By Martha P. L. Whitaker
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 4, 1998

McKean 'insensitive, uninformed'

To the Editor:

I am responding to Jennifer McKean's article, "Feminism at its worst" (Jan. 28). Ms. McKean quotes Frederick Goodwin, an ostensible expert on women's health, who claims "I treat depression and I've seen a lot of patients who are the products of these women's studies programs. The radical feminist movement is fostering depression in these women . . . somatization [excessive preoccupation with the body] and paranoid thinking."

Many studies have demonstrated that girls as young as six are dissatisfied with their bodies and claim to be on diets. University-level women's studies programs cannot possibly be causing this. It is far more likely that girls experience somatization because of unrealistic body images of women portrayed in the media. Perhaps "nobody has molded an image of the kind of woman [McKean] should be," but innumerable girls and women with eating disorders would disagree. By quoting Goodwin, Ms. McKean promotes the terribly flawed logic that we should censor Women's Studies so that we won't have to learn the difficult truth of contemporary women's oppression.

Furthermore, when Ms. McKean writes "I don't speak for a whole gender, but I do what I want in this world, not what society dictates for me," she attempts to make women feel foolish if they have experienced gender discrimination in today's society. I am sincerely pleased that Ms. McKean has not experienced personal discrimination. And I genuinely hope that she pursues her career and dreams without ever encountering discrimination. However, it is insensitive and uninformed to presume that just because she has not experienced gender discrimination that other women must be holding a centuries-old "grudge."

The kind of feminists with whom I align myself are level-headed women and men who do not presume to tell me if, when and/or what kind of discrimination I have or have not experienced in my life. They are responsible people who listen to the very real life experiences of those who claim oppression. They take the time to consider how their position of privilege - be it gender, race, class, sexual oppression or age - might shroud their ability to understand the viewpoint of those who are oppressed. Once we have looked beyond our own life experience, and once we take the time to consider how our own behavior might contribute to the oppression of others, only then can we recognize and take seriously the issue of contemporary prejudice.

Martha P. L. Whitaker
Hydrology and Water Resources doctoral candidate