At my second job, I haven't talked about my gender history with my students. I haven't wanted to, in part because I got tired of doing so. But I also got tired of being identified that way, and I was tired and angry after being shunned, ostracized and retaliated against for talking about it by the very same people who encouraged me to "educate" students about it. At least, that's what has happened at my main job, and I want a refuge from it. At my second job--which, frankly, I would turn into my first if I could--I decided to be simply a middle-aged woman teaching a writing course, and to let everything else be.
That plan seemed to work--until today. One of my students--a quiet, shy and very studious young Bangladeshi man--told me he found this blog. He said he found it "fascinating" and that he likes the way I write. He's a really good writer himself, so I am flattered.
But still...I wonder what will happen next. I realize he's probably not the first student at my second job to have found this blog. And he won't be the last. After all, if you were to type my name into a google search, one of the first things to come up would be a link to one of my entries in this blog, or my other blog.
That plan seemed to work--until today. One of my students--a quiet, shy and very studious young Bangladeshi man--told me he found this blog. He said he found it "fascinating" and that he likes the way I write. He's a really good writer himself, so I am flattered.
But still...I wonder what will happen next. I realize he's probably not the first student at my second job to have found this blog. And he won't be the last. After all, if you were to type my name into a google search, one of the first things to come up would be a link to one of my entries in this blog, or my other blog.
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2 comments:
With writers and writer wannabees I find an unusual ability to accept. I've wondered whether partly that comes from a more considered view of people as part of their palette for writing.
And slightly less than average acceptance by women and significantly above for men compared to the normal run of college students where I tend to find the reverse as true.
Sophie, what you say corresponds closely to my experience. That fellow writers would be more accepting didn't surprise me. What caught me off guard were the women who wouldn't accept me. What shocked me even more were that so-called educated women were less accepting: In fact, on my main job, just about all of the problems I've had have been with female administrators and faculty members. And, initially, they were the ones encouraging me to "educate" the students and the rest of the community about gender variance.
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