<p>Would it hurt me to write that I am interested in majoring in Women's Studies as one of the three majors on the Columbia app, since their Women's Studies program is obviusly based in Barnard? I prefer Columbia to Barnard and I don't want them to think that if I am going to study Women's Studies I might as well apply to Barnard.</p>
<p>it won't hurt to say you're into women's studies.</p>
<p>Both Columbia and Barnard are looking for students to make use of all their facilities. I definitely don't think this would hurt you.</p>
<p>I don't think Columbia would think someone might as well apply to Barnard. There are people at Columbia whose only major is only offered at Barnard. Don't worry about it.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with the other posters. It always helps to show an interest in something.</p>
<p>Not that you asked, but do you plan on not ever getting a job after majoring in women's studies? ;)</p>
<p>Haha- now you sound like my dad- I actually want to go to law school, so I think Women's Studies should give me a pretty solid reading/analyzing/writing/speaking education, but obviously if I decide my junior or senior year that I really don't want to go to law school, then I am in a lot of trouble. Honestly, though, Women's Studies is just one of the majors in which I am interested and I think I may be starting to move away from it towards American Studies, Anthropology, or Forensic Psychology (frankly, though Grad school and Law School, proably not!), but I started this process thinking Women's Studies and am still interested in it, so in the interest of continuity, I keep declaring it. Sorry for that long answer to that kind joke that gave me quite a laugh at the end of a stressful day!</p>
<p>My daughter was concerned about this too, because she was interested in dance which is entirely housed at Barnard.</p>
<p>We spoke with the presenter after the Columbia information session, and he gave her a great deal of comfort about the situation, enthusiastically promoting dance at Columbia for her.</p>
<p>Ultimately she chose not to apply to Columbia though, so it became irrelevant for her.</p>
<p>Nooo! Not women's studies! It'll transmute you into an automaton that will view even Shakespeare--no, especially Shakespeare--in only gendered terms! It will be impossible to hold an intelligent literary conversation with you! And, worst of all, I will never be attracted to you! Woman, are you really willing to risk all this!?</p>
<p>(Of course not! (This answer to my own rhetorical question born, by necessity, from my patriarchal need to frame the conversation!...and my shrill exclamation-pocked prose born out of my inversion of feminine archetypes!))</p>
<p>Je suis trop beau voir the Beauvoir you will doubtlessly become!</p>
<p>similarly (or perhaps not) to Musil, I share a bias here: I think if you need to have the word "studies" in your major, it's not a real major. you don't see anyone majoring in "Math Studies" or "Philosophy Studies". Even Sociology is a legit discipline, even if most of its practitioners are nimrods.</p>
<p>Musil: Some women might take your post as an encouragement to pursue women's studies. </p>
<p>Denzera: You must know that when chemistry was introduced as a major it was so newfangled because not offered by Aristotle that it was scandalous to most.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with mythmom. One day women studies will be as respected as chemistry is. This development will mean cleaner cars. It will mean more interesting literature. It will mean less amorous exercise for everybody. Women studies! You go girls! Whooo! I'm right behind you, looking at you lasciviously and objectifying your curvaceous intelligences! Whooo!</p>
<p>(Women studies on par with chemistry? Me, inspiring anything in women except unadulterated lust? Oh, mythmom, you and your MYTHS! So cute!)</p>
<p>I don't agree. I sometimes teach women's studies and my point is that the repression of female sexuality is the first act of patriarchy. IMO the victory of women's studies would mean more, and more to the point, better sex for everyone! I really mean it.</p>
<p>Objectify away. I know I do. My gorgeous daughter (halfway between Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek with a little Natalie Portman in there) turns heads in her t-shirt "This is what a feminist looks like." When she wears it to open houses for majors at my school she gets many guys signing up for women's studies classes. That's where some of the best girls are.</p>
<p>Oh, I don't deny that mythmom. My girlfriend is actually a women's studies major and, uh, she has taught me a lot! Just not about Shakespeare. Or literature of any sort. Or--well, her expertise is limited, but it's quite deep.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm not going there. You got me Musil.</p>
<p>Well, I always wanted you.</p>
<p>(Stops...)</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's where some of the best girls are.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sure, they're easy.</p>
<p>But relationship material? What non-castrated man wants to engage in the sorts of conversations that most of them would want to have?</p>
<p>And marriage material? Do you want your kids to be made fun of their whole lives because they have their mommy's last name? Do you want your kids to not be as healthy/smart as they could be because mommy thinks that breastfeeding is repressive?</p>
<p>Totally misinformed post. Feminists do not oppose sex or breast feeding. Children are not made fun of for their last names.</p>
<p>I wonder what you boys are so afraid of.</p>
<p>that wondering in itself is probably a big part of it.</p>
<p>there is a spectrum of feminism, of course. By some definitions, I could probably be considered a feminist myself. I only date high-self-esteem women, for example. but there are some who are definitely off the deep end.</p>
<p>i'll quit the hijack now, thank'ee.</p>
<p>I think that listing the major would be fine if you emphasized in other parts of the application what you like about Columbia, and how that contrasts from Barnard. Like, if you write all about how you really like the Columbia core, than this shows that Barnard wouldn't be for you. Either way, I don't think they should hold that against you--if your major is mostly at Barnard, but just to be sure I would mention something distinctly "Columbia-n" that is drawing you to the school...</p>
<p>Denzera: I agree with you. There are many feminist statements that seem off the deep end to me, too. I don't enjoy male bashing, prudish anti-sexual or reductionistic analysis of literature or society. I would not look at everything through a feminist lens (Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow which I wrote my dissertation on, for example), but I wouldn't make fun of Women's Studies either.</p>
<p>And I will refrain from further thread hijacking, too.</p>