lipby ([info]lipbylipby) wrote,
@ 2009-05-11 22:25:00
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Graduation
This weekend I was in Connecticut to attend my nephew's graduation at UConn, an event that unfolded with all of the solemnity of a pep rally. At one point, a very hefty family a few rows ahead of left only to return a few minutes later with nachos and hot dogs. At they returned to the section, you could see the entire section rolling their eyes as if to say "trashy people." The looks quickly turned dumbfounded as the crowd realized that this graduation, which was being held in the 10,000 seat basketball arena, was being treated for all intents and purposes as if it were a Huskies basketball game.

My nephew, for his part, seemed to take a delightful amount of bemusement from the ceremony-- when he wasn't looking bored silly-- the exact same mix of emotions that once led me to skip out on my graduation ceremony. Twenty years out, I envied (an envy that at various points of the ceremony verged on the palpable) the youth and possibility of the graduates, wishing I had possessed the direction that these kids appear to possess (but mostly probably don't.) It is strange to see a thousand happy graduates blazing through their graduation day at supersonic speeds, hungry to finally get on with their lives, while all I wanted to do is quietly tiptoe back that moment and linger for a good long while...

I must confess, however, that one thing I don't miss about university are the professors with a missionary zeal regarding ideologies that have absolutely no chance of surviving outside of academia foisting their politics on everyone else. Here is a photo of some feminist professor ruining the student's big day with her own political statement about vagina-power. This, my friends, is akin to pushing the bride out of the limelight at a wedding reception:



May this womyn die and live in a hell populated by nothing but oversexed fratboys.

(22 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]villagecharm
2009-05-12 03:54 am UTC (link)
Ah, yes.

Sorry I missed you while you were up here.

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 10:00 pm UTC (link)
If you're in Chicago in August, we may be able to visit you. We're going to a wedding there this summer.

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[info]hakujinjoe
2009-05-12 08:44 am UTC (link)
She may have ruined their big day, but easily that guy with the giant green bow tie made up for it right?

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 10:00 pm UTC (link)
Holy crap, I didn't notice that dude. Wild!

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[info]cubicalgirl
2009-05-12 01:49 pm UTC (link)
As a Vagina-American, I am furious at your patriarchal privilege and...

Oh, I can't even type that with a straight face. I wish I had nachos at my college graduation.

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[info]zantimisfit
2009-05-12 02:06 pm UTC (link)
Oh, I don't know, maybe this professor was just trying to let everyone know what gender she is so that people would stop asking.

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 10:00 pm UTC (link)
Ha!

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First choice was Arthur Miller but we got CATHY
[info]tawdryjones
2009-05-12 03:11 pm UTC (link)
I had Cathy Guisewhite speak at my graduation and ruin it for me by going on and on about how we should all have babies as soon as possible.

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Re: First choice was Arthur Miller but we got CATHY
[info]theballadofyoko
2009-05-12 04:07 pm UTC (link)
I remember this! This is why I didn't go to graduation.

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Re: First choice was Arthur Miller but we got CATHY
[info]tawdryjones
2009-05-12 04:13 pm UTC (link)
You made the right choice!

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Re: First choice was Arthur Miller but we got CATHY
[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 10:01 pm UTC (link)
That's horrendous.

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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-12 06:17 pm UTC (link)
I think you'd actually have to spend more time in academia to defend that last paragraph (past the point of a masters degree). I kind of enjoy listening to what are really non-academics talk about who would and wouldn't survive in the "real world" when they don't really know what it's like to be in the academic one. Spending four years in undergrad doesn't make you an academic. When you become a full professor, maybe then I'd take your opinion of academia seriously.

I sometimes think I'd so smack you down in real life.

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 07:58 pm UTC (link)
Given that this sort of behavior--creating an overt political statement at a public function--would likely result in disciplinary action by 99% of workplaces in the country, I stand by my statements, as smack-down worthy as it may seem to you.

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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-12 08:26 pm UTC (link)
Disciplinary action? How?

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-12 08:38 pm UTC (link)
Really? Maybe I'll try wearing a t-shirt with the phrase "GOP 4 ever" to my next management meeting.

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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-12 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Though those two don't equate, you still haven't explained exactly what disciplinary action could be taken against that woman---even with the the GOP 4 ever T-shirt. Assuming you were appropriately dressed for your meeting (and a graduation ceremony is not a meeting) and you wore a GOP pin, no one could "discipline" you for that anymore than they could if you wore an American flag pin.

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-13 02:15 am UTC (link)
You know, driving home I just realized driving home just how much your reply was looking down on me-- "When you become a full professor, maybe then I'd take your opinion of academia seriously." I call bullshit. I call bullshit because nothing says I have to be a full professor to make judgments about a public gesture I find tactless, rude, and-- I will say it again--unlikely to be tolerated in most other professional situations. Pick whatever analogy you want, the unwanted intrusion of this woman's personal ideology was unwarranted and rude, ever bit as rude as it might have been for an economic's professor to wear on his hat "Obama is a socialist." There is free speech and academic freedom-- and then there is the lack of grace that goes along with transforming the graduation of 1000 college students into something about me, me, me.

Furthermore, though I am a groveling, inferior worm lacking a Phd, I have spent a more than enough time in academic settings to make judgments about that environment. When I was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, I had acquired a reputation for doing inventive, creative work. After one presentation, one of my profs actually crossed the yard to shake my hand. One of the reasons I end up quitting-- in addition to my realization that I didn't love spending my entire day in the library-- was the over-the-top, hermetically sealed, slightly schizoaffective world of graduate study in the humanities. I certainly spent enough time there to acquire that generalization.

If, by the way, that you think that any form of free speech is acceptable in most workplaces, you are massively deceived. I work with about 100 Democrats and two Republicans, yet the woman who persisted in wearing an Obama button to meetings was asked to not wear it anymore. In most workplaces, you are expected to leave overt political statements at home.

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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-13 05:17 pm UTC (link)
I was not looking down on you, in fact, what I did was call bullshit on you (first).

Was her statement overtly political? I don't think it was. Instead of defending your over the top generalizations about academics/academia that were incited by one women who put the symbol for female on her graduation hat at a graduation ceremony, you took affront and wrote three paragraphs about how smart you are and why you chose not to pursue a career in academia.

I'm sorry if my questioning your ability to make such rash generalizations about academia based on your limited experience hurt your ego.

Whether or not we're all schizo-affected individuals is really beside the point. Your initial post and your reasons for quitting make it sound like you're the one looking down your nose with a very large chip on your shoulder to boot.

I was not trying to imply that you're stupid or that I think I'm more intelligent than you are. I'm also not saying you're not an intellectual.

I'm saying you don't know what it's all about because you haven't done it.

It's a long, hard row to hoe.

I don't consider myself an academic yet either and I can safely say I have spent a lot more time in it. I still have a long road before becoming a full professor (very long, as in 10-20 more years) but I'll have my second doctorate in a matter of months. Quite frankly, I don't know if I can hack it.

We can agree that you can have opinions about academics/academia and make incredibly inappropriate statements about what it is or isn't based on your very limited experience. You've already done it.

However, you still haven't explained how this woman is going to be "disciplined" for making her "own political statement about vagina-power."

Come on did it really ruin the day? Why did that get under your skin? Your comparisons to bridesmaids and brides was downright condescending. Your statements say a lot more about you than they do about anything else, especially considering the rash/crude generalizations you're making from the vantage point where you're standing.

One thing you most definitely do not know one iota about is what it's like to be a woman in academia or are you going to take affront to that, too? It was interesting to me that you chose her as a target but that's another discussion entirely.

I can tell you that where I work there is no hermetic seal i.e. in my experience, your generalizations don't apply.

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[info]lipbylipby
2009-05-14 01:30 am UTC (link)
At first I was surprised about your fury about this, considering my judgment this professor's insertion of this politically loaded symbol into a graduation ceremony tacky, rude, and lacking in grace. As much as I thought about it-- and truly, it was mostly filler to try to add some color to the post-- I never dreamed it would be the least bit controversial.

When you began writing about "what it's like to be a woman in academia," the mystery finally clicked for me: I realized that this anecdote represents some sort of metaphor for the struggles women experience in graduate school. And you're right, I know nothing about that-- and don't have much interest in making the leap to that topic. I will simply say that it's not very interesting that I targeted her: She was the only one who did anything like this. If it would have been a male professor with a peace sign or a Star of David or any other intrusive symbol that served to detract from the event at hand, I would have been similarly irked.

In terms of my bruised ego, I assure you that ditching graduate school is the least of my regrets...


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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-12 09:11 pm UTC (link)
...and by the way she probably gets paid less than her male counterparts. What kind of disciplinary action should be handed down for that?

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[info]the_sikh_geek
2009-05-12 08:11 pm UTC (link)
I doubt you're a real academic. "Smack down"? No "ingrained hegemonic discourse"? No "assumed white, heteronormative privilege"? You didn't even call him an imperialist. FAIL.

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[info]rrhexis
2009-05-12 08:28 pm UTC (link)
Yada yada yada. Is that academic enough for you?

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