Webb, Chapter 3 - Gendering the Curriculum

Webb, Chapter Three – Genderizing the Curriculum: A Personal Journey

If feminist theory is going to become more mainstream in the secondary classroom, it is going to have to start with the canon. While female authors are more prominent in today's anthologies, especially with poetry and short fiction, they are still noticeably absent from the novels and plays being read. While we can't turn back time and change the root causes of these absences, we can discuss the reasons today. Discussions about canons can be as illuminating for students as discussions on the texts themselves. At the very least the misperception that we don't read female authors of a period because there weren't any female authors in that period needs to be disabused.

Webb mentions that his students failed to find the relevance of Woolf's A Room of One's Own to their own lives (35). While I agree with his students that the rights of women are far improved today over Woof's time, that shouldn't be the end of the discussion. We need to guide students towards finding relevance. There are parallels that can be drawn to today's society. Women are still objectified; women still face spousal abuse; women are still the victims of workplace harassment; women are still discouraged from certain subjects of study and career choices.

One thing that Webb makes apparent in this chapter is the need to conflate literary theories to truly understand a given text. Webb gives the example of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (43). In order to truly understand Janie's perspective and actions, you have to read her as an African American woman, not just an African American. Her gender has as much, if not more, to do with her situation and her responses to her situation as her race.

I'm glad this chapter also tackles gay and lesbian studies. While it can be argued that women are approaching true equality in the United States, being homosexual in this country is still extremely problematic, with legal discrimination and even violence still prevalent. While it would be easier (and perhaps safer) to ignore this topic in our language arts classrooms, we would be doing a grave disservice to our students to do so. To quote the focus teacher Trisha, “Teachers who just keep quiet [are] helping their gay/lesbian students find their way to suicide” (46). Webb has some good advice on how to prepare students, parents, and administrators for dealing with controversial topics. I wish gay and lesbian studies wasn't considered a controversial topic.