[Vwoolf] "the 'ignorance' of privilege"

[Mary Ellen Foley]

Ah, yes.  Something to fall back on.  I was majoring in chemistry, with a
place at Stanford for graduate school, and my mother, who was paying for
books and living expenses (tuition was via scholarship), insisted that I
take some classes in the education department because, and I do quote
exactly here, "If a woman can't do anything else, she can always teach or
be a secretary."

Bless her heart.  What a lovely vote of confidence!  At least that's how I
took it at the time, though she might have meant "If a woman isn't
permitted to do anything else..."  And the education classes were utter
DRECK -- I despair for Kentucky schools, I really do --

Then again, she might have had a point.  I have an unfashionable regional
accent, and a friend of mine who also moved to the Bay Area ended up
working on a loading dock, because companies wouldn't hire her as a
front-desk receptionist because of her accent.  I am sure that, when I did
go to get a job, I probably had a harder time of it than those who sounded
like the announcers on TV.

That was -*cough*- decades ago.  I do hope things have changed...

Mary Ellen

On Sat, Apr 16, 2022 at 11:04 AM Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <
vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> I know this isn’t really relevant to the listserv, but it will resonate
> with those of you who (like me) come from working-class backgrounds:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61107909__;!!KGKeukY!gH-UkaXScOEYmSgt3p90A7JoQTQcJ4dN6O9jRlCDe2ycgM-BLLdgP2srmOn2E73fqRA$  I saw a black
> woman on the TV the other day, ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart
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> ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEnd
> I know this isn’t really relevant to the listserv, but it will resonate
> with those of you who (like me) come from working-class backgrounds:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61107909__;!!KGKeukY!gH-UkaXScOEYmSgt3p90A7JoQTQcJ4dN6O9jRlCDe2ycgM-BLLdgP2srmOn2E73fqRA$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61107909__;!!KGKeukY!jqPe0meTvr01hNVZznnvkz6Z06TNnQ2kd0H0ZG40o5HZ1vHKY6J7qH1mDiJtWqW9MV4$>
>
> I saw a black woman on the TV the other day, who went to the careers’
> advisor at school and said she wanted to go to university.  “What about
> secretarial college?”
>
> Which reminds me of Sylvia Plath and her mother: go to secretarial college
> and you’ll have something to fall back on.  From memory, in “The Bell Jar”
> she didn’t want to type interesting letters for some man, but write
> interesting letters herself.
>
> I remember telling a Woolfian acquaintance that I had never wanted to
> work, never had any idea of what to do.  She was surprised/shocked: “What
> about publishing?”
>
> I then fantasised about going back in time and telling my parents that I
> wanted to go into publishing, and their subsequent conversation in their
> bedroom:
>
> “Where’s Lord Muck got *this* idea from?”
>
> “Well, he hasnae got it from me.”
>
> Stuart
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