Abby Costner, as you tie "the paragon of all things female" to a faddish sandal brand, you construct your reality exactly the way that patriarchal consumerist society wants you to in order to maintain rich white heterosexual male power - or the status quo. Basing your world view on Rugby Road, the "undeniable gender differences" you hold to be self-evident are tied to reality by the same thing as your identity-creating Jack Rogers sandals - absolutely nothing. Your conflation of sex and gender seems only to be reinforced by your inability to recognize the existence of the "other" and your refusal to acknowledge the categories of race and class your argument takes for granted. The possibility that there are more than two sexes or two genders does not even register within your philosophy that is based upon a binary system. Even your declaration that majors such as sociology are "softies" compared to masculinized commerce is a manifestation of consumerist and patriarchal power. Classes in Sociology, African-American Studies, South-Asian Studies, and Studies in Women and Gender teach students about the social construction of identity and force students to think about or question the influence of socialization in their lives. This poses a direct threat to current power structures, so those with power have an obvious stake in diminishing the academic validity of such fields. If people start questioning social norms, rather than reinforcing their established beliefs, that comfortable Vineyard Vines quality of life will potentially be disrupted. Good thing we still have thought-provoking, informative, and alternative programs like The Hills to keep us abreast of the latest updates in gendered consumerism and conformity to the crowd! We might as well just pass off this problematic critique of patriarchy as a tired extraterrestrial adage if thinking for ourselves is too taxing. It isn't just a difference in worldview, but rather "an undisputable fact of life": power exists to oppress.
Meghan Tertocha\nCLAS IV\nChris Zysk\nCLAS '08
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