The F-Word

When I used to team-teach a Rhetorical Criticism class at Chico State, the four of us would divide the semester’s lectures up according to our interests and strengths. The course goal was to teach students a variety of techniques for examining communication artifacts and determining their type and impact on human interaction. Given that I was often the only female instructor on the team and that my thesis had been a gender-specific critique, I always opted for teaching the Feminist Criticism lecture. Which was an interesting communication exercise in itself. First, I would get the “huffers”--baseball hat-wearing guys in the back row of the lecture hall who would slam down their pencils and engage in loud, impatient expulsions of air when they heard the day’s topic. Real Renaissance men. And then I would get the bulk of the rest of the class who would vocally object to being called feminists--even though they had already agreed by raise of hands that employment, family planning, and education should be equally shared. The very definition of feminism. I always felt I’d found the real F-word. So, what’s a forward-thinking gal or guy to do? Well, if you’re Robert Munsch and pretty much one of the best children’s authors ever, you write a kick-hiney book about girl power called The Paper Bag Princess. In this story, Elizabeth has a thing for Ronald, but has to get her open-up-a-can on when he is carried off by the dragon. It’s pretty fem-tastic. You should read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Bag-Princess-Classic-Munsch/dp/0920236162

http://robertmunsch.com/