Scripting Feminist Ethics in Teacher Education by Michelle Forrest Linda Wheeldon

Author:Michelle Forrest, Linda Wheeldon [Michelle Forrest, Linda Wheeldon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Feminism & Feminist Theory
ISBN: 9780776628134
Google: seC5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Published: 2019-10-08T05:11:19+00:00

CHAPTER 3

Vulnerability, Horrorism,

and Bullying in Schools

Women who adopt the attitudes of war in their search for liberation condemn themselves to acting out the last perversion of dehumanized manhood, which has only one foreseeable outcome, the specifically masculine end of suicide. (Greer 1971)

In this chapter, as an example of how a feminist teacher might make sense of what has come to be called “cyberbullying” among youth in schools, we draw again from the work of Adriana Cavarero, comparing her concept of vulnerability to that of another leading feminist thinker, Judith Butler, in respect to an extension of the scenario used in the preceding chapter. Following from the implication in chapter 2, that feminist consciousness-raising can take the form of writing and teaching with “bad intentions”—and considering we take such writing to be intrinsically pedagogical—we begin this chapter with scene 2 from the scenario “No Place for the Faint of Heart,” used for analysis in chapter 2.

No Place for the Faint of Heart

Scene 2

Setting: A few moments later, Nadia sits behind the wheel of her car in the university parking lot, apparently upset as she talks to someone on the phone.

Nadia: I never understand what that professor wants from us! Everyone knows that African-Canadians have been oppressed. She thinks because she teaches about ethics that she knows what it feels like?! Maybe she does and maybe she doesn’t, but I sure do, and if she did she should have spoken up when Lily asked Jason to say if that poster was racist. Then she questions why I spoke out. Too bad it made the class uncomfortable and too bad for her because I know how it hurts! (Listening to party on phone)

Maybe I should have told her how I know? Why should I? Do I have to tell my story to be taken seriously? Why should I be the poster child for bullying? It doesn’t help to tell about it anyway. When those girls made fun of me for nothing, my Grade 8 teacher tells me: “Don’t take it to heart.” And, then, after she speaks to them, thinking she knows best, they torment me even more. I hated being called a “snitch.” “We just don’t like you,” they’d say, “if you were cool, you’d have friends of your own. Too bad if no one likes you.” (Listening to other party and now in tears.)

First, I had no friends, then the name-calling started, and no one listened when I finally told the principal they stole my money and pushed me around. No wonder I spent every minute alone. Teachers thought I liked it that way. Not one person spoke up for me!

Hearing a knock on her car window, Nadia looks up to see Dr. Derval.

• • •

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