Better Red than dead?
Posted on 07/27/2014 11:12:09 PM PDT by servo1969
In the fall of 2011, Breanne Fahs, an Arizona State University (ASU) Women’s and Gender Studies professor, taught a course called “Psychology of Gender.” As a part of the course, Fahs asked students to break into groups and engage in what she termed "menstrual activism." More specifically, students were asked to choose some aspect of cultural attitudes toward menstruation that they wanted to "improve." Before you continue reading this column, please know that I'm not making this up and I'm not hallucinating. I stopped dropping acid in the late 1980s.
Some of you may be wondering what kinds of "cultural attitudes toward menstruation" are so serious that they require "menstrual activism" for which students can obtain college credit at an accredited university. The learned Professor Fahs supplies several examples: "the pharmaceutical labeling of ‘PMS’ and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder," "men’s negativity toward menstruation," "shame and silence around menstruation," and "problems with conventional menstrual products."
So Professor Fahs asked her students to design an "intervention" that could produce change in attitudes toward menstruation either on the ASU campus or in the broader Phoenix community. She later boasted publicly about some of the projects her ASU students initiated in order to fulfill the assignment. Some examples follow:
* Some of Professor Fahs' students created labels with "accurate" information about menstruation, and then put them on a variety of menstrual products, which they, in turn, distributed across the ASU campus.
*Another group of Professor Fahs' students distributed fliers that warned passersby about the dangers of using conventional tampons.
*Some students distributed information about Lunapads, Gladrags, Divacups, and other “do-it-yourself” menstrual products.
*Yet another group of Professor Fahs' students made buttons that read “Real Men Buy Tampons.” Next, they proceeded to hand them out to men on the ASU campus.
*Several students went into gas stations and created makeshift “need a tampon, take a tampon” boxes and placed them near the cash registers.
*Yet another group made signs that read, “Honk if you love menstrual sex,” and held them up around the entrances to the ASU campus.
*And, finally, a group of young women under the instruction of Professor Fahs dressed a female student in white pants, put a fake blood stain on her crotch, and filmed her as she walked through a local shopping mall.
The point of the final exercise was to show that bleeding all over yourself is no big deal. If there is a menstrual accident then (rather than simply cleaning the blood) women should walk around in public with a blood stained crotch. This is a way to reduce the stigma associated with menstruation. This is menstrual activism.
Of course, Breanne Fahs would not be a real Gender Studies professor if she weren't complaining about "harassment." Predictably, she reported that several of her menstrual activist/students faced "verbal harassment" while carrying out the project. Notable examples follow:
*Signs about menstrual bleeding were removed from the cafeteria by ASU administrators because they thought it would disrupt student appetites. To be clear, Fahs is arguing that a) talking to people about menstruation while they are eating is normal and that b) stopping people from talking about menstruation (to unwilling listeners while they are trying to eat) is harassment.
*The student walking through the mall with fake blood on her pants faced stares and snickers and was told that she was “disgusting." To be clear, Fahs is arguing that a) walking around with fake blood on your crotch is normal and that b) voicing objections to walking around with fake blood on your crotch is harassment.
*The group that held signs about menstrual sex triggered a reaction from a female state representative, who called the office of the President at the university wanting know why students would engage in public obscenity. To be clear, Fahs is arguing that a) holding up signs asking people what kind of sex they like (and whether they like it during menstruation) is normal and that b) asking people why they would hold up such signs is harassment.
In 2012, about a year after Breanne Fahs initiated her effort to turn students into "menstrual activists" she took to the Internet to talk about three things she learned from her project. They are each worth noting:
1. The project made Professor Fahs realize "it takes very little to incite panic about menstruation." It simply reminded me it takes very little effort to earn a degree in Gender Studies.
2. Professor Fahs concluded that "students can make a big impact in small ways, which makes menstruation an ideal site for pedagogical discussion and activism." I simply concluded that it takes very little intelligence to become a professor of Gender Studies.
3. Professor Fahs concluded that "even the mere mention of menstruation is itself a radical act." I concluded that it really takes very little courage to be a professor of Gender Studies.
The year after initiating the menstrual activist project, Professor Fahs sent a group of three students to do a presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Oakland, California. The thesis of their presentation, according to Fahs, was that simply saying "I am menstruating today" can "radically upset discourses of silence and shame about menstruation, while also holding us accountable for how we put our bodies on the line in feminist activism."
Professor Fahs encourages her female students to "out themselves" as menstruating by simply telling people when they are menstruating. She actually tells them to do this, not just with their family and loved ones but also "in a public sense." I also agree that radical feminists need to be outed. But they need to be outed as lunatics, not as menstrual activists.
These womyn are the biggest embarrassment in the (her)-story of higher education. Period!
Now I am terrified that someone will start up with “haemorrhoid activism”, and we will all have to pay attention.
Mike Adams is a menophobe.
.
(Yet another Post of the Day)
A lot of sick people out there. Many of them have the title of “Professor.”
You've come a long way, baby.
The thing to do in response is to confess to being a vampire muff diver, loudly.
Most close girlfriends share this casually with each other anyway, so what all this really is, is just more public humiliation of (real) women under the flag of 'gender neutrality'.
I predict next semester, the gays will be 'pseudo-menstruating' - and 'outing themselves' loudly and publically
The proper thing to do about these ethnic, gender, and queer studies programs is for the governor to appoint regents to dispose of them, completely. They’ll sue, but the response should be that women have representatives in the State legislature to define laws regarding illegal discrimination or bias. No one elected the university professors to perform that function.
I’m a woman and I wish I could unsee this.
I’d love to read this professor’s doctoral dissertation. Wonder where she got it. Certainly none of the schools I’m familiar with.
I still wish I could unsee this.
You just know society is benefiting massively from these kinds of efforts.
Genital Mutilation 101: an introduction to Islam for the Feminazi in You
> I’d love to read this professor’s doctoral dissertation. Wonder where she got it. Certainly none of the schools I’m familiar with.
I’m sure she has a degree in Gendet Studies; the most useless degree of all time unless sodomy and rug munching are your game...
This prof is just weird!
There is nothing particularly disgusting about someone having their period.... but I see no reason to wear a sign announcing the fact...uggghh.
I wouldn’t wear a sign proclaiming I had a bad case of diarrhea either....ick!
The idea of waltzing through a mall with a huge period stain on your pants is just sickening. How about a huge yellow splotch to announce you wet your pants? ewwww.
I will admit that the terror some guys have when purchasing something like tampons is amusing. Are they worried someone might think they were having a period? Or do they not want it known that they have a girlfriend? lol
Sounds thrillingly multicultural.
A mistrial for what?
Making them as similar to, as coarsely animalistic as, as sex-driven as, as vulgar as men (some)... thus obliterating what makes women different and desirable to men. The mystery, feminity, vulnerability (not that they are weak but it promotes the natural desire of men to protect and revere) is being demeaned in society, but worse, convincing women that's a good thing.
Change that last exercise to:
“*And, finally, a group of young women under the instruction of Professor Fahs dressed a female student in white pants, put a fake brown stain on the back of her pants, and filmed her as she walked through a local shopping mall.
The point of the final exercise was to show that cr***ing all over yourself is no big deal. If there is a “personal” accident then (rather than simply cleaning the mess) women should walk around in public with stained pants. This is a way to reduce the stigma associated with defecation. This is “bodily function” activism.
Of course, Breanne Fahs would not be a real Gender Studies professor if she weren’t complaining about “harassment.” Predictably, she reported that several of her ... activist/students faced “verbal harassment” while carrying out the project. Notable examples follow:
...
*The student walking through the mall with a fake stain on her pants faced stares and snickers and was told that she was “disgusting.” To be clear, Fahs is arguing that a) walking around with a fake toilet accident is normal and that b) voicing objections to walking around with a fake toilet accident is harassment.”
Seriously, is there really any difference? Excreting digestive waste products is a normal occurrence too, but it’s not something people celebrate.
These ladies will be pleased to discover that Bob Jones
University’s Male Studies Department engaged in
sem@n activism in which men post pictures of
cartoon sp@rm and call it a societal phobia
when cafeterias take the posters down. /sarc
Better Red than dead?
Idle minds lead to the crazy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.