Better ways to create women’s studies major

I find it really odd that all of these protesters are carrying on about there not being a women’s studies major at Kent State. The editorial board even cited this as a main deterrent for students entering college in consideration of our school. But are these protesters actually desiring this degree?

It’s no secret the university has numerous women’s studies courses to go along with a women’s studies minor, but what can you do with this as a major?

Here’s a suggestion for a better way to get the message out that this is an undergrad degree that you want at KSU: Get about 40 to 50 friends, more or less, to go over to the College of Arts and Sciences and apply for a general studies major.

This degree is like the choose-your-own adventure of programs in that you make up the curriculum and write a proposal as to what you can do with it. If you have enough friends doing this together, you can all work out a couple of curriculums that will suit a gamate of careers and label it women’s studies. When the university takes a look at how many people are putting together programs in this, they’ll probably start a plan to make it a major course of study. Then the proponents of this program will win instead of standing around in the cold and complaining about how sexist it is and how every other college has this program

You want to know what’s sexist? To assume that just because something is done, affecting a woman or a group of women, that it is motivated by gender-inequality. Or to think that on a campus ruled by women that administrators and men are going to be contra-feminism, that sounds pretty sexist. And while the pro-women’s studies degree group gets its crap together, nobody’s stopping to think about what the hell anyone can actually do with this oh-so-important degree. Maybe it’s time for less intuition and a little more common sense.

Karl Hopkins-Lutz

Senior German major

Weisburn is great at satire, one should hope

Erica Weisburn’s recent column “Women Today Have It Better Than Men” was a delightfully satirical examination on why Kent State needs to offer a women’s studies major. Erica’s persona of a shallow, spoiled college girl who confuses receiving small favors from men for having it “better (read: easier) than” them reached Jonathon Swift-like levels of subtlety and cleverness.

I have to assume it was brilliant satire, because the alternative is too depressing. Is it possible to get through three years of JMC classes and not see the irony of using a quote from “Mind of Mencia,” a lame Comedy Central show designed to appeal to males 18 to 35, to launch an argument about how good us chicks got it? Why not just use something from the “Man Show?”

And the idea that anyone could get a liberal arts education without any critical-thinking skills is appalling. If Weisburn had paused for two minutes to think before prattling on about how awesome the free drinks and job offers that her Headlights of Privilege entitle her to are, she may have come up with a couple reasons to rethink her thesis. Hint: who is offering the drinks and the jobs? Next hint: Men, who, contrary to Weisburn’s belief, do not shower these favors upon all women equally. All the benefits Weisburn attributes to being female are actually benefits of being a young, attractive, healthy, childless female in college who hangs out around people who are in the position to give her things. From this we can conclude Weisburn doesn’t just have it “better” than men; she has it easier than most everyone. Congratulations, but it wasn’t classy to spend a whole column gloating.

There is more to life than free drinks and easy access to low-wage, low-prestige, dead-end service sector jobs. When Weisburn’s barroom reign is ceded to the next batch of cute and perky girls, she might consider the things besides free cherry bombs that might make a person’s life “better.” In the meantime, a couple of women’s studies classes wouldn’t kill her.

Stefanie Taushanoff

Senior physics major