So I know I'm very strange but I've come to realize over the past year or so that I do actually enjoy learning. I do understand that the majority of College students do not feel the same way and are most likely in college to a)party b)meet someone to marry or c)make money. However I would like to rant today on classes which teach laziness and the acceptableness of using anything and everything to make money. Newsflash: This just in, especially if you claim to be a Christian, life is NOT about money.
I was doing my very first reading for my very first homework this semester for my Fiction Literature class which appeared to be the most professional seeming classes on my schedule thus far last night. We were to read an excerpt from The Canterbury Tales, the part with the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale. So I'm innocently reading this classic literature, in fact one of the first novels written in English, and I come upon some very graphic and vulgar language which I was quite shocked to have found in such a prestigious work of so-called art. Ok so maybe it's not that big a deal for people who are "normal" I'm sure that some tv shows or songs or movies portray these types of "art" all the time. However this is me we're talking about, sheltered little Christian school me. So I got quite offended. But not completely for nothing.
My first thought was, "ok, maybe this is just a slip-up, maybe she didn't really mean for us to read this version of the text." However when I went to class today she addressed it directly and said that she knew we'd all be surprised that she would assign it to us to read, but she said that the word had been brought directly from the original text and was therefore okay. The idea is shock and awe. Chaucer takes the same approach to getting points across that I have observed Burning Coal Theatre Company takes. Do not want!
The second thing that came to mind was not only how it insulted me, but how it degraded me as a woman. If you know me, you know I am most certainly not a femenist by any means, however when you just lay things out there for all to see it makes me feel like I mean nothing. It brings back the feeling that since I am a woman I cannot go certain places and do certain things because it isn't safe, because some people treat us like we are only objects to be owned. This really bothers me because God says He loves me and that I am very important and beautiful, however when you have vulgar language like this, it really demeans me. I know that myself and other women are quite capable, but I think about my cousin Mira. She is so small and adorable, however she's grown up part of her life in a culture where it seems she has been taught that she is only good for being a wife and cooking and cleaning. This breaks my heart for her, because she is so sweet and smart and creative that she can do so much more.
The question that finally came to rest in my mind was this: "How is this funny?" Now this is rhetorical, but it really bothers me. When we spoke about it in class, the entire class laughed it off. Why? Are we really that immature? Is my professor really that immature as to stoop to that level to win the approval of her students? Is this the kind of academia that we praise so highly? I'm not impressed.
Let's aspire to something higher than that, please.
Elyz
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