Reviving Ophelia

Kyle is taking "Women's Perspectives" as an elective this semester, and has been assigned Reviving Ophelia. The teacher is a young woman who is also the winter track coach - I have met her once and she seems nice enough. Presumably, she was assigned this book in college, as it was popular in the 90's.

You think I'm going to trash the book and complain about what they teach kids in school these days, don't you? You would be wrong. I think it's fine. I told him it's partly unscientific crap, but if he's in the class, he'd better be alert to its message.  You don't get so much room to complain when it's an elective.

1. He probably won't read it anyway. It's an elective and he likes to get out as easily as possible.
2. If he did read it, reading is a good thing, almost all the time.
3. Reading outside your comfort zone is a good thing.
4. Reading skeptically is a good thing.
5. Reading skeptically but still finding things worth knowing is a good thing.
6. Knowing what the powerful people in your culture think is true is a good thing.
7. Learning to read the teacher is a good thing.
8. Boys learning what girls think - or what educated adult women think girls think - is a good thing.
9. Deciding whether you want to contest an idea or just go along is a good thing.
10. Putting disagreement tactfully, or focusing on points of agreement, are both good things.
11. It's not completely wrong.
12. It's good to think of people both as categories and as individuals