I agree with you completely; that's the reason I decided not to take women's studies at university.

That's really a shame. I am also a junior Women's Studies/ Literature major who is active in leading feminist groups at my university. I have found totally the opposite to be the case at my school; the faculty (well, most of them, there are always a few bad apples) has been nothing but respectful and helpful. This could be because I go to a very... image conscious, undiverse school, so there are very few lesbians. (I know more professors who are lesbians than students.)
Anyway, I'm really sorry that you've been treated this way. Hopefully if you go on to grad school you will be able to find more supportive faculty.

Whether or not they find existing pubic hair a requirement to be a 'proper' feminist it is EXTREMELY inappropriate to ask you whether you shave yours. They can think of pubic hair whatever they like, but what you do is - just like you say - your business and no one else's unless YOU choose to make it so.

It is absolutely ridiculous that feminists have fought so hard for women's sexuality to NOT be appropriated by the public for the public's consumption and then a so-called feminist attempt to make your sexuality and privacy public in a poor attempt to make a point. Pathetic is a word that applies. And you could probably sue the professor for sexual harassment.

Women's studies is fine and all, but they are about studying women's history, anthropology etc etc it's not about studying the individual women sitting in the classroom and their private lives and habits. Methinks a prof mayhap misunderstood something there.

If that ever happens again, you really should talk back and ask the professor whether she shaves her pubic hair to please her girlfriend, or whatever the question was about.

I'm sorry you were hurt and disappointed by the women in that program. You may want to communicate with them about how exclusive and inappropriately they behaved towards you.
They are lucky to have you and your perspective in the program.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with women's studies... I am in University and have taken women's studies classes and had the complete opposite experience! My professor was INCREDIBLY welcoming and interested in everyone's perspectives. She took a special effort to get to know everyone personally (difficult in large classes!) and was very friendly, personable and respected everyone's views. She was by far one of the best teachers I've ever had and in fact, it was her who made me realize that I *AM* a feminist, which is a label I'd denied all through my life because people made fun of me for my views (feminist is a derogatory term where I am and in my family). I came out of the feminist closet and embraced feminism because I was so inspired and she opened my eyes to what feminism was really about.
Anyway, I don't think the problem you experienced with women's studies is wide spread, I think it probably differs from professor to professor. Some profs just aren't good teachers. And judging you for the state of your pubic har is ridiculous. I hope next time you speak up and don't be afraid to let them know that it's none of their business. Don't silence yourself, tell them that your pubic hair has NOTHING to do with your worth as a woman or a feminist or a human being.

that's interesting because i majored in women's studies in a department and college that i had very little in common with, besides feminism of course. i didn't make a personal connection beyond academics because of cultural and identity differences. i even founded an FMLA chapter in the college but it was hard for me to be a part of it because it's hard to be active in a club that you don't have interpersonal relations with, if you know what i mean. the other feminists and i didn't disagree on ethical issues much, but we didn't share common interests. although i felt othered at times, i couldn't blame the majority feminists any more than i could blame myself, because i couldn't just tell them to change they're interests to talk to me. consider this, would you be better off in any other major? if so, why? is it because it's more comfortable to be in the majority? how do you think the lesbian/minority feminists feel in larger society? that might help you understand why they question your opinions so much.

i actually don't think it's totally unacceptable to ask personal questions in a women's studies class, especially one that's small. it depends on how one asks the questions. in feminism, the personal is political so just as the personal experiences of oppressed people matter, the personal experiences of people who are a part of any majority institution matter. just as it's important for white feminists to recognize their privilege, it's important for heterosexual feminists to recognize their privilege.

perhaps the way the professors asked you the questions put you on the defensive, but i don't think it's wrong for lesbian or vegetarian feminists to ask me if i'm wearing make-up/high heels just to conform to men's views, or why i haven't given up meat. my answer to that is yes, i do conform to heteronormative standards sometimes because feminists have to pick and choose their battles, and i'm still working on giving up meat. i didn't have much problem holding in those situations.

i know you don't just think feminist, but you're a feminist activist who is changing things. but it's good to question your views and opinions continuously, and it's good to have to justify your opinions to other feminists, because it only makes you a stronger feminist. don't let the questioning deter you from being a WS major, but use it to make your arguments more logical and precise. even though i didn't feel insulted in my WS program, despite the differences, i did feel very alienated while working in a feminist abortion clinic of all places!! my colleagues weren't interested in me or my life, and weren't very helpful when i needed to learn clinical work. you might find a more comfortable environment when you graduate, or realize that hollins was actually more open. while it may seem that your lesbian classmates and professor are in a position of power in the classroom, don't forget that you also have the privilege of being a white, straight feminist, and might have an easier time in larger society.

and finally, these are all my viewpoints, after all, so i hope you don't feel that i'm trying to impose anything on you. i just know that i appreciated the questioning in my classes because it only made me more thoughtful. and while i was unhappy working in the feminist abortion clinic, it's not going to deter me from being a feminist, WS major, and perhaps future abortion provider.

P.S. it might be good to have a constructive conversation with your professor. perhaps you could organize your thoughts and tell her exactly how you were uncomfortable, and tell her what do do differently. it would be hard for her to change unless you suggest what specific things she could do.

I am also a Women's Studies/Literature major. I am in my senior year, and have had a generally positive experience. One thing that I have really noticed is this (I cannot say whether or not this goes for other schools): Women's Studies is either misunderstood or not taken seriously (most likely both) by many students that I have encountered and some faculty members as well. It has made me wonder if the extreme seriousness that some of the Women's Studies professors have comes from a fear of not being taken seriously by those in their classes or those outside of their classes. It is just something that I have thought of due to some unwelcoming discussions or reactions that I have seen in my classes. In any case, I still get a lot from my classes, and this is the kind of thing that really keeps me on my toes. I want to get taken seriously too.

I have some of the same experiences at my university and it is my general experience that the feminist milieus in Denmark are characterized by bigotry to some extend. Fx it's mostly considered "unfeminist" to be critical of muslim head scarfs, because you oppress a woman's individual freedom rights by speaking against it. Yet at the same time it is correct to take a position that upholds that prostitutes are victims and must be saved.

While none of these issues have simple answers or solutions it is my belief, that feminism must be pragmatic as well as ideological. In the case of the head scarves it is of no use to the women who feel like they have to wear their scarf if they are to leave the house, if it is banned because it is believed to be a symbol of oppression, as I do believe.

My point is, that it is necessary to find and walk the fine line between critical examination and pointing out of the oppressing and the potential oppressiveness of our discourses. It can be difficult but to me it is an absolute necessity if feminism is to be about bettering the conditions for all women. Dogmatism is of no use here.

I entered a women's studies program at the graduate level (it was my minor in undergrad). Much of our first graduate-level course focused on criticism of women's studies from scholars and professors within the field. These texts may be useful to you:

Wendy Brown, "The Impossibility of Women's Studies"

Daphne Patai, "Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies"

Kennedy, "Women's Studies for the Future"

Looking at ourselves as a field and as a movement is always healthy - keep it up!

This is a bit off topic, but what do you think about Hollins? My girlfriend is applying to Hollins for their MFA program -- specifically the summer semesters playwriting/dramaturgy program. If you know anyone in theatre/playwriting at Hollins or if you've taken any classes that might be similar, I'd love to hear about it so I could relay it to her. She's never been there, just found the program online and talked to the director some, so she's pretty nervous about sinking her heart into something new.

You got to work with Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards!? Luuuuuucky!

Very interesting post. I was thinking more of a problem of extracting gender from the title "feminist." With the "fem" in there, it is a gendered title, yet as a male concerned about gender issues, I also am concerned with how gender affects men and thus don't feel included in the category "feminist" partly because of the title itself but also partly because sometimes focusing on male gender concerns quickly threaten some sacred feminist principles.

I'm with anyone who said that asking whether you shave your pubic hair is out of line. It's one thing whether you are describing personal experiences and relating them to a theory you are trying to discuss -- for instance "Have any of you in the class felt like X who is talking about Y" but using it as a way to go after your feminist cred is simply silly. A lot of the time the personal isn't political. Not always, but I don't go around Manifesto-shouting ready every waking second. I have other stuff to do.

And I'm with Rachel in WY about what ends up happening to a lot of ethnic and women's studies departments. I admit I am a bit out of date, but I remember a Lesbian Literature class I took and an African American literature class years ago.

The AA studies class was led by a nice woman who was willing to talk about many things, and draw students out. More importantly, she came down hard on first-person stuff, because as far as she was concerned it was an excuse to not have done any reading.

The lesbian lit class also had rigor, but I got the sense the prof was trying to scare the men out of the class. (I stayed in it partly to prove to her that having an XY chromosome pair doesn't mean you can't read Monique Wittig intelligently).

While it helped me a lot with some things, there was a lot of fuzzy thinking. The stuff on how gays and lesbians have been presented in literature was great -- I kind of dug The Well of Lonliness and the accompanying commentary, as well as the narrative of Herculine Barbin, and Audre Lourde.

Adrienne Rich's "Institutionalized Heterosexuality" essay still makes me cringe, because she wrote some things that were, in Feynman's famous phrase, "not even wrong" and any attempt to look at her work in the context of an additional 40 years of anthropological and primate research since she wrote that was not recieved well.

In some ways I felt like I benefited more from the other students than the prof.

But I think the problem is that too many WS departments -- oh hell, this could apply to a lot of humanities -- are afterthoughts. And too often there's a lot of lazy thinking that students get away with.

I don't mean to dump on WS as a field. But I do think ethnic and gender studies needs a serious revamp in a lot of schools. Kids go in thinking it is easy because in too many places it is. When I made the switch from the sciences to the humanities, I thought my English/Literature classes were the easiest A-grades I ever got. Many of those classes were filed under WS/eth studies departments.

That was sad, because I really liked some of it, but I feel like I got off way too easy too often.

The experience you had honestly sounds to me like you have a professor or professors who just aren't thinking things through very well. It happens. I've met a few.

But don't take it lying down. You should make sure that such questions have relevance to the topic, and talk to the prof and ask why she thought it was important.

Personally I am not sure Women's or some Ethnic studies should even be an undergraduate major. It always seemed to me the only place to really get pushed in those fields was at the graduate level. And maybe that's what I am getting at -- is it possible that as undergraduates, when studying feminism, we might all benefit from doing it as a part of other fields before tackling it as a separate area? Just like if you were studying the history of Brazil you should have a more generalized knowledge of Latin America (and the US, assuming you are from there) before specializing?

Feminism is about equality, not women refusing to do anything that makes men happy. The only unfeminist thing that would go along with you shaving or not (and yeah, none of anyone's business) is if you are expected to by him and he refuses to do anything similar you want him to do.

Next time anyone asks if you do anything for your boyfriend, even if you don't, just proudly say "yup, and he'd gladly return the favor."