Smith College’s Battle Against Patriarchy

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Clarissa

May 16, 2014

If anybody had any doubts that Smith College is stupid (a women’s college? How is this shit even legal?), here is some hilarious news:

Instead of the evil head of the IMF (Christine Lagarde is also “the first woman to lead a global law firm, [and the first] to be the finance minister of a major industrial country.” She is, as well, a top candidate for head of the European Commission and is talked about as a viable candidate for president of France.), Smith College will get as its commencement speaker the woman who, as a member of the Goldman Sachs “scandal-prone” board, approved Lloyd Blankfein’s notorious multimillion dollar bonuses.

Smith College has been on the news because of the protests started by the students when they discovered that Lagarde was going to speak at their commencement. As The NYTimes reports, Lagarde withdrew from the commencement ceremony

under pressure from people who object to the I.M.F.’s role in the “strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems.” So, one of the world’s most powerful women will not share insights with one of the nation’s most prominent women’s colleges because of a concern about patriarchy. Evil men — that’ll show ’em.

I guess, according to the logic peculiar to Smith College, being the head of the IMF strengthens the patriarchy while being Lloyd Blankfein’s foot soldier weakens it. Makes tons of sense.

The best woman to speak at Smith must be one who never did or said anything at all and just sat there, in perfect silence, being 100% perfect all the time. I’m guessing this is the kind of successful womanhood taught at Smith.

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10 responses to “Smith College’s Battle Against Patriarchy”

David Bellamy

May 16, 2014

The best woman to speak at Smith must be one who never did or said anything at all and just sat there, in perfect silence, being 100% perfect all the time. I’m guessing this is the kind of successful womanhood taught at Smith.

Am I remembering correctly that Søren Kierkegaard once wrote: “All one finally can do is stand in silence before the gods.”

Of course I have long suspected that this would be true when every word and every phrase had been registered as a trademark and so could not be uttered for any other reason than to sell a particular product. This is a new possibility.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 16, 2014
  
  “Of course I have long suspected that this would be true when every word and every phrase had been registered as a trademark and so could not be uttered for any other reason than to sell a particular product.”
  
  – I’m starting to fear that this is definitely possible.
  
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Fie Upon This Quiet Life

May 16, 2014

I went to a women’s college, and I never would have become a feminist without it. I think single-sex education is actually a good thing for women because they realize in the absence of men just how dominated they had been by them. It’s very eye-opening. I’m also guessing that instances of rape are low at all women’s colleges. And they can focus instead on what they are supposed to be in college for, which is an education.

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1. Evelina Anville
  
  May 16, 2014
  
  Yes. I’m with Fie here. I didn’t go to an all women’s college. (I personally would have felt stifled. I went to a very large public uni for undergrad.) But I have known quite a few very smart, assertive women who went to all women’s colleges who benefitted enormously from their all women’s undergrad experience. For the same reason, I think all black universities can be hugely beneficial to some students. Sometimes members of the “non dominant” group need spaces of their own.
  
  Re: Smith specifically……At one point I think Smith was more of a finishing school for wealthy women. But more recently, I think Smith has graduated a great deal of very smart feminist women. This is not to say I agree with Smith in this particular instance. But overall, I think the school has done a lot of good.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    May 16, 2014
    
    My first big feminist victory was when at the age of 11-12 we fought against gender-segregated classes at our school. And we won! The Labor Class where girls learned to cook and sew and boys learned to work at a steel workshop was changed so that everybody could learn to cook and work a lathe.
    
    I’m from a different culture, we have a very different kind of feminism that resolves different issues. To me, the very idea of a “women-only space” that is not a toilet is so offensive and humiliating that my heart begins to race. I know it’s different in North America but I’m a product of my experiences and I don’t think it is very likely I will understand this.
    
    If people say this model worked for them, then I’m sure they know best. I reserve the right to be weirded out, though. 🙂
    
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musteryou

May 16, 2014

It’s weird because our hard right wing government is currently seeking to introduce some draconian measures against the weak of society and there are leftists arguing that the opposition party supporters should not be permitted to attend the protest rally.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 16, 2014
  
  Why? To preserve the purity of the ranks?
  
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  1. musteryou
    
    May 16, 2014
    
    Precisely. Mike said, “I should also have suggested white males can’t attend.” I mean why should anyone be allowed to attend?
    
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ladyleahjane

May 16, 2014

Smith’s a women’s college, and yet they don’t allow trans women to attend (The story of Calliope Wong trying to go to Smith is really tragic and infuriating). All I associate them with is wallowing in the intellectual poverty of that branch of feminism which has yet to realize that gender is a social construct, not some innate fact locked into your brain or DNA.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 16, 2014
  
  I knew there was a reason I hated them! It was at the back of my mind but I couldn’t access the memory. Thank you, I now remember. I must have repressed it because I found the story to be too offensive.
  
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