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This week my students forced me to give them a 30 minute long lecture on why being called a Feminist isn't necessarily a bad thing – mainly because they were embarrassed to call themselves Feminist – even when they were. This class has inspired this rant/ blog post. I've wrote this on my blog a couple of weeks ago. But, this week when my students insisted that my ranting skills need a bigger audience - I thought of posting it up here.
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Yes. You did read the right post title. Let your eyes rest and take it all in. And no, this isn't the delightful four - letter word we 21st century neophytes seem to be throwing after every noun for no specific purpose. As much as the pseudo - intellectuals will want to call this a 'cultural phenomenon', I chose to call it the 'idiot phenomenon' or 'my vocabulary is so small that I have to use this word every 14 f***ing words phenomenon'. The 'F' word I'm talking about is a different one though it makes people's faces contort visibly. Most equate this 'F' (Feminism) word with 'bad, 'filthy' and 'lesbian' (of course).
Whenever I have mentioned this word, this is how it generally goes down - “Hello. I’m Jaded16 and a Radical Feminist. How are you?”. The person I am talking to vanishes into thin air (not quite). For the tiniest moment after such an introduction, they seem to me like their heads are made of bubbles which are making a faint “pop”, “pop”, “pop” sound. To their credit, most of them recover and rush away with random mumblings of, “I’m busy, I’ll catch you later okay?” or hold up their phone and say, “I better get back to this super-important thing” or just walk away pretending that I don’t exist. Many times I’ve heard them saying as they walk away, “She looked so normal”, “Those are still around? I thought they were extinct”, “A Radical Feminist in India? The world as we know has officially come to an end!” or its many entertaining variants.
The reason I talked of the other “F” word first is because there’s a deep connection between the two. I think if you were one of my students you’d understand what I’m talking about right away and start looking for the exits. If you are still sticking around, then I applaud you and then pity you because you really don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into. You see, though I teach French, my students say I teach “Les règles du Jeu ” which mean “Rules of Life” or “Rules of the Game” if you see it literally. I still don’t know how, I’ve gone from grammar principles to - why most girls younger than me to act like Barbie when around boys to - the current issue in national politics in my country to - why boys delight in trash-talking to - the best remedy to cure their pet’s stomachache (I volunteer at an animal shelter). All of this in the course of a ninety minute class and I should add, I finished all the items on my Lesson Plan. What I find really interesting is that my students have a similar expression on their face when I’ve brought up gender issues (yet again) as I do while watching ‘The Way We Were’ for the umpteenth time; an expression of intense pain.
Coming back to the origins of the two “F’s” – my students and I are not allowed to use profanity while in class; mainly because I feel we know (or should know) enough words to communicate what we want instead of using the same words. So instead of “I had a sh*tty day” we will come up with “I had an awful day” etc. Not that I’m against freedom of expression or I have anything against using profane language. I like it that for two classes a week, we hold our tongues and not use the “F” word (the first one). But when I talk of the other “F” too, my students behave as if I’ve enacted several chapters from a Stephen King novel or publicly admitted my secret crush on Mr. Darcy.