Ranty Pants

OK. So i've never really used this blog thing as a place to vent out my frustrations. But today seems like a perfect time because of something that happened in one of my classes this morning. First of all, it's in the morning and i'm not a morning person so i'm already a little grumpy and not really at the top of my intellectual game. This class, which was meant to be a historical overview of feminist movements in the 1960s quickly spiralled into a discussion of 'what feminism is now' with my professor insisting that certain things could be neatly and historically categorized into the three waves of feminism. I talked for awhile, trying to explain that feminism today is about way way way more than what he thought it was (binary between the sexes where women are fighting for equality against men) but he was having a hard time understanding it. Fine fine, whatever. I'm tierd, nobody in the whole damn class knew what the hell I was talking about, fine. BUT THEN, he proceeded to use the argument that the Harper government is doing good things for women by (and I'm not sure what he was talking about here) introducing the concept of 'equal pay for similar work'. I thought this battle had already been fought and won to some extent with the whole Air Canada flight attendants being paid the same as pilots thing but whatever. So I said, 'well, what about the major cuts he has made to funding for child care? doesn't that basically serve to shove women back into the home because they will not be able to afford to put their kids in day care? etc...' Another member of my class turned to me and actually said, "this is why i hate feminism. that's so not true. i think that if parents want to put their kids in day care that's up to them and this cut actually will serve to get women in rural areas out into the work force because they will not have the money to stay at home.' Anyways, I told her that I completely disagreed with her point of view and that I was pretty sure she had no idea what she was talking about. Though I tried not to let it bother me, the whole situation really did. I guess because i'm in a lot of gender studies type classes, live in a house full of feminists, and honestly try to believe that not all people are ignorant assholes I forgot the sad truth that some of them are. OK. Feeling better. Just needed to get that out.