Well, it was going to be thoughts on the first week of classes, but it didn’t get done, did it? (plus, it was a short week due to the MLK holiday). I’m teaching Introduction of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for the first time ever (figured I should since I’m directing the program). I’m team-teaching with a colleague in the Communication department who is a women and film expert. So far the class is going pretty well. We finally got them to open up as a class by doing an exercise “Because I am a man/woman, I can/ If I were a man/woman I could” — wasn’t hard since it involved talking about themselves! Still, it’s a huge class and it’s really hard to learn all their names. Thank goodness for Facebook . . .

In both this class, and in my U.S. Women’s History class, I started off with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s famous quote, “well-behaved women seldom make history.” [I used a gift certificate to buy the book of the same title and it was pretty funny reading about how the quote has appeared on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and taken on a life of it’s own. Now, what pithy quote can I come up with). Most students thought the quote was more or less true. We’re having fun in my women’s history class comparing the vilification of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president, with the media crapploa that continues to come out on Senatorella. Even though I don’t agree with everything this candidate says, I think I’m going to swallow my qualms and make history if only to show how disgusted I am with what little coverage I’ve managed to stomach. [which includes Ann Coulter’s apparent endorsement]

So, all in all, this is quite a semester to be teaching about women, gender, and politics.