Student political climate getting a little overwhelming

Now, I know that for decades student protests have been a thing, with students out on campus with flyers and such to advertise certain political parties, but I'm beginning to get way too overwhelmed by the current university political climate.

I do English with Creative Writing as a course and I feel like my tutors, as much as I like them, really force politics down our throats. And it makes me feel worse that practically every student in my class is on the same political side as the tutors, because it makes me stand out in a bad way.

I don't feel like there's even room for mature debate or political discussion. There was a time when in my course group chat I said I couldn't stand studying feminist literature. That's my opinion. Many of the books we study involve graphic themes such as sexual abuse which just make me uncomfortable, and I've been doing English since GCSE, so it's become very tiring to repeat the same thing (in literature we're supposed to read texts through "lenses", such as the feminist or marxist lens, but we always do feminist and nothing else). My course mates took this statement as hate speech, saying that I was homophobic, transphobic, sexist/misogynistic (even though I am female) and racist. I told them that I'm none of those things and that I have done many things, including things abroad, to help bring understanding about things like homosexuality, but they ignored me. They just kept reminding me that women have been oppressed for years, and they went on huge political rants about stopping sexual abuse, basically making out as if I supported the abuse of women.

I've repaired my bonds with most of these people now and I try to avoid political discussions, but then things happen in class. My tutor made us study a poem about Brexit and I didn't dare say to anyone that everyone I knew voted leave, because that would make me look evil. The tutor clearly didn't like leave supporters, either. He then asked the majority of the class (who are female) if they could hear the patriarchy in the air, and even asked for someone to demonstrate mansplaining. Needless to say, I felt a little bad for the guys in the room.

I just freak out because both the students and the tutors are always bringing up politics, and they're all on the same level. It makes me feel like a horrible person, but why should I be made to feel horrible just because I'm on a different part of the political spectrum? All sides have their ups and downs, and I'm willing to accept others for what they believe in, but it's difficult when they're not doing the same for me.

Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone else sit down in class only to find the tutor talking about something really political and off-topic?

Honestly, I don't mind if people believe in the patriarchy, but I don't want to be made to feel evil for not believing in it myself. I don't want to become a villain because I don't use the word "mansplaining" or consider myself a feminist. I just want to go to class, study a text, have a class discussion or mature debate and then go about the rest of my day, but so far I'm surrounded by a very tense student political climate.

Reply 1

becci_davis

I get what you mean.

It’s very difficult to be brave enough to have the “wrong” opinion on immigration, brexit, feminism, climate change, racism etc because people like to assume that everyone they like or relate to has the same opinions.

I think it’s just because a lot of the issues in politics at the moment are very divisive. You are expected to be leave or remain, feminist or sexist, blindly accepting or homophobic/transphobic, pro-immigration or racist.

Personally, I think the most important thing is that I always remain educated. Most of the time I just leave those with strong opinions to it but if I want to speak out, I need to know both sides to the argument.

It’s hard to keep it away from a course like English Literature due to the OBSESSION with context but if you find it too much to cope with, don’t be afraid to speak out.

Say “I don’t feel that having an opinion that doesn’t match yours makes me uneducated/ignorant” because it’s true. You’re allowed to have a different, perhaps unpopular opinion without being wrong or misinformed.

Hope it helps a little bit to know there’s others who feel exactly the same x

Student political climate getting a little overwhelming

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you