority who didn't stand up were male.

It reminded me of an event in Fresher's, in which, during a conversation with a (generally open-minded and not douche-y) male neighbour, the phrase - "oh, I thought feminism meant you (women) all wanted control or something."

LE WHAT. How are people in what is now the THIRD WAVE of feminism still incapable of understanding the concept of gender equality? I know the name is misleading, but the term "gender studies" tends to get used academically nowadays and the misconception still stands. Sadly, it makes me reluctant to say "yes, I am a feminist" because the word instantly conjures up images of crazy power dressers with hairy legs and a helluva lot of man hate. Part of me thinks that perhaps people just switch off when they hear gender mentioned at all. Sure, it's not the all-pervading concern of say, the Victorian era but it's certainly still an underlying (and pretty much invisible) issue today, both in societies that nominally have gender equality, and societies which don't.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS 


Where's my life at? My life currently revolves around cocktail-Fridays-on-a-Saturday, not doing my reading, and continuing my filmic education.
We went to see The Avengers on Wednesday (can you say PERFECT?) which was nice, but which revealed a gaping hole in my film CV - of all the Avengers, I've only seen Thor. So we've added Iron Man, Iron Man II, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America to the list.

Right at the beginning of Fresher's we very quickly discovered that I was lacking in film knowledge. The revelation that I hadn't seen Star Wars caused a buzz. The discovery that I hadn't seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy? There was swooning, fainting, screaming and crying.

Okay, so I exaggerate slightly but the reaction was not a positive one. Result? Since joining uni, I've watched...

All three Lord of the Rings films (extended editions)
All six Star Wars films
Fight Club
The Matrix
and a few more that are less classy.

Oh, and I've also watched 78 hour-long episodes of Buffy since Christmas.
And 69 episodes of Doctor Who. Which I'd already seen but again, since Christmas.

So er...that degree of mine?!