Tag Archives: feminism

Feminism is still needed

Many blogs have already piped up on the THE article on the deadly sins of academia (thanks to Gordon Wilfong for first directing me to it).  The article isn’t entirely at fault and meant to be in good fun.  The section on Lust, though, by Terence Kealey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham contains such gems that I am sure I need not editorialize:

Normal girls – more interested in abs than in labs, more interested in pecs than specs, more interested in triceps than tripos – will abjure their lecturers for the company of their peers, but nonetheless, most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays. What to do?

Enjoy her! She’s a perk.

I would like to point out, though, the language he uses in his rant:

[T]he universities are where the male scholars and the female acolytes are. […] The fault lies with the females. The myth is that an affair between a student and her academic lover represents an abuse of his power.

While I haven’t personally crossed paths with such overt comments as by Kealy (I have come very close though), the stereotype that men are thinkers and women are not still exists.  Feminism advocates equal rights and equal opportunities for women.  It is our responsibility to create an academic environment that is welcoming to all people, regardless of race, gender or economic means.