Just something I wanted to add to today's discussion

So, unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very well today and wasn't able to listen and participate in the discussion as I had wanted to but I wanted to go off something Kim and others said about women criticizing other women, the fear men would have taking our class, and how this Identity and Difference piece is more about the conflict internally and between other women. I've been thinking lately about how funny and/or offensive it would be for a man to say how proud he is to be a man, a heterosexual person proclaiming their pride as a straight individual, or a Caucasian person proclaiming their pride in being white. Granted, none of these groups are or have been historically oppressed, at least as regularly as the LGBTQ, African American, and female community. On the other hand, everyone can be a minority somewhere. If I, a straight female, went to a gay bar or a Pride Alliance meeting, I would be the minority. I attend black student union meetings regularly and during one heated discussion , a student proclaimed that she is proud to be black. We were discussing the boxes which applicants for college fill out to state their ethnicity (and whether they should be removed from applications). This girl wanted the chance to fill out her ethnicity because she wanted to be herself, show pride, and not be the default. As possibly the only Caucasian girl in the room, I was a bit hurt and offended that white was too vanilla, too bland, and too uninteresting. She should be proud of her culture but I am proud of my Russian culture, yet I am white. As long as it doesn't dwell on stereotypes, I believe that everyone should be proud of who they are and where they come from<3