Feminism may lead to poor grades
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 07:51AM My sister, an intelligent and excellent college student, got a C on a speech she wrote for class primarily because the professor didn’t like the topic she chose. The topic? Feminism.
The assignment was to write a persuasive speech, and there was one primary rule: no controversial topics. Emily asked me if I thought feminism was too controversial, and I said no. I know not everyone agrees with feminism, but I don’t think that makes it too controversial. Any topic will have those who disagree. That’s why it’s a persuasive speech – because you’re trying to persuade people to agree with you. So I loaned her some books and helped her craft an overall message, and she spent weeks working on this thing.
When she finally had to present the topic and outline to her professor, the professor expressed some discomfort with the subject matter. This woman, it was clear, was not a feminist and was not comfortable with the idea of one of her students talking about feminism in her classroom. Emily persisted though and convinced her that she was well within the "no controversial topics" rule.
As expected the speech, when delivered in class, was met with some uneasiness. Em started out by saying something like "I’m a feminist and I bet, even if you don’t know it yet, you are too." Which I think is genius, but that was only one of many things that the professor ripped apart.
I suppose it is possible that it was just a bad speech and she got a C for that reason alone. But common sense tells me that’s bullshit. Em spent almost two months researching, writing, rewriting and practicing this speech. She knew the professor would want to hate it, so she had to make it great. She has gotten an A on every other speech she has written for the class, and she is an incredibly intelligent girl and a good student. Plus all the comments on past speeches have been of a technical nature; this time she got a lot of opinion. Instead of "poor sentence structure" it was more like "I don’t like your attention-getter."
Emily thought it was important to mention that this woman is an outspoken conservative. Not that political or social conservatives are automatically anti-feminists (who knows?), but it’s just another clue to what’s really going on here. Em has decided not to fight the grade - she’ll get an A in the class regardless. However, I did strongly encourage her to alert someone to what happened. The integrity of grading is important in academia, and somebody should know that one professor is letting her personal opinions on an issue overshadow a clear demonstration of a student’s ability to do the work.
It’s too bad that the very idea of feminism can be so divisive. And it’s too bad Emily’s grade had to suffer as a result. But I bet every student in her class that day heard something they had never heard before and learned something they had never learned before. I think that’s more important than a silly grade. Emily agrees.
Family, So Annoyed, Women
Reader Comments (14)
So do I. The dean of the college--or if there is one, the dean of curriculum--is the appropriate person to speak to. You might also want to give the chair of gender studies or women's studies or whatever a head's up. She could cc the chair when she writes to the dean.
wow wow wow. Let me start out by prefacing I went to an all-girls college for a couple of years....so maybe I'm a bit biased
I think Em's professor needs to suck it. First off..the attention getter was FANTASTIC! Also, if you aren't a feminist in today's world, then you clearly suck at life.
Before learning what feminism meant, I thought it was an ugly word, and didn't want to associate myself with it. HOWEVER, it's strictly about the equality of the sexes. It's that simple. Any professor who thinks that's controversial (do I really need to say it again? Yes...yes I do) should suck it.
*Stepping off of my soapbox...NOW*
she should definitely inform the dean, even if she's not fighting the grade
she should be graded on the quality of her work, not the content
I agree. It's not the professors place to critisize jsut because of her beliefs. Especially after all her hard work. I'd be pissed!
Two things:
1.) When I first read the title, I was thinking that the post was going to be about reading feminist books and blogs in order to better understand and enjoy feminism instead of doing school work, only to watch the school grades slip as a result. (What? Am I the only one that's happened to?)
2.) Kudos to your sister for sticking with a topic that she was passionate about even though she knew it might be met with opposition by her professor. Agreed that your sister should address any sort of grading bias she felt took place. You've got to fight for your right... to paaarty! Ok, but seriously, you also have to fight for your right to present a perfectly non-controversial topic, especially one as important and interesting as feminism. GO EMILY! Hope she gets the grade she deserves and opened her semingly closed-minded professor, if only a little. No doubt that Emily did that classroom a service by even talking about the subject! :)
I agree with all of this, and yet ... much as it is weird and lame, the prof said no controversial topics (which definitely begs the question: what's the point of being persuasive if everyone already agrees with you?).
As a former college professor, it *killed* me when students did great work but did not follow directions, and I HAD to take off points when they did this. If Emily knew that the professor was close-minded and might consider feminism a "controversial" topic, she could have cleared the topic with her beforehand, right? But if the topic is the cause of the low grade, then the prof should have conveyed that.
What is the point of a persuasive speech, if you are not allowed to cover something that is controversial. ISn't that the point of a persuasive speech. Are you supposed to try to persuade someone to buy Meijer as oposed to name brand? I guess that wouldn't be controversial, and you could technically give a speech on it. But would the audience learn anything new? Nothing meaningful anyway.
And how can she say she doesn't like the opener and grade her down for that. If she felt that it wasn't catching enough, that could be, but I think that is very catchy. If she disagreed with the opener, then well, that's kind of the point of a persuasive speech, is that there is a chance regardless of how researched a topic is, you may still disagree with it. You can't grade down for that.
Maybe she should ask if she can do a second persuasive speech, on why she didn't deserve that C. Well, at least she got the A in her class.
Did I ever tell you that prof that gave me a D+ raised it, and I'm ending the semester with an A... I'm happy. :)
And also,
Dori - she actually did clear it with the professor first. They have to get all their topics cleared ahead of time. It was obvious that the professor wasn't thrilled about the topic, but she said it was fine to do. Which makes this even more frustrating.
1. Go, Emily! We need more feminists out there speaking out, regardless of the consequences.
2. Feminism is a super tricky topic at some points, and frequently misunderstood. I'm sure your sister rocked it and explained how awesometastic it is.
3. You are a super cool sister.
4. I would have given Emily an A.
When I was in undergrad, one of my first assignments was in a comm. class to write a persuasive speech. I too, choose a slightly controversial topic and got a "B-", mainly for the topic choice.
I can still remember my other classmates topics: --ready? (and I am dead serious)
1. why you should blue.
2. how to make the best PB&J sandwich.
3. abortion and the Christian movement. -- she got a c+. (go figure)
It's amazing that people don't get it. I don't think feminism is that controversial either. Then again I don't know how people can deny the Holocaust or claim global warming doesn't exist.
But good for your sister. It sounds like her overall grade won't suffer too much and it'll be a good experience down the road to have under her belt.
You all are awesome!
I spent all day today fuming over this (and yesterday) and then I got on here and read all of your wonderful messages and....sigh....I feel much better...and empowered!!
So far, nothing has been resolved with the grade. Really, it's not even the grade I care about - although I do like A's - it's the injustice of it.
And I assure you, my speech was kick ass, and in a class full of impressionable college freshmen, effective as hell.
All else aside, I thank you for your words.
I am honestly speechless. How can anyone NOT agree with feminism?!
Oh, OK. Prof is officially a meanie.