The only student who thinks there is something wrong with the actions of a husband who, in a fit of rage, tears an ear-ring out of his wife’s ear with such force that he rips her ear-lobe apart is a male student from France. Everybody else believes this character is a loving, kind husband.
Kind Husband
Clarissa's Blog 
Wow. Your students are scary! Way more scary than mine.
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Well, he’s giving her his attention isn’t he? Seriously, that kind of response, which I have also encountered from people from all sides of the political spectrum, is one of the main reasons I know we live in a patriarchy.
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He gave her expensive ear-rings and she dared not to appreciate that! He thought he bought her and she decided she was entitled to have desires of her own. Unbelievable gall!
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possession masking itself as “love” IS the basic patriarchal trope.
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“possession masking itself as “love” IS the basic patriarchal trope.”
– This is what I’m trying to make them understand. We read a story where parents drive their son to an early grave making him work to keep them. Three of the students said that, “Of course, the parents wanted what’s best for their son because that’s what all parents want. . .”
It’s like they speak in set phrases that they don’t even try to think over.
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Yes, yes. A lot of people are like that, perhaps most.
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It’s a version of the just world hypothesis, to believe that whatever it is authorities do to someone else is necessarily good and right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis
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Today we heard the news that the state is considering destroying several Humanities departments at our university. Given that Humanities courses are the only place where students have a chance of hearing anybody question this way of thinking, I don’t find it surprising that we get targeted.
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People are literally becoming insane. Perhaps it was always so…the constant lurch of humanity toward insanity.
It’s time to pat myself on the back for squeezing the most from the humanities, I think. I’ve got mine, and screw the rest of you. That’s the common view, nowadays, isn’t it?
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Weird. Where are the other students from?
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Local mostly. St. Louis metro-area, Chicago. Several are Latin American.
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I thought you were still talking about the Russian television programme!
Your students condone violence? Scary indeed!
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Well I’ve heard of the Latin American culture of machismo, but have never been to Latin America so don’t have first-hand knowledge of it. But I find it scary that such attitudes are found among literature students. A drunken yobbo who can’t hpold down a job, perhaps, but you are dealing with educated people.
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“It’s like they speak in set phrases that they don’t even try to think over.”
In other words, duckspeak : )
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Give your shit to those dicktards.
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And you know what is even more scary? This is worse in non-humanities and outside college!
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Seriously? What is the movie? It rings something but I do not remember what exactly.
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No, it’s pardo Bazan’s “La perla rosa.”
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Oh… I use Pardo Bazán’s Las medias rojas in my class and of course all of my students sympathize with the young girl victim of patriarchy. I shoudl read La perla rosa and use it in class to see whether my students’ reaction is similar than yours.
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This is such a good short story. Well… your student trusted the narrator and felt that they could not question him. Perhaps their reaction would have been different if it had been narrated by the woman, or by an omniscient narrator.
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I once used Madga Portal’s “Círculos violeta” in a Latin American literature course and it generated the most intense debates with my students I have had so far in my career. I am sending you a link because you can read it fast, and somehow your post made me think about the ways my students can surprise me.
http://www.lapoesiadetumirada.com/2011/05/circulos-violeta-magda-portal.html
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