By Chris Howard-Williams
It has been a truly educational summer for me. As part of my Couples and Family Counseling program at UMKC, we are required to take a course on sexual counseling. Here is my personal paraphrase of what I’ve learned so far:
Men – When you encounter sexual issues, rest assured that there are volumes of articles and studies that have been done on many levels, including biological, physiological, psychological, and psycho-social ones. We have pills, positions, therapeutic techniques, and support groups available for you to tackle any problem that comes your way!
Women – (shrugging) Um … we really haven’t studied you that much. Have you considered asking your husband if he will let you get a vibrator?
It has been eye-opening to me to see the disparity between the attention that we have given men and women just regarding their sexuality. I was appalled to learn in class recently that we put a man on the moon and created the Internet before we had a full understanding of the biology of the clitoris. Heck, it was another 10 years after that discovery before we could even scientifically determine how it worked! Women, I know you don’t need me to say it, but I’m going to anyway… it’s about time we devoted the attention to studying you as we have to studying men for centuries now!
The concept of “women’s studies” is relatively young, its birth as a formal study being in the early 1970s. A quote from a USA Today College article gives a brief history of the evolution of women’s studies: “In 1971, early women’s studies courses focused on women’s roles in economic and political institutions, and they also analyzed women’s roles in history, literature and equality movements. In the 1980s, courses emphasized cross-cultural perspectives of women and how humans identify gender, and by the late 1990’s, women’s and gender studies courses included topics on race, feminist thought and the socialization of women.”
So why do we need women’s studies courses? The obvious answer is equity. For too long, our study of the world and everything in it has been dominated by the world of men. This biased focus does not give women the voice or the attention they so richly deserve. Beyond this, there are many more benefits than this already long blog can cover, so here’s a link to a great article instead that covers the bases pretty well.
On a more personal note, why do we need women’s studies? Because despite the progress that has been made in recent years, there is still a staunch resistance to erasing the imaginary barriers between the sexes. I have worked the Women’s Center information table at just two UMKC orientations now, and both times I have witnessed multiple variations of the same event: a parent walks by our table with their son to glance back at him and say, “Oh, you don’t need anything there!” I’m here to say: You do, guys! You need women’s studies. You need feminism, and you need to get past this idea that some things are for boys and some things are for girls. It’s time to look at the world in a whole new balanced way!
If you would like to learn more about UMKC’s Women’s & Gender Studies programs, feel free to visit their website at http://cas.umkc.edu/wgs, or email them at wgs@umkc.edu.