What "She Said" in the collegiate times about "deal breakers"

Newspaper Column

collected on: 4/19/09
article can be found at: http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/13578/p2

This article relates to women's studies because it is an example of a woman's perspective about what women wants and how women should be. It is not expressly about that but the author portrays herself as the "normal" college woman and talks about what she wants and makes generalizations about women such as "we are not afraid of passive-aggressiving our way into your schedule" which implies that women have no power and that they are conniving and proud to be. She supports that by saying: "We will pout and whimper in such a passive aggressive way you'd almost think we were in extreme need of Prozac or a cathartic ice cream fest with the girlfriends. We will guilt you into spending a lot of time with us" This is very effective gender socialization because it comes from a woman. It subordinates women and encourages them to be submissive and feminine and defend themselves, or get what they want by pouting and whimpering (Feminine qualities). It implies that women are worthless and furthers gender socialization by teaching women not to display any qualities assigned to men.

This article relates to femininity and the reading "your life as a girl". Your life as a girl talks about the things society says about how girls should be, what they should like, and what they should say and do. Basically it talks about gender socialization and femininity. This definition of femininity is exemplified by the author of the "she said" column, and she is passing it on to multitudes by presenting femininity as the only way to be in her article. It also relates to gender education because the author is a prime example of someone who has accepted unquestioningly her gender education. She has taken to heart everything society teaches women to do and talks highly about being the way she is.

Clearly this article is harmful and a setback for both women and men. It makes both think that women are and should be submissive whiners and that all are conniving. It makes women feel like they are supposed to whine to get their way instead of taking a stand. It will even go as far as to lessen the chances of women being given positions of power or getting equal pay for equal work; because of its portrayal of women as conniving whiners. This false notion is given more support by the fact that it is written by a woman. This is a perfect example of women being fooled by society into thinking less of themselves, the author has clearly been convinced that she deserves to be nothing more than a whiner and her opinion of herself is contagious.