Reply to Why the lack of men majoring in humanities?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Why the lack of men majoring in humanities?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]English major here:  Here’s what I think the answer is:

1. As college costs have escalated, questions of ROI have become more salient; this shifts some from humanities to majors that are perceived as more commercial—I think this is the dominant consideration, tbh;

2. The humanities themselves are not what they once were; there has been an increasing focus on questions of representation and various forms of identity groups where white males are perceived as “the enemy,” and its not unfair to say that, as a rough first cut, humanities now = critical oppression studies.  Wherever you come down on the merits of that view of the world, it should be understandable why it might not be as interesting to everyone, particularly the designated villains of the current story.  People can take a hint and tell where they are not wanted—hear often enough that people are tired “stale pale males” and its pretty easy to conclude “this is not where i want to place my intellectual focus.”  People get punished grade-wise for disagreeing with the political priors of their professor in a lot of cases; unacceptable risk in the current economic climate.

3. The kind of young men who are interested in studying the humanities in college are mostly interested in the idea of a coherent intellectual tradition.  This is hard to find now, the deconstruction of the old canon and the lack of any coherent alternative canon makes everything isolated, a one-off, with no coherent story anymore. This reality is off putting to some, a point even those who think changes to the canon were long overdue should be able to understand.

4. Also, many people want to study the humanities because they love old books; many of the professors teaching in the humanities seem to hate them; there’s a disconnect.  The mean-spirited nature of critical theories as applied to great works are is off-putting to some. That’s not the only way to do the humanities, but it’s the one mostly on offer now.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics