Feminist Perspective Experience

Last week in one of my classes, my class was discussing our recent blog posts to a situation that our professor proposed to us. The question was along the lines of "imagining a company of 1,000 employees of diverse backgrounds. In the main hallway of the company there is a statue of what appears to be a factory worker. Should the statue be a man or a woman if more woman work in the company than men?" I was furious when I came across this post from another student:

"I think that the sculture of a male in the workplace is depicting what male symbolism is for just about every culture, strength and leadership. The same would go for a woman's sculture. When I see a statue of a woman I don't automatically think of STRENGTH and POWER. I think of nuturing qualities and more importantly a different kind of strength. If every man or woman that is offended by this post would sit down and think about it, they would agree with me. The statue is not trying to depict that every worker has a penis, but the company prides itself on strength, leadership, and power. Generally speaking, a statue of a woman would not give me that impression. I'm not a male supremacist."

To me, this post was not thought through. This is so typical for people to associate power and strength with males. Also, the student said he thinks of woman as having nuturing qualities. Personally, I think this student needs a wake up call to reality. Things have changed!!! There are now more woman in power in this world than there ever has been. And its going to keep increasing. There are also more single mothers taking care of their children on their own. I get why back in the 1960's someone would think this way, but this post honestly this pissed me off. I think I felt so strongly about it because in my life, I have grown up with many strong woman around me. My mother raised me on her own, my grandmother runs her own business, and I have a great great grandmother, who is over 100 years old, and still drives herself around. I believe this student could have gotten their point across in a much more acceptable manner. Ugh!