Opinions matter

I had a splendid time today in my women playwrights class. We were finishing up our discussion of A Man's World by Rachel Crothers, and I was focusing on doing some close reading of the male love interest, who comes off - to me - as the biggest a-hole, misogynist jerk in the world, but who comes off - to my students - as not half bad. So we discussed his character for much of the class.

I felt like the discussion was plentiful in insight. We did a really good job combing through the gray area between the binaries of "jerk" and "good guy." Initially, one of the students said, remorsefully, "I just didn't think of him that way!" The other students were sympathetic, as was I, and we talked and talked and talked. We looked at evidence. We honed in on details. We puzzled. It was great. Plus, I told the students that they never have to agree with me, but that we all (including me) have to consider each others' opinions. I think we all left class feeling good about it, and the students certainly had a lot of wonderful "light bulb" moments. We all bounced out into the snow with light hearts. Good times.

The irony to me is that I feel like I have to be very careful how I frame this class. Feminism is sort of a bad word at Heartland U (this will surprise few), and when I talk about feminist readings of these plays by women, I can feel the room get a little uncomfortable. (Like it shrivels in on itself.) So I'm trying to use a light touch. I don't feel like I should have to, but I also don't want to alienate students - many of whom are from conservative backgrounds. Ah well.

Anyway - I am happy that they are talking and digging into doing some close reading, as well as talking about performance matters. This is just so fun. I was really worried about this class, since women playwrights aren't my area of real expertise, but goodness - it's a ton of fun! And there is a LOT to mine in these plays. Hell, I could write a book about them. Maybe I will someday. :)