In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Chris Surette: A Valuable Addition To Your Women’s Studies Classroom

Sady

Yes, it is time once again to check in with your pal and mine, newspaper-killing poet of the rape culture Chris Surette.

Oh, sure, you knew that Chris Surette wrote a spectacularly gross essay about how the ladies he hooks up with are “victims” and humiliating them is awesome and cool but also you should use a condom because they might be ugly. And sure, you might think that is kind of sexist! But did you know that Chris Surette cannot possibly be a sexist because he attended a feminist literature class once?????

Well, yes, you did, probably. Because we have discussed it in the comments! But I think we need to discuss it again. For, in his Oct. 6 “apology,” which is available on the website but is also buried under the many installments of the regular column Chris Surette has been allowed to continue publishing (ugh), we can find this startling assertion:

I would like to make clear that even though my language has been derogatory against women, I truly do not feel this way about them. For those of you who do not know, last semester I was the only guy in a feminism literature class called “The Women Question.”

Ah. I SEE.

“But Sady,” you are saying. “This is so old! Why must we read about it now?” Simple: because it is an excuse to premiere my groundbreaking one-act historical fiction play, “CHRIS SURETTE ANSWERS THE WOMEN QUESTION.” Behold!

[THE SCENE: A college classroom. There are a bunch of ladies there, and also a professor, and also Chris Surette.]

PROFESSOR: So, as we can see, in A Room of One’s Own, Woolf frames intellectual and creative achievement as inextricably bound to social context, and specifically to privilege, in that…

(CHRIS SURETTE rolls eyes, sighs, shifts loudly in his seat.)

PROFESSOR: In that financial autonomy allows one the opportunity to develop one’s…

(CHRIS SURETTE drums fingers on table, belches.)

PROFESSOR: One’s..

(CHRIS SURETTE sends text message, eats entire sandwich.)

PROFESSOR: Chris, what was your take on the reading?

CHRIS SURETTE: Well, yeah, I mean, this is really interesting. And, you know, Woolf seems, like, smart. I’d have to, you know. I didn’t bring my book, so I can’t look back on it to quote you anything. But, like, you haven’t answered the Women Question yet?

PROFESSOR: Which question would that be, Chris?

CHRIS SURETTE: Which order they want me to TOTALLY DO THEM IN! Because they do! Want me to do them! ALL of them! Ha ha, a hilarious joke for you there. It may interest you to know that I am a humor writer!

(Stunned silence.)

CHRIS SURETTE (loudly):Naiiiiiiiiiiiiiled itttttttttttttt.

And, scene.

Men can, of course, take Women’s Studies courses. I myself have taken Women’s Studies courses! With men! And they can be passionate, engaged, open to discussion, and insightful! But there is always THAT ONE GUY. The guy who very clearly does not care, does not want to be there, and blocks the discussion at every turn. (“That’s not true! Not all men do that! Aren’t you just sort of generalizing from personal experience here? Etcetera!”) Why do these guys take the courses? I have no idea. Maybe they think they can personally steer all us young fillies away from the evils of feminism by constructively showing up in our classes and being rude jerks who haven’t done the reading. Or maybe they are just going so that, later, when people point out their sexism, they can defend themselves by saying they took a Women’s Studies course once! THERE. SEXISM DISPROVED. BLAMMO.

I am not all that interested in the psychology of These Guys, actually. What I am interested in is how they can be of use to you, the feminist educator. Because it is true: you showed up to teach people. And you probably did not show up to have your confidence undermined by someone really, aggressively, continually blocking and disrespecting and eating sandwiches during your attempts to teach. These Guys: they are annoying! And probably a bit demoralizing! But… maybe they are worth more than you think?

Because, seriously, sometimes it is hard to teach people about feminism. Sometimes the theories you are trying to convey are so huge and threatening that people will reflexively choose not to believe or engage with them. Sometimes people have just been extremely lucky with their lives, and haven’t had many chances to get their stuff all disrespected in subtle or overt ways by some misogynist and thereby prove to themselves misogyny’s existence! Or sometimes they are scared to engage, because engaging critically in the class means engaging critically in life and that means that whatever tenuous go-along-to-get-along deal they’ve struck will have to be altered, and that could involve some negative consequences.

But I tell you this: there is no tool more effective for convincing people that feminists are onto something than showing them how hugely upset and defensive and gross some people can get about feminism. Oh, sure! The points themselves are solid! But when paired with the edge of revulsion and irritation That Guy alone can provide, they are oh, so much more convincing! I myself, a former student of feminism, can verify that nothing strengthens a lady’s commitment, or bonds her to her fellow students, like a few rounds of sparring with That Guy in class. For many of your students, it may be their first chance to confront and challenge sexism in a safe, controlled, supportive environment. (YOUR safe, controlled, supportive environment, Feminist Educator!) And That Guy makes it all possible, simply by flat-out fucking refusing to learn a damn thing.

Yes, you and That Guy are, in fact, a team. You will be making the points. And he, in his sandwich-eating text-messaging point-avoiding fashion, will be steadily proving you right. Every single day.

15 thoughts on Chris Surette: A Valuable Addition To Your Women’s Studies Classroom

  2. LMFAO.

    It wasn’t until I read that one act that I was really present to, in fact, how many Chris Surrette’s I have known.

  3. And in the best of scenarios, you can change the Chris Surettes of the world. Really — I was almost a Chris Surette (except a chick, and not as rude, and interested in social justice generally). I only took a Women’s Studies course because I registered for classes late and there was nothing left. Even then, my academic counselor had to force me. And I was not happy about it. I showed up the first day expecting a room full of walking stereotypes. I didn’t identify as a feminist. And my amazing professor, and her amazing TAs, slowly but surely won me over — by engaging, and by challenging, and by letting my classmates argue and engage with eachother. There’s a stereotype that feminist classrooms require groupthink, but that wasn’t my experience. It was one of the most dynamic intellectual environments I had ever been in, and it sold me on feminism.

    So yes, that challenging and that engagement — it’s key.

  4. Oh, yeah. I’ve never been aggressively OPPOSED to the stuff I’ve studied, but I HAVE been one of those people who, however well-intentionedly, Didn’t Get It and had some uncomfortable experiences of being called out on my Not Getting It the classroom. Which was scary! And uncomfortable! And I cried once! But I learned to deal with being challenged, and to value it, and hopefully to engage in the Getting It Process.

    I maintain that it is a process! And not a state!

  5. Love this!! My Intro to Women’s Studies course last semester was lucky enough to have That Guy, and I hadn’t even thought about how his presence had reinforced my enlightenment to feminism. On the last day of class, he called the professor his ‘girl,’ and she not-so-calmy reminded him that he was talking to a woman. So, yes. I love this.

  7. so, not only is he a “tool”, but he is also a FEMINIST tool, one of many in the feminist toolbag! HAHAHAHAHAHAAH

    oh, I do love you sady. with all my lady heart.

  8. “Sometimes the theories you are trying to convey are so huge and threatening that people will reflexively choose not to believe or engage with them.”

    This is a great point. I remember learning about the rape culture and thinking to myself that there was no way that a rape culture could exist because, obviously, everyone knows that rape is BAD. But then I encountered some young men telling rape jokes (shortly after that 15-year-old girl was gang-raped in California), and I realized through their misogyny that yes, rape culture does exist.

    You’re right: sometimes it takes facing sexism to really see it, especially when it comes to the more difficult points of feminist theory.

  9. @ Jill: I am in the exact same boat. I was one of those “Oh god, feminists are hairy man-hating lesbians” people – I thought contemporary feminism boiled down to legislating unrealistic quotas for female firefighters – until I took a women’s studies course. And when I tell people that story, it’s like they think I was brainwashed or something. It’s not.

    I took a women’s studies course that lasted the full academic year, and it was a slow process, but it was within the class that I learned I didn’t have to hate my body, didn’t have to deal with my eating disorder, didn’t have to blindly accept that if I ever had kids I would be the default care-giver and sacrifice my career; I also learned that it was the patriarchy that had taught me these things. Most importantly, I learned about intersectionality, and that we’re all in this together, and that really sold me. Feminism is human rights. Period.

    OK, sorry for the derail. Just wanted to give a shout-out to the Women’s and Gender Studies School at New College at the University of Toronto. Thanks, New College! You helped me.

  10. I have met That Guy as well, only his purpose for joining the class (which he actually confessed to me) was to meet girls. To date. I have to say, I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

    Thanks for this post!

  11. As someone who T.A. an intro to women and gender’s studies class, it is really nice to hear that these classes can actually change people’s lives. From the other end, it’s wonderful to watch people come to feminist consciousness over the course of the academic year. I found that even those who were still hostile to feminism at the end of the year had integrated some aspects of feminist thinking into their lives – even if it just taught them to ask different questions when they see an article about sexual assault.

    Being a women’s studies T.A. was also pretty life changing for me, as it made me rethink a lot of the ways that we talk, teach, and learn about social justice issues, but I’ll end the derail.

    I was very lucky to never have this kind of student in my classroom. Although there were men who were actively hostile to feminism, homophobic, etc., they were at least engaging with the material. I was definitely lucky

  13. I’m a student facilitator in a Women’s Studies class AND THIS IS SO TRUE. I have that one guy, and I’ve found that he’s become both one of my favorite and one of my worst students. I often worry that students aren’t really thinking about what I’m saying…and him fighting me at every turn gives them a chance to really challenge their own prejudices.

  14. We had one (well, three) of Those Guys in my politics class last year. One in particular started out joking about rape and his ‘adventures’ with women that sounded a lot like they’d been trafficked and advocating the sterilisation of single mothers. It definitely helped me to assess and reinforce my own position as a feminist. Long story short, after a year of constant bickering he decided that feminism wasn’t such a Bad Thing and is now a vaguely pro-feminist anarchist. Which is the best we could hope for, really.

  15. In most of my Women’s Studies courses (I have a minor in it), I have been the only male (sex) in the class room. In my experience in most of those classes there has been “One of Those Women” that just didn’t seem to get it. Who at the end of the course still believed feminists were anti-everything. I find that my favorite Women’s Studies instructors were great at challenging us and making the classroom a safe space. Out of that, I think we developed a great peer group. It makes me smile to think how the last class would always end in tears, talk about passion, we didn’t want to stop coming to class.

Comments are currently closed.