In class, I’m talking about femicide.

Me: In the area of Ciudad Juarez, hundreds and probably thousands of women have been found murdered. Many of the bodies have been dismembered. There is evidence that many of the victims were tortured and raped before being killed. These horrible crimes rise to the level of genocide against women.

Student: So it isn’t a good thing?

Me: What isn’t?

Student: This is for my notes. Do I put this in the column with negative things or positive things?

27 responses to “Is Femicide a Good Thing?”

  1. Spanish Prof Avatar

    I would have answered: “You choose. But you have to be able to justify where you put it. I like well-crafted arguments”.

    But I am just tired today.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      I’m also exhausted. So I just stared back wildly and moved on. Then, I heard a student who is from that area in Mexico explain to her what femicide was all about.

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      1. David Gendron Avatar

        Wait a minute, HER?????

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

          Yes, it was a female student. 😦

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  2. danmillerinpanama Avatar

    Was he jesting or seeking the Malthus Award (there must be one; there is an award for nearly everything else)?

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    1. David Gendron Avatar

      Even Malthus would not support that kind of shit!

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  3. David Gendron Avatar

    Probably an overdose of drugs…

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    1. David Gendron Avatar

      drug overdose, sorry….

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  4. Glamorholic Avatar

    Haha….I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. :)) Where do you find these students?

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  5. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    Wow. wow wow wow wow. The student must have misunderstood you? Maybe s/he thought femicide was a contraversial kind of industrial insecticide?

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  6. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar

    bloggerclarissa :
    Yes, it was a female student.

    Well Camille Paglia thinks its a good thing and indeed psychologically to be expected.

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  7. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar

    bloggerclarissa :
    How so?

    In Sexual Personae, she states in one of her essays, that males are rightfully fearful of the uterus and killing women and hanging up their uteri in a row, as trophies, is a natural and normal thing to do.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      “In Sexual Personae, she states in one of her essays, that males are rightfully fearful of the uterus and killing women and hanging up their uteri in a row, as trophies, is a natural and normal thing to do.”

      -This sounds like the female version of the “penis envy”, Freud’s greatest blunder.

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  8. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar

    bloggerclarissa :
    “In Sexual Personae, she states in one of her essays, that males are rightfully fearful of the uterus and killing women and hanging up their uteri in a row, as trophies, is a natural and normal thing to do.”
    -This sounds like the female version of the “penis envy”, Freud’s greatest blunder.

    Could be what she is trying to evoke here. As for Freud and penis envy, can you imagine anything that is more guaranteed to turn you off sex with any kind of male than the following:

    1. “You desire to possess my penis because you are castrated.”

    2. “You desire to have sex with me because I remind you of a parent.”

    Both of these formulas are extremely anti-sex in such a way that it would be harder (impossible) to come up with a stronger anti-erotic formula or one more ignorant of female psychology.

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    1. Tim Avatar

      Stronger than “You are just like your mother!”?

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  9. Tim Avatar

    Putting aside the issue of killing someone based on their gender (or killing someone at all, really), what sense does it make to sort facts heard in class in this manner?!

    Are your students expected to write some kind of pro and contra argumentation if the Good Old Times were really that good?

    Like

    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      We were discussing the positive and the negative developments in the Spanish-speaking world as a conclusion to the course.

      Like

  10. Jeremy Barrick Avatar
    Jeremy Barrick

    There was an story in the student newspaper where I work that there was a shortage of Adderall (for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)). So maybe they are off their meds for the first time. And are slowly trying to think for themself for the first time since age six.

    Really columns in a lecture class Tim has it. It works in accounting, but that is with a T for credits and debit. And in some sciences for describing something.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      This is a possibility I never wanted to face: that the students are so listless and indifferent because they are medicated into oblivion.

      Like

  11. Adi Avatar
    Adi

    @ David
    “Yes, it was a female student. :-(”

    Unbelievable isn’t it? A FEMALE can come up with a stupid question. Shock horror!
    Who’d have thought that women are people?

    @ Jennifer:
    “Well Camille Paglia thinks its a good thing and indeed psychologically to be expected.”

    That’s not how I interpreted her writing. Or would you please care to quote where she suggests that genocide against women was a good thing. Sounds like you’re confusing an explanation with a justification.

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  12. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar

    Adi :

    @ Jennifer:
    “Well Camille Paglia thinks its a good thing and indeed psychologically to be expected.”
    That’s not how I interpreted her writing. Or would you please care to quote where she suggests that genocide against women was a good thing. Sounds like you’re confusing an explanation with a justification.

    Sounds like you’re an ape!

    Like

    1. Adi Avatar
      Adi

      “Sounds like you’re an ape!”

      Lol. I take from that pathetic attempt at an insult, that you can’t back up your claim that Camille Paglia advocates genocide. Shame on you!

      Like

  13. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    At Adi: I think that the commenters are surprised that this is a female student because they are working under the (understandable) assumption that a female might be extra sensitive to the issue of femicide.This has nothing to do with thinking that female students can’t say silly or offensive things. I think that you are getting yourself riled up over nothing.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      Yes, precisely. This is what I found so shocking, too.

      And I don’t think it has to do with a lack of sensitivity on the student’s part. This just more evidence that students want to record “the right answers”, memorize them, and deliver them during the tests. The actual content of the knowledge gets lost as a result.

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  14. Paul Tiderman Avatar

    Not to mention the fact that the male/female balance in the world (which has been roughly 50-50 since the dawn of time) is shifting towards the males due to selective abortions in China and India. Is that a good thing?

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      That, of course, is a tragedy and those countries will pay the price for this very soon. This kind of an imbalance never leads to anything positive.

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