Appleman, Critical Encounters Chapter 5

I think that reading this chapter just adds to my understanding of Feminism from Webb's chapter in Literature and Lives. For instance, how gender effects how we read a text is very important and provides a lot of insight. The feminist theory lots of times talks about being different and the joys and pains of being that way. In a lot of ways feminist theory is similar to teaching about African American equality. Both emphasize differences and how they can be cherished and accepted. The struggle for women's equality is similar in many ways to that of African Americans. I feel like most of the time, if it just wasn't talked about as in depth and as often as it is, things might be better. However, in reading many diverse texts this is hard since there are so many different ways to look at a text. I agree with Appleman when she talks about both "feminist" texts and traditional texts in the classroom. I think it would be more wise to start with the "feminist" text because I feel that it is easier to see the lens of feminism in that text. I think that feminist texts make students more comfortable with the theory and looking at a text through that lens. Once they are comfortable it will be easy for them to take that lens and not only look at other texts, but also the world around them. I think that the activities Appleman talks about are a really good flow to go from a poem, to text, to traditional forms of literature. One thing that i thought this chapter could have done a little better is the amount of responses by the students. Students opinions on how they used feminist theory could have helped me understand how I would use it in the classroom.