a class I dropped

I signed up for a class taught by David Richards and Carol Gilligan because David Richards and Carol Gilligan were teaching it. Gilligan is a famous feminist psychologist; Richards was my crim prof who acted like a cartoon character, screaming, jumping, and teaching in a falsetto.

For the first class we were assigned one book each of theirs. For the second class, Gilligan's husband's book. Later on, two other of Richards' books. And for each class of the semester, a chapter of their joint unpublished manuscript, on which they encouraged us to give feedback.

Richards spoke the majority of the time and interrupted Gilligan most of the times she spoke. He was not a cartoon character, perhaps because this class was more serious than criminal law. A student mentioned he'd enjoyed Richards' teaching style in crim and Richards replied, "oh, you wanted more of that... Theatrics."

We were encouraged to find our voice, especially via the weekly writing assignments. For the next class the readings were a chapter of the professors' about Roman patriarchy and Gilligan's husband's book, Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic. The writing assignment was: is Roman patriarchy alive in Violence? I feared that if I answered the question I might accidentally speak in someone else's voice. Like the professors'.

Gilligan is a straight woman and mother of three sons; Richards is a gay man. Although they agreed that masculinity was--to some extent-- artificially constructed, they also romanticized masculinity. Gilligan told us that it's more difficult for men to live in a patriarchy. Not "also difficult." More. As in higher quantity of bad feelings? Richards told us that all of the five great men he wrote about in an assigned book Disarming Manhood had strong, independent mothers. Strength and independence... with which gender are those traits associated? These were bold generalizations (aka "stereotypes") and I couldn't help but feel they'd be more credible coming from a neutral party, someone neither manly nor predisposed toward orgasming nearby manliness. I call not it.

The Gilligan book assigned for the first class was The Birth of Pleasure. Five minutes before the end of class Gilligan asked us to free write. The prompt: "While reading The Birth of Pleasure I..."

Never take a class because the professor is famous unless you go to Harvard.