{"title":"“Karenism” and the Problem of White Women: Reflections on Quotidian Forms of White Vigilantism in the Classroom","authors":"Erika D. Grajeda","doi":"10.1177/10608265221108207","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Following emerging sociological critiques of hegemonic femininities and calls for embodied research that troubles long standing assumptions about academia as a “safe haven,” this essay provides critical reflections on quotidian forms of gendered racism and vigilantism in the classroom. Specifically, I draw on undergraduate student engagement with “Cat Person,” a short story about a “bad date” that was published in the New Yorker in 2017 and is now considered essential reading for the #MeToo era. By bringing pop culture artifacts and autoethnographic reflections into conversation with what philosopher Barbara Applebaum refers to as the “pedagogical practice of comforting discomfort,” I examine forms of Karenism that emerge in higher education classrooms, particularly for women of color faculty. I argue that in an institutional context where class-privileged white women most readily access narratives about violability and fragility, they are better positioned to summon pedagogical forms of comforting and care.","PeriodicalId":22686,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Men's Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Journal of Men's Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10608265221108207","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Following emerging sociological critiques of hegemonic femininities and calls for embodied research that troubles long standing assumptions about academia as a “safe haven,” this essay provides critical reflections on quotidian forms of gendered racism and vigilantism in the classroom. Specifically, I draw on undergraduate student engagement with “Cat Person,” a short story about a “bad date” that was published in the New Yorker in 2017 and is now considered essential reading for the #MeToo era. By bringing pop culture artifacts and autoethnographic reflections into conversation with what philosopher Barbara Applebaum refers to as the “pedagogical practice of comforting discomfort,” I examine forms of Karenism that emerge in higher education classrooms, particularly for women of color faculty. I argue that in an institutional context where class-privileged white women most readily access narratives about violability and fragility, they are better positioned to summon pedagogical forms of comforting and care.