OK, this is getting too bizarre for words.
From a female student’s essay:
“The husband goes shopping for shoes and clothes which is not normal because normally women are the ones who shop.”
I wonder what degree of abnormality she would diagnose my husband with. This poor perverted guy yesterday bought a broom and cleaning gloves he needs to clean the apartment. I wonder if DSM-5 has a name for the disorder he and I suffer.
Clarissa's Blog 
If I were to write the book on psychiatric disorders, the students writing these kinds of essays would be diagnosed with PPD, or “Patriarchy Paralysis Disorder”, a tragic illness which seriously limits the mind from working outside of the confines of an antiquated, sexist, normative structure.
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🙂 🙂
The most shocking thing is that all these students live in a very different reality. They all work, their mothers all work. I have no idea where this is all coming from.
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At least we can definitely rule out “basing the essay on ideas they don’t believe in so as to ideologically conform to the professor’s viewpoint”, right?
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Yes, I have to admit that their desire to express their own opinions instead of pandering to my beliefs is very admirable. In class, I referred to one of the characters as “un machista de mierda” (a fucking machista). So they had ample opportunities to figure out what I believe.
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LOL. When I lived in a rural Ontario parish, my Ex was the first female incumbent in the history of the local area to lead a church and the folks in the surrounding area, settled by Protestant Irish who had arrived in the “coffin ships” fleeing from the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, sounded just like your students. She wanted to push the feminist boundaries so we hired a male nanny from Ireland named Liam to look after our children while I was working in the city and she was out visiting parishioners.
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Such comments would mean an automatic C- as a maximum grade in my class. But this is perhaps why my students call me ‘el diablo’ in my back. 🙂
You are my hero.
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It’s every other student who does this. I’m about to weep.
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I think it is time for you to stop being so nice to your students. You know that you come across as bublly and cheerful, right? Try to be a little bit meaner:)
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Do not weep. I am grading my Elementary Spanish 1 students’ first essay of the semester. My students sure love football.
Also, I learned in a lit. exam that Jovellanos’s Elogio de CIII caused the Spanish Civil War. You are not alone.
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“Also, I learned in a lit. exam that Jovellanos’s Elogio de CIII caused the Spanish Civil War.”
– OK, you win. This is definitely the best. 🙂 🙂
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What’s the link between grading and this?
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Does this woman seriously suppose that men don’t need to wear shoes and clothes? They have come from somewhere, don’t they?
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Women buy clothes and shoes for them. I’m not sure if you heard, but men have this gene that makes them incapable of entering a store and buying shoes for themselves.
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So that gene is going dormant over time? I sure as hell bought gear to refill my Swiffer Wet Jet a few days ago.
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Oh God, this disease must be infectious. Everybody, step back or you will become very abnormal!
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maybe I should know this, but what are you actually teaching and what are the prereqs for your students?? Just curious.
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This specific bunch of statements comes from a course on the Spanish culture of the XXth century.
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In class, ask your students to make a list of people they consider normal. Then compare their list with reality. And ask them WHY they come up with these weird ideas!
Your student seem to have internalized a certain kind of Hollywoodesque cinema to such a deep level that they watch movies with the pinkiest lenses.
According to your list I am a weird man and you are a weird woman. Well… I am weird, but not because I buy myself some clothes.
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That’s a very good idea. I think I will definitely do this exercise.
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If you were to average out, who do you think normally does more shopping, men or women?
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I don’t think there is a gender difference in a society where people of both genders are allowed to own property. 🙂
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@ TT: I am fairly sure that men as an aggregate spend more money than women as an aggregate. But that might be because of pay disparity; it’s starting to change but men still have more money than women overall.
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Yes, the whole problem is how we conduct these calculations: according to the frequency of purchases? the total amount?
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I was thinking more along the lines of who actually shops more. It seems to me the marketing is definately more to the female gender but I have been known to be wrong on occasion. 🙂
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Shops for what? Companies, houses, apples, cigarettes, yachts, skyscrapers, presidential nominations?
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Well, your student was talking about shoes and clothes.
@Evelina
In my province if you are married or common law it pretty much doesnt matter who makes more. The expenses have to get paid and for whatever reason if the couple has to split alimony and child support will be paid by the higher earner to maintain the balance. You may have a slight point in regards to gender when individuals are single, though the age demographic will play a role in that also.
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Do you know a single couple where the wife buys her husband shoes and clothes? My parents do that but they are deeply Soviet people. 🙂
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Many. Who knows, maybe they are descendants of Soviets. 😉
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Really?? This is very interesting.
It kind of makes me feel better because I feel that my family of origin is less freaky than I thought. 🙂
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Or more, its all perspective. 🙂
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My husband shops for tampons. They are for his butt-hole.
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I have been debating whether or not I need a beer. Reading this post has given me my answer.
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My dad would not buy any clothes or shoes unless my mum dragged him to the shops. Except suits as he needed those for work. He was perfectly capable of organising that by himself but for the rest he didn’t care.
My ex-h usually wanted my opinion when he bought clothes because when I met him his mum bought everything and her taste was horrendous, and if I didn’t like what he bought I’d take the piss and end up by hiding the offending garment. He was quite happy to criticise my taste in clothes too so no one was oppressed… 🙂
I’m having a good laugh as to what is and what is not normal to your students, and their attitudes towards gender roles. I’m happy not to be teaching them though as I’d be wanting to bang their heads together.
The only comparable situation I can think of from my French teaching (of English) is when I asked a group of adults from the Pharmacy faculty to tell me something they do often. One woman told me she sweeps her kitchen 5 times a day. FIVE! She had a full time job too. They had to scrape me up off the floor.
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“I’m having a good laugh as to what is and what is not normal to your students, and their attitudes towards gender roles. I’m happy not to be teaching them though as I’d be wanting to bang their heads together.”
– Today I revealed to them the shocking news that, historically, the absolute majority of women worked. They were especially blown away by news of women working in the factories in the XIXth century.
“The only comparable situation I can think of from my French teaching (of English) is when I asked a group of adults from the Pharmacy faculty to tell me something they do often. One woman told me she sweeps her kitchen 5 times a day. FIVE! She had a full time job too. They had to scrape me up off the floor.”
– Wow, not even my mother does that. My mother limits herself to 3 daily kitchen sweepings.
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