Gilmour wants to teach the work of men. “Serious heterosexual guys.”
Since then, he has been called sexist, racist, and homophobic too. He’s even been dubbed unpatriotic because he, a Canadian author, said, “I can only teach stuff I love. I can’t teach stuff that I don’t, and I haven’t encountered any Canadian writers yet that I love enough to teach.” I guess in his mind, the only Canadian author worth anyone’s time is himself.
In the same interview, Gilmour managed to insult his own students and pretty much all undergrads everywhere. In his attempt to excuse himself of any criticism, he “explained” the only female author worth studying is Virginia Woolf, and that she is “too sophisticated” even for third-year undergrads. So Professor Gilmour is extremely condescending, but that’s not even the worst part about this story.
The worst part is how the story hit the web. While Gilmour acknowledges that at the beginning of a term, a student will usually ask why there aren’t any female writers in his course, this is where the questions end. It’s not the students who brought Gilmour’s beliefs to everyone’s attention.
Gilmour made all of these offensive remarks in an interview for a column called “Shelf Esteem,” in which somewhat famous people talk about what they have on their bookshelves.
When was the last time you closely reviewed your syllabus and paid attention to who authored your readings on a whole? Until last week, I never once considered going over the reading list and comparing the number of female authors to the number of male authors, or even doing a quick Google check to see the level of diversity on the list.
We pay a lot of money for our schooling, so I think it’s time we start actually demanding a quality education. Before I went out and bought a computer, I did a lot
of research on what I wanted. I continued to ask a lot of questions even after I decided to buy it. Since university costs a lot more than a computer, shouldn’t we be allowed to question what we’re getting in the same way? It’s well within in our rights to ask who is teaching our courses, as well as what they teaching us.
I’m not suggesting for everyone to go into class today yelling “SEXISM!” at their professor. I simply ask that you take a look at your syllabuses and think about who you are reading and who you are not. You’re allowed to ask a professor why they’ve made certain choices, and your professor should be able to answer with something other than ‘Because I like him/ her.’ You’re not paying a shitload
of money just to read books other, somewhat older people like — you’re paying to learn something.
Amelia Ruthven-Nelson
Senior Staff
