i swear (B"N) it was all the americans, not just me!

[EDIT: I realized I forgot to write the author of this post. If you can't tell, then you don't us very well.]

I have had a bunch of classes, each with their own interesting stories. Here is a taste of one class I had today.

Gender studies is just so different in Ghana. Gender in Archaeology, a 400 level Archaeology elective, is apparently more of a gender studies course than an archaeology one. I was taking it, hoping that it would fulfill an Art History requirement, but now I’m thinking not.

Firstly, the lecturer spent the entire class today defining the difference between gender and sex. Anybody who has taken a women studies or gender studies course in the States can answer that question in one sentence. Sex is biological, and gender is a social construct based off of sex. But it took her all class to explain it. She wanted the class to come up with their own opinions first. Weird teaching method, I think. Who cares what the students think? It’s not an opinion. (Side note: quote from Twi last week in a fit of desperation, “Grammar is not a democracy!”)

The amount of time it took to define gender/sex is ridiculous enough. But then after it was already defined, there was plenty of more ridiculousness. Just to get a picture of what the class looks like, it was 50% Ghanaian guys (being as the university is probably 80% male), 25% Ghanaian girls, and 25% American girls. For the most part, the guys dominate every conversation because they are so loud and disrespectful. They call out and interrupt. Now here are my stories.

1) The lecturer asked, “How many sexes are there?” So a Ghanaian girl said three: male, female, and both. I was actually surprised and impressed that she would even think that far. The lecturer said no. She said, “There are two.” Then she wrote TWO on the board. “There is male and female. That is it! No more. Two. Male and female. I’m sorry to those who are sensitive to religion, but in the bible, it says, ‘Male and Female, He created them.’” I was really going to stay quiet at first when she just said two because the Ghanaian girl had already brought it up, and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s feet. (I know, me? Not wanting to step on feet?) But playing the religion card is dangerous. Firstly, this is a secular institution! It is totally inappropriate to use religion as your basis for argument! Secondly, biblical texts are ambiguous enough that if you don’t know your facts cold, you are going to lose. So this was my first outburst in this class. “First of all, the creation story is told twice. In the first telling of it, they are created TOGETHER, as one person, one sex, an ambiguous sex. Therefore, saying that there are only two sexes because the creation story says that there are only two sexes is incorrect! There was a sexually ambiguous Human that woman was created out of, and man was left. Second of all, the Talmud itself describes I think seven different sexes with different laws pertaining to each of them. To say that religion does not recognize more than two sexes is completely wrong!”

2) At that point I was not the only American yelling at her. The rest of them were chiming in. She took a step back and got off the religion issue. She tried the next argument. “Sex is biological. According to biology, there are only two sexes.” “That’s totally incorrect!” the Americans screamed. “How are you determining sex?” “Genitalia,” was her first try. “People are born with both! People are born with neither! What if a woman has a hysterectomy! What if a man is castrated!” She tried again, “It’s biological. It’s about the chromosomes. Everyone has two chromosomes, XX or XY.” I momentarily lost myself, “SOME PEOPLE HAVE THREE! XXY!” The girl next to me said, “Actually, people can live if they’re born with one.” The lecturer responded to me, “Well, what is the dominant chromosome?” I didn’t understand the question. Truth is, I still don’t, and I’ve been thinking about it all day.

3) Somehow, she was not convinced by our arguments. Either that or she was just getting a headache and wanted to continue. She moved on and asked us for examples of gender constructs at our school. People said behavior, education, parental responsibilities, etc. Then the girl next me (the same one that said the one chromosome thing) looked over at me and mouthed, “Sexual preference.” I mouthed back, “Do it!” and smiled. (Background info- there is a sign at the airport when you’re arriving in Ghana: “Welcome to Ghana! All who come in peace are accepted in peace. We have no tolerance for pedophiles or any other of sexual deviants.” If that was not clear enough, homosexuality is a crime in Ghana.) The lecturer was a little taken aback. She wrote it on the board anyway but didn’t repeat it out loud as she had for the rest of them. Then a Ghanaian girl raised her hand and asked what it meant.

4) As we were listing off gender constructs, there was this guy sitting behind me that kept shaking his head and mumbling that it wasn’t true, that we were making it up. “There is no social difference between girls and boys. Anything that is acceptable for one is acceptable for both.” Someone gave the example of language/speech, that in some societies, men can curse whenever, it might even make them look cool, but it is completely frowned upon for a woman to curse. The guy behind me shook his head again and mumbled, “There is no difference between what a man can say and what a woman can say. It not acceptable for anyone to curse.” The first example that I could think of to disprove him was ghetto New York, but I didn’t think it would work well enough. I raised my hand. When the lecturer called on me, I faced the guy and waited until I had his attention. “You have doubt whether there is social inequality in language. Do you remember in the beginning of the class, when the lecturer asked everyone why they chose this course? A guy called out, ‘Because the lecturer is pretty.’ Do you think for one second that a girl could say the same thing to a male lecturer? No way! She’d be kicked out of the freaking country! It’s completely disrespectful!” The whole class got really loud right then. I’m not sure if they were agreeing with me or laughing at me or just saying pshaw. I like to think that they were saying, “Good point.”