DePaul University starts gay studies

[deadparrot]

CHICAGO, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Chicago's DePaul University is offering a minor in gay studies, gaining kudos from students and complaints from outside.

The Chicago Tribune reports the new minor -- officially titled Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies -- began this semester at the largest Roman Catholic university in the United States.

Courses in LGBTQ studies range from gender identity, same-sex desire and government reactions to homosexuals to literature and history of homosexuality in the United States.

Gary Cestaro, the director of the DePaul program, said it goes with the university's mission to "open investigation and free inquiry" of topical issues.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060220-092816-6135r

[xchrom]

1. woo-hoo

that is soo awesome!:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

having gay studies programs in universities is very important.

[WillParkinson]

2. Forgive me, but...

I HATE the word queer.

With a passion.

[WindRavenX]

3. why?

I'm bi, and it's increasingly common among younger GLBTers to simply identify as "queer". I have no problem with reclaiming the word.

[WillParkinson]

5. Why?

I don't see how it's reclaiming a word. It's one that's usually spit with venom and disgust. Not really a word I want to "reclaim".

[mondo joe]

7. If it weren't usually "spit with venom and disgust" there'd be no point to

reclaiming it, would there?

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Ding ding ding

I never get these oppositions to transforming the language of hatred - as if this language is fixed for all times! It came from somewhere, and it can be changed, just like the society that produced it. If one cannot transform the meaning of a word, how could one be expected to transform the presuppositions and prejudices of an entire society???

Sheesh. And "queer," as in "queer" studies has been around for years and years in a positive sense - a discipline founded and worked in primarily by LGBT academics!

[mitchtv]

11. don't get it? My guess is you are young enough

to not have it used on you before a beer bottle is thrown. I will never use it It's like "nixxer"

[mondo joe]

13. People have different responses to the same thing.

Some people are hurt by a word and never want to hear it again.

Others are hurt by a word and say "fuck that - I'll use it myself before I let it be used against me."

I don't feel strongly one way or the other for my own self, but I do think it's important to remember that people are individuals with unique - not incorrect - responses.

[mitchtv]

14. agreed, but they have to realize

in some quarters "them's fighting words"

[mondo joe]

15. We all have to realize anything we do may result in hostility from others.

Though I have to say, being so hurt by a word you can't even bear to hear or say it doesn't sound like it's backed up by a lot of fight.

[megatherium]

6. I've always wanted to reclaim the word 'fag'.

(I'm not very serious here.)

But it's the word they used against me when I was in middle school or high school (what they called me even though they didn't know I was gay; hell, I hadn't figured it out yet).

Except there was a kid in the sixth grade who called me "femme". Many years later I was astonished to find out what that word means, it's not a synonym for 'sissy', exactly -- it's the opposite of 'butch', and refers to a gay person who assumes the female role in a relationship where the partners assume sexually-stereotyped roles. (That doesn't happen very much these days.) I should note my tormenter was kind enough to apologize for his behavior at our 10 year high school reunion.

[donco6]

4. I hate it too.

I know, I know, - reclaiming the language, blah blah.

I still hate it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Blah blah

seems a rather trivial way to put this essential operation. Reclaiming (or rather, transforming) language IS the game of political resistance itself.

[OneBlueSky]

8. Pope Bennie's gonna have something to say about this . . . n/t

.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Yup

I'll bet the program doesn't last long.

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Good for DePaul University to keep the avenue of discussion open

of course many parts of the RCC will blow many needless fuses over this.

[NashVegas]

16. Reasons I Wouldn't Be Excited About This

#1: the academic world needs another specialized degree like I need a hole in my head.

The specialization of our academic world is, IMO, increasing the speed in which our society splits into separate classes. The class that invests in a modern super-specialized degree spends the same amount of money for their education as someone with a broad MBA, yet have about 1/1000th the potential for financial return. So. Why is this not under general sexual studies such as one would have for a medical or psych major?

#2: congratulations queers! Your sexuality is about to become as exploited for marketing purposes as the rest of ours' is.

#3: Want to investigate and explore? Get a same sex boyfriend/girlfriend, or simply accept the gay people around you as they are. It's much cheaper than tuition.

[Runcible Spoon]

19. I'm sorry, I must have missed the memo...

since when was the main thrust of a college education to increase "the potential for financial return"? Diversifying educational curriculum is a far cry from fetishism and compartmentalized labor/production that is the basis for class hierarchy in capitalist political economies. Then again, if we are coming from a Marxist perspective, why even care about the earning power of a degree except to purge higher education of that taint? At any rate there are many persuasive reasons to argue that an MBA is a useless POS degree in most cases unless one already has an establishesd career or mommy and daddy's business to inherit. Last thing this economy needs is more management! In my experience, as an ABD PhD student in cultural anthropology, perhaps a whole new major/minor is not needed, but should be explored until (I AM GENERALIZING WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE HERE PEOPLE) psychology and medical degree programs get their collective heads out of their asses when it comes to "deviations" from the status quo. Many LBGT and those interested in studying the dynamics of "alternative lifestyles" (I cringe at the term but without writing a long winded thesis here it will have to suffice as shorthand to get my point accross) are extremely frustrated at the hamfisted way the "traditional" disciplines understand and analytically problematize their particular fields of experience. IMHO anthropology has been a great field for answering these concerns, and we are certainly established, but alas suffer in relative obscurity since we do not make gobs of money for our universities and we also have this annoying tendency to illuminate and challenge the very foundation of reality-construction that universities depend upon to maintain intellectual hegemony. In some ways, Queer Studies does seem like "throwing crumbs" to shut up a small but active, tenacious, and justifiably inflamed group(s), but at the same time I think that any visibility is beneficial in the long run.

[NashVegas]

21. Since About 1980 Or So?

Education stopped being about something one gets for its own sake, and became something one gets in order to have the resumé and greater earnings somewhere in that time frame.

[Runcible Spoon]

22. of course sarcasm is not registering...so....

what IS is not always what SHOULD be....g'night DU

[Orrin_73]

18. Is there a need for that????

[Runcible Spoon]

20. I dunno, is there a need for one more fucking business major?

just askin'. Says a lot about a culture when it seems to value increasing production capacity over understanding and accommadating disenfranchised and marginalized populations.

[Orrin_73]

23. With a business major you will find a job easy

What does gay studies teach????

[mondo joe]

24. Silly me - I thought college was about education.

Not just a trade school.

More to the point is any literature or philosophy really necessary in your idea of college?