Re: class on gender/sexuality/aggression

Schilmoeller Lane C (lcs926s@NIC.SMSU.EDU)
Wed, 5 Oct 1994 15:02:37 -0500

I did not intend to write so soon after subscribing, but Marius really
grabbed my attention and twisted it a bit too much for me to stay quiet.

On Wed, 5 Oct 1994, Marius Johnston wrote:

> I wonder why Moira decided to do this (is she stereotyping)? I also wonder
> what her assumptions are. If I am not incorrect, this quote comes from a
> C&W song, unfortunately the name escapes me. It seems, given the "texts"
> of her "course", that she assumed that the person to be hurt was to
> be a women. The wiser, and more common interpretation is that of a bar
> room brawl or some such.>

It is unfortunate that this quote was striped of its context if it was a
C&W song like you said, but the idea that it states is obviously popular
enough to make it onto a bumper sticker. To me, that someone would put
it on a bumpersticker is more unfortunate. Could it be that Moira simply is
studying the connection between violence and sex? Seems like a reasonable
question to research and discuss in a classroom setting. Moria
recognized that her audience will more than likely be female, but that is
not necessarily bad.

I reread Moira's letter and I just didn't see anything that leads me to
think that she assumed that the target of the violence would be a woman
other than the book titles (especially frat rapes). Is that actually an
assumption made by the reader. I think that if different books could be
suggested and the defination aggression be expanded, then Moira would be
getting the help she asked for.


> Doesn't this demean what academia, at it's best, is all about? Political
> indoctrination has no place in the classroom.

Isn't this an assumption that Moira intends to iindoctrinate? It is
demeaning to assume someone would not try to teach in as neutral as a
manner as possible.
>
> I think it is safe to say that, at least, satiation of hunger and having sex
> are basic "drives" that are hard wired into brain and body. . . . Is
increased activity "aggression"? >

Again, this is what Moira is hopefully studying. Sex as a drive, which
seems to make it unavoidable, may increase activity and that activity may
well be aggression because of faulty "software" dealing with excess
activity/energy.

lane schilmoeller