Savvy, 5.3.09

I went to a private all girls high school before attending Rollins. Our class on Tuesday was the first time that I experienced a class at Rollins that was dominated by female discussion. In high school women never were hesitant to speak or voice their opinions because they were in female company. The moment I got to Rollins, I found myself not being vocal in class. I would have a thought or an answer and not vocalize it. In most cases I held back when I had a thought. Often that thought would be vocalized by a male classmate and then I would get angry with myself for not speaking up. Over the past three years that I have attended Rollins I have started to get more comfortable in the classroom environment, and with that comfort I have been able to now voice my opinions and thoughts. Our class on Tuesday made me realize that I was not alone and that many other women often keep quiet and are reluctant to speak up.

My favorite quote from our class discussion is "Every woman has known the torture of beginning to speak aloud" (163). It has been difficult for women to even enter the frame of discourse. This can be seen throughout history with women's place in society. I love this quote because I feel like it is relevant to our society today as well as to women's place throughout history. A female student made a statement in our class discussion that has stuck with me. She was talking about feminism and why there is such a negative connotation to the topic and mentioned how we are all really feminists. Often in our society when people are dubbed being a feminist, they are very defensive to refute the term. I too wonder why being a feminist is considered to be seen in such a negative light in our society.

One of the most important topics that we touched upon at the end of class was women's relationships with one another. A male student voiced his thoughts on female relationships. We discussed how women become so defensive when men degradingly talk about women. In my generation, girls are constantly putting one another down and talking about one another in a negative manner. Girls are constantly talking about one another and calling each other "sluts" or "whores" etc. As the male student put it, why should we treat women any differently than they treat each other? If women talk about one another in that way, why is not okay for men to? This discussion that we had in class has stuck with me. Every time I here a female referring to another female in a negative manner I think about our class discussion. As women, we must first respect one another enough not to talk about each other in this manner. We must move beyond the pettiness. If we want men to respect us, we must respect the female. It starts with respecting ourselves and each other.