Dylan
AGA Blogger
Reged: Jan 26 2007
Posts: 52
Loc: MI
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I attend a women's college so this issue is very relevant to my academic life, but also important to me as an issue that does need to be addressed soon as it is becoming more and more prevalent. I will probably write an entry about this, as long as I find some much needed time, and will discuss my opinions further then. For now, check out this great article from the Boston Globe.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/04/08/when_she_graduates_as_he/
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Kampire
AGA Blogger
Reged: Jun 20 2006
Posts: 205
Loc: Ohio
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That was a really interesting article Dylan. I am looking forward to reading your post about it.
I think that this is a topic that encourages debate on some of our most fundamental assumptions as human beings, feminists, as gay or as a student attending a women's college.
Its also a part of a discussion that is becoming more and more relevant. When the AGA was being set up there was debate about who we wanted to include on the main site and in the forums.
My thoughts about this issue are still bubbling about in my head so I think I'll stop here for now. I'm really looking forward to the discussion.
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Speaking out for women's rights: voice4choice.org
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Brooke
AGA Blogger
Reged: Jun 23 2006
Posts: 466
Loc: Pennsylvania
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I think it's an interesting debate on many levels. To start with, wouldn't it be sexist (at least in third wave feminist circles) to even talk about this idea that people should be divided in education due to gender? Ok, but even ignoring that debate, there are lots of other questions like why these students transitioning from female to male desire to go to women's colleges. I think it's probably because womens colleges are great schools, but also it creates a safe haven for these students. In the coed environment their can be alot of hostility towards transgendered students which I think is what these people are trying to avoid. Yet, clearly students at these schools feel threatened by these "transmen" by anyone who is male in any shape or form entering their college, this is of course also fueled by RMWC recent decision to become coed and what seems like a dieing breed of women's colleges. I guess it's up to the students and staff...what they feel comfortable with that their school.
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Jenny
Be-Musing Momma
Reged: Jun 12 2006
Posts: 225
Loc: Minnesota
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I agree with Kampire that this is a crucial issue for feminism because it really forces us to ask what we think about sex and gender and sexuality at really basic and threatening levels. There also aren't, it seems to me, any crystal-clear answers for people who don't want to discriminate, yet as Brooke mentioned, don't want to lose the sense of security that they once had either.
Frankly, I have no idea what The Sisters should do about transmale students, but I am also torn on the issue of single-sex education overall. My suspicion is that colleges segregated by gender will go the way of colleges segregated by race, and so we will have Historically Women's Colleges in the US just as we have Historically Black Colleges. The schools will still be predominantly women, and women will still largely set the norms and the terms of the environment.
I'm not sure that would be such a bad thing, though I can only speak for myself here because I've never attended a women's college and so do not know what would be lost in such a change.
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No matter what your fight, don’t be ladylike! God Almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies. ~Mother Jones
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Dylan
AGA Blogger
Reged: Jan 26 2007
Posts: 52
Loc: MI
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Just as a quick response, I do attend a women's college and can't imagine my college life now without it. I did pick this college because it was all women, though I wasn't entirely sure what the benefits would be at the time, but now, wow, it's amazing what being at an all women's college does for my education, class room time, faculty interactions. I really hope women's colleges, and black colleges for that matter, are around forever. If I can help it, they def. will be. I've never really been one to invest in an institution, but I will absolutely be an involved alum and will donate money if possible. I actually hope to teach in a women's college one day, so obviously, they are very near and dear to me, and important to me in terms of feminist politics and women's identity formation.
Having said that, my stance on transmen in this space is still very complex. I do believe we should be an all women's institution, but I stumble a bit when I say that transmen should be able to attend, because they aren't really women are they? And I do worry about a slippery slope in some ways, though that slippery slope is such a fallacy in argumentation.
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