Feb 16 2009
The Women’s Health Class
“Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Perhaps it is a reflection of the times personified by members of a younger generation, but in this Women’s Health class, self-disclosure pertaining to the most intimate health issues and relationships appears to be the norm. Of the thirty students enrolled, three are male. Of the three males, two engage the women in conversation. The other male student, I’m afraid, is ready to run out the door at the mere mention of uteri and the corresponding etiology of PMS.
But unlike their instructor who values her privacy and seeks to minimize self-disclosure, the majority of students appear to converse freely as appropriate to topic: domestic violence and punishment for self-defense against such, sexual orientation, child-rearing practices, and sexual harassment incidents. For example, taking decided action to end the domestic violence they had endured for years resulted in prison sentences for two female students. This was due to the nature of the retaliatory punishments administered to their male offenders. One student reported to the class that she had killed her abusive partner, and the other student described in detail how she had successfully disabled her former partner for life.
Most of we middle-class faculty have never had to walk in the shoes of our inner-city, working-class students, even though abuse knows no demographic. We couldn’t imagine how experiences of domestic violence, shelter living, and incarceration could be discussed openly and matter-of-factly in a classroom. Yet here they are, back in school. Perhaps the environment of this particular Women’s Health class appears to foster empathetic, non-judgmental conversation in a safe and familiar setting.
Now, if only their instructor could self-disclose so much as a hangnail . . !
