Learning about women’s history helps Catharine Whiting feel more feminine.
“I can’t be a true woman without knowing my past,” said the 21-year-old University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior.
A psychology major, Ms. Whiting plans to add a women’s studies major later this year. When she came to UTC, she had no idea such classes existed. Now she enjoys courses about women’s literature and anthropology.
Some classes discuss body image, a concept Ms. Whiting finds interesting. Growing up with three brothers, she never felt the need to wear cute clothes and makeup. When she sees young girls wear provocative clothing, she asks where they learned such behavior.
“I keep wondering where we get this beauty-queen image from,” she said. “Who placed beauty in this Barbie-looking category?”
UTC will explore those and other questions this month as it kicks off its introduction to its women’s studies major, which it will offer beginning this fall. The university previously offered a minor in the discipline but began exploring the possibility of a major after three students advocated it with surveys, meetings with administrators, committee meetings and editorials.
The goal of the women’s studies curriculum isn’t so much to study women as it is to learn about the feminist perspective and apply it to situations in everyday life, said Marcia Noe, a UTC professor of English and the director of women’s studies. Courses explore why factors such as race, gender and body image play major roles in people’s lives.
“The most important thing about a college education is learning to understand issues from a number of different perspectives,” she said.
Ms. Noe said society sets up a specific model of the ideal woman — thin, blonde, petite — and expects women to emulate that through cosmetics and plastic surgery. Society also has extended body-image pressure to men, who spend hours in the gym perfecting six-pack abs. Ms. Noe does not advocate avoiding makeup or working out but advises people to be aware of the societal pressure involved in appearance.
“There’s less individualism, less thinking for themselves,” she said.
Talia Welsh, a UTC professor of philosophy, will host a seminar titled “The Politics of Fat.” Ms. Welsh became interested in the topic when she noticed literature and popular press material about the dangers of being overweight. Through her research, she determined that lifestyle and behavioral habits such as eating and exercising play more of a role in heart disease and cancer than simply being overweight.
“I’m interested in why do we blame people who are fat as if they’ve done something wrong and why we feel free to stigmatize weight,” she said.
Ms. Welsh works to separate health from weight, though she knows that America’s image-driven society often makes quick assumptions about someone based on his or her weight. The pressure to look a certain way stems from peers, family members, magazines, movies and advertising that feature what has become the ideal, thin, beautiful woman.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to be thin or wanting to look a certain way,” Ms. Welsh said. “But as one priority in your life, not ‘the’ priority.”
Ms. Welsh said she thinks women’s studies classes allow students the opportunity to explore issues like eating disorders and body dissatisfaction. Students will take courses from a variety of disciplines, including English, sociology, philosophy, history and anthropology.
“Those skills will serve you well in whatever career you end up pursuing,” she said.
Senior psychology major Gina Gillespie took courses on women’s psychology and philosophy, and discussed how the media perpetuate unattainable images of the ideal woman by air-brushing models.
“Women by gender are very self-conscious about their image and the way they look,” she said. “That’s why we take more care and have more facilities for us, like nail salons and beauty parlors.”
UTC women’s studies sample classes
* “The Postmodern Body”
2-4:30 p.m. March 19 in Holt 305
* “Self-Made Women: Cosmetic Surgery Shows and the Construction of Female Pathology”
11-11:50 a.m. March 26 in the Raccoon Mountain Room
* Open-Mike Night for reading of poems and blogs
6 p.m. March 26 at Rock Point Books, 401 Broad St.
* “The Politics of Fat”
3-4 p.m. March 27 in the Signal Mountain Room
* “Incest, Adultery and Erotica: The Secret Life of Edith Wharton”
2-4:30 p.m. March 31 in Holt 304
