I've never had interest in Gender Studies but enrolling in this class has definitely made me more aware of the problems our society has and made me have more of an interest in learning more about our social constructs. I'm not even kidding--I think I analyze every single commercial I see now. I like to see the woman-to-man interactions, women-to-women interactions, parents-to-children interactions, and especially race-to-race interactions. I see the assumptions Bouvier strived to tell her audience, I see the beauty issues Bordo talked about, and I see race issues Romero explained.
It's its so hard to sum up what I'll take home from this class. But I will explain a little story...one of my best friends is studying abroad in New Zealand right now and I just had the opportunity to have a long Skype chat with her this week! She mentioned that she wanted to possibly take up a Gender Studies minor. I've always teased her that she's an avid feminist; however, I can definitely see my best friend's viewpoints a lot more vividly as I raved about our SWMS class to her. After explaining how much I enjoyed this class, my friend wants to get a hold of my Second Wave book!
In a nutshell, the message I'm getting across from this SWMS class is that we all make choices with the way we live our life. However, it is previous societal exposures that shape or influence us to make these choices. So although we may think we are making our own decisions and being independent, we are still absorbing previous traditions that have been long upheld.
More importantly, the fact that I could go on and on about this class made me realize how beneficial this class was in my educational journey at USC. I just transferred from LMU this semester and its shocking to compare the GE classes at LMU and here. I would NEVER get such a diverse class like this at LMU that would challenge me to think for my own while also confronting me with social issues that I have always passively accepted as our American culture. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to be enrolled in such a different class and I look forward to see how this class shapes my thinking in the everyday!
I completely agree with you! I think it's really important to be aware of the societal traditions that shape the way we think and act. Whether we choose to change ourselves with this knowledge is a whole other story, but to at least have this information and know why we think the way we do is something everyone should know.
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