“School Girls”

Peggy Orenstein

Talking Points #9

Premise: girls vs. boys, women vs. men, gender-fair curricula, Gender Equity in Education Act, education equity, sexuality education, sexual harassment, sex discrimination

Argument: According to the Gender Equity in Education Act, girls should be continually treated equally amongst her peers. “Women are one-half of the world’s people; …” (3). This reading follows a particular teacher; Ms. Logan, who teaches the “gifted” students in a middle school. This reading shows how this teacher teaches her students about Women Studies and how she gets the boys more sensitive to women issues, as well as women of color.

My Thoughts: When I read this reading by Orenstein, I kept reverting back to a recent event at Brown University that covered feminism. It was called the Guerilla Girls. One of the speakers of the group actually wore a gorilla mask to hide her identity to make her and the group’s purpose even more noticeable. The speaker seemed to keep repeating this one question, “Where are the women?” Just like how Orenstein asks, “Where are the men” (3)? It is interesting how, in a classroom, there are all masculine images, which means that men are more important than women. I think that we should be learning about both male and female role-models. There should be posters of both women and men being hung up. In Ms. Logan’s classroom all the posters in her room are of women. Orenstein says, “It is the mirror opposite of most classrooms that girls will enter” (3). It is important to learn about gender roles, Ms. Logan stated. She also says that “Feminist teaching is not about allowing a win/lose situation to develop between boys and girls” (15). Ms. Logan had her students do an activity that involved the boys, to write about a woman and present to her as the woman herself and what they thought of in that woman’s perspective. The girls had to do the same about doing it in the man’s perspective. The girls found it easier to do since they were used to being taught more about men. This activity showed how well one sex knows about the other. When I think of gender roles I think of are guys really supposed to wear makeup, stay home working, maybe as being good and loyal housewives. And when I thing of the girls, is it all right that some of us are tomboys and are actually doing the same things as men such as going into the business world, mowing the lawn, and so on… These are probably some of the things Ms. Logan’s students brought up in their papers. In reality there is still little to be known of the other sex and it is important to try and be educated about it, this is the answer of where men and women are. What I liked very much at the end was when one of the boys in the reading said, “I don’t see what the big deal is about women. I mean, as long as they’re interesting, what’s the difference if they’re women? Women are people, too, you know” (30). We should look at each other as individuals and not as men or women, and we should respect each other as people.