Jobseeker’s Amulet
Dave Huber reports from the other side of the looking glass, where wide-eyed students are told,
A degree in Women’s and Gender Studies prepares you for almost anything.
“I do have skills,” says one graduate, rather defensively, “I do have a college degree that is meaningful.” I do, I do, I do.
Readers are invited to listen attentively for the imminent economic boom triggered by the ongoing oversupply of gender studies graduates.
I should never have gone to medical school…
What a waste.
Er, what?
Er, what?
Oh, you ladies with your patriarchal ways. That Clown Quarter Amulet™ is a “really great tool set.” It’s intersectional and everything. Because the first thing they’ll ask in that job interview is, “Yes, but do you have a degree in self-satisfied feminist question-begging?” Followed by, “Do you at least have a Tumblr? Well, do you, punk?!”
Given the cost of such ‘degrees’ — and their uselessness to the holder — why exactly are they proliferating?
why exactly are they proliferating?
Government loans using taxpayers’ money.
why exactly are they proliferating?
‘Nearly half of students think their college loans will be forgiven, new study finds’
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/27/nearly-half-of-students-think-their-college-loans-will-be-forgiven-new-study-finds/
Given the cost of such ‘degrees’ — and their uselessness to the holder — why exactly are they proliferating?
Well, aside from the factors above, there’s also the non-trivial detail that teenagers are generally unworldly, exploitable and, as it were, easy to seduce. It’s flattering to be told that you’ll be a “change agent,” an enlightened radical, fighting dark forces and remaking of the world. And you’re much less likely to go broke milking the vanities of the young than the teenagers being milked. As it were.
A degree in Women’s and Gender Studies prepares you for almost anything.
Sure does. After graduation, degree holders quickly learn to handle requests for cheeseburgers with fries, cheeseburgers with fries and gravy, cheeseburgers with coleslaw, cheeseburgers with potato salad, and the ever-tricky just straight cheeseburgers, which the cashier hates cause there is no cheeseburger-without-a-side on the menu. There is nothing these adaptable young scholars are not prepared for.
Serious question…
When people with such degrees do find professional careers (as opposed to entry-level positions in the food services industry), what kind of career is most common?
Killer Marmot:
you forgot the all important potato salad with chips option.
what kind of career is most common?
The young lady quoted above expects to be employed by “a non-profit organisation.” Others may end up peddling the same claptrap to other gullible souls back in the Clown Quarter. Some may even hope to write for such lofty publications as Everyday Feminism.
Er, what?
I can’t help thinking it might be easier, and much cheaper, to just get a big, ugly tattoo that says, “I MAKE BAD DECISIONS.”
just get a big, ugly tattoo that says, “I MAKE BAD DECISIONS.”
Or ‘I REQUIRE CONTINUAL SUPERVISION BY AN ADULT’.
Well, aside from the factors above, there’s also the non-trivial detail that teenagers are generally unworldly, exploitable and, as it were, easy to seduce. It’s flattering to be told that you’ll be a “change agent,” an enlightened radical, fighting dark forces and remaking of the world.
I blame Young Adult Fiction myself, this is the end result of the Harry Potter/Divergent/Hunger Gamesisation of fiction. Why learn how to be an engineer, or God help us learn an actual trade, when you can save the world?
Astute observers will note that the rot began before the proliferation of the ‘lone teen saves the world’ genre but it’s hard to believe that YA fiction hasn’t helped roll the ball a little faster. I’d bet a large sum of money that the bookshelves, or Kindles, of almost all Clown Quarter students have some, or all of the series I mentioned on them.
“I’d bet a large sum of money that the bookshelves, or Kindles, of almost all Clown Quarter students have some, or all of the series I mentioned on them.”
The problem with this claim is that the genre is popular enough that nearly everyone in that age cohort who reads at all is likely to have read at least some of at least one of those sort of series.
“I do have skills, I do I do I do.”
What’s your carer’s number, dear?
he problem with this claim is that the genre is popular enough that nearly everyone in that age cohort who reads at all is likely to have read at least some of at least one of those sort of series.
You’re right of course, and I’m not about to fight to the death to defend a quickly observed comment. There are always multiple causes for any effect you wish to name but I think there is more than a little of the “I’m savin’ the world Ma!” about the people in the Clown Quarter (can’t stop using that phrase, it is perfectly apposite) and perhaps this genre has had more affect on them than on engineering students who may have read the same series.
I fear the jobs which exist in the private sphere, i.e. non-government, non-academe, non-nonprofit, are those which constitute Danegeld of a sort, established to prevent a lot bothersome demonstrations by SJWs, which demonstrations would otherwise interfere with good, old-fashioned profit making.
OT, but Australian traffic lights are easing up on their oppression of women:
Female pedestrian signals ignite debate in Australia
The site also notes that employers seek out prospects that have “[a]n understanding of differences of gender, sexuality, race, culture, and social class,” and possess an “[i]nsight into the connections among different forms of oppression.”
There is some truth in that. When I was in the position of having to hire people I would look out for those who “…possess an “[i]nsight into the connections among different forms of oppression…” because invariably they would be trouble makers constantly whining and filing complaints about trivial crap and imaginary bias issues.
OT, but Australian traffic lights are easing up on their oppression of women
We’ve been here before, I think. Still, it may provide some inkling of how quite a few gender studies graduates would like to use their time and other people’s money.
because invariably they would be trouble makers constantly whining and filing complaints about trivial crap and imaginary bias issues.
Well, quite. As with the bewildered and resentful Andria XX, it doesn’t seem to occur to the students that their chosen use of time and money, their Big Life Decision, might have unhelpful connotations and give signals to potential employers of an unintended kind, more than almost any other degree they might have chosen.
“you forgot the all important potato salad with chips option.”
Wait – are we talking British “chips” or American “chips” here? I think for the British kind you need at least a Master’s in gender/cultural studies.
for the British kind you need at least a Master’s in gender/cultural studies.
I think you’re all being beastly towards people who work in fast food restaurants and who, in my experience, are more likely to be civil.
OT, but Australian traffic lights are easing up on their oppression of women
Nope, just an expatriate Scotman having found an excuse that will pass the Thought Police.
When I went to college, there was no gender studies major. I wasted my time earning a computer science degree.
A degree in Women’s and Gender Studies prepares you for almost anything.
Remind me of the rules on this one – it’s Graun or alleged news sources to qualify for the Classic Sentences tag, right? The line in question coming from a college website is probably disqualified then – a pity.
It’s Graun or alleged news sources to qualify for the Classic Sentences tag, right?
Up ‘til now. Though I’m tempted to widen the scope to include gems from further afield.
I blame Young Adult Fiction myself, this is the end result of the Harry Potter/Divergent/Hunger Gamesisation of fiction.
Permit me to present an alternate thesis.
“Lone teen saves the world” has always been the default mode for young adult fantasy fiction. Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series, Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time, even Narnia and the Lord of the Rings can be considered to fall into this category.
Fantasy has just become massively mainstreamed, but part of that is publishing just churning out endless repetitions of the last big surprise bestseller and part of it is that it’s tapping in to a cultural current that’s already there. For instance (spoiler alert), everyone thinks that The Hunger Games is about a lone teen bravely rebelling against a corrupt society and bringing it down despite the fact that Katniss never does anything of the kind. People are reading into these books what they already want to see there.
Now, there’s some feedback and the publishing industry will trend towards what the audience is purchasing, but I think publishing is chasing this trend, not setting it.
Fundamentally, I think, there’s a failure to separate jobs which function in the generation of wealth, jobs which enhance those jobs, and jobs which are mere parasitization. I’ve seen praised the transition away from production jobs (the most visible wealth generators) and towards the service industries, which are the latter two categories – with no regard to whether this shift is hurting wealth generation as a whole and merely enabled by technology driving generation up enough to cope – sometimes. No, best that any *dirty* producing jobs be carried out by foreigners.
There’s a reason for this, and that is that they don’t believe in wealth generation. Therefore, with State as Mother, one job’s as good as any other and as long as the fixed pie isn’t preyed on overmuch by anyone naughty, everybody can do whatever they want. Except you, perhaps. You’re not educationally refined – it’s bin collecting for you. Mother requires it.
By the sheer act of acquiring their pointless degree, they have become a Brahmin, and every class contains the best abilities and qualities of the class below (if any). It’s a matter of breeding, you see. In this vein, I seem to recall a recent individual saying he was a better speechwriter than his speechwriters and so on…
@Daniel Ream: It’s also worth note that YAFF and similar fields are doing as well as they are at least partly because they still permit something of heroism – or a near facsimile. With adult fantasy, science fiction, and whole fields of more proper literature under a crushing heel of PC, it’s fashionable to have grim tales with no real heroes. That is not, to put it bluntly, what the public at large want. See the writing of any of the Human Wave sci-fi authors trying to reverse this trend for more in-depth discussion.
The lesson of Star Wars in ’77 has been misread. “Youth like simple tales of heroism!” Well, quite, but so do lots of people, and you don’t have to make such tales for youth alone.
I blame Young Adult Fiction myself, this is the end result of the Harry Potter . . . . of fiction.
Permit me to present an alternate thesis.
Bit of an echo . . .
The Harry Potter series is definitely far from the show up and all are winners genre . . . HP outlines a rather messy hands on war where people get maimed, people get killed, people utterly work their butts off and then only some some of those succeed—again, some get killed—and even of that final one on one duel, that duel occurs only after an entire community of long trained and long suffering experts work as a team, and where the only reason Our Hero and The Heavy have The Duel is a matter that got set up from the beginning and had to be puzzled out through the books—again, with a bunch of heavy lifters doing major work—and sometimes getting killed . . .
When people with such degrees do find professional careers (as opposed to entry-level positions in the food services industry), what kind of career is most common?
Government.
it’s fashionable to have grim tales with no real heroes.
Again, I have a different interpretation. While SF has definitely vanished up its own PC anus – witness the Sad Puppies imbroglio – the problem in adult fantasy is the constant tailchasing of the market leader. For decades it was Tolkien and D&D (D&D tie-in novels are consistent bestsellers). The current fad of grim tales with no real heroes, and to a broader extent thinly veiled historical romans a clef generally, is entirely due to the popularity of Game of Thrones.
And given sales figures, that’s exactly what adult fantasy readers want.
HP outlines a rather messy hands on war where people get maimed, people get killed, people utterly work their butts off and then only some some of those succeed
Well, eventually. But HP’s meteoric rise to popularity is due to Harry himself being a cipher, an everyman with no real personality that any child can project themselves into. Harry never actually does much of anything except get pulled along by events. As a friend of mine once put it, Harry isn’t the Campbellian Hero; he’s the Cinderella.
Oh dear… I hope this http://bit.ly/2mBl0Re doesn’t discourage any bright young things from signing up. I fear it might…
Harry isn’t the Campbellian Hero; he’s the Cinderella.
His story checks boxes in both the Hero’s Journey and Cinderella, although the latter is mostly contained in his being kept in a closet until he receives The Calling.
After that, Harry follows the classic Hero’s Journey, including the Old Man Mentor, plenty of trials and sacrifices and Union with the Ideal Woman at the end.
Harry never actually does much of anything except get pulled along by events.
He makes LOTS of hard decisions that cost him dearly. There’s a case to be made that HP falls in the Inkling tradition.
I used to moderate Harry Potter for Grownups, and we had mad fun delving into the thematic elements. We even sponsored conferences where papers were presented.
HP is a deeply archetypal story filled with rich symbolism and compelling character arcs. The series’ popularity owes entirely to its depth, not to “hype,” which, hyped but vapid entertainment rapidly plummets into joke status. HP became popular by word of mouth.
OK, that’s enough about that.
“you forgot the all important potato salad with chips option.”
Point of order: Aren’t British “chips” made from potatoes? Why would one want two potato sides? What the hell is wrong with coleslaw?
Seriously, I’m starting to worry about you people. Get a grip!
“There is a Santa Claus, Mummy. There really, really is.”
The Harry Potter series is definitely far from the show up and all are winners genre
And a followup thought—quite in contrast to the all are equally intelligent lot, Hogwarts and its ilk is, effectively, a trade school, not even a Uni . . . and of that sort of trade school, the underlying practice is, basically, We don’t care if you have a magical background and ancestry or do not have one; if you can do magic, and if you work very hard, we can train you. If you can not do magic, there is no magical piece of paper that will let us be able to train you or for you to be considered a magician merely by declaration . . . .
I do have a college degree that is meaningful.” I do, I do, I do.
…reminds me of
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2X9E9n6GHC8
Every time I read the line — it must by now be an MSM macro — “More women are getting college degrees”, this question rockets through my head, but is somehow never answered:
“A degree in Women’s and Gender Studies prepares you for almost anything.”
Yes indeed:
Thuggish commissar in government.
Thuggish commissar in academia.
Thuggish commissar in an NGO.
Thuggish commissar in a large corporation.
Thuggish commissar in a small company.
Point of order: Aren’t British “chips” made from potatoes? Why would one want two potato sides? What the hell is wrong with coleslaw?
Seriously, I’m starting to worry about you people. Get a grip!
The British are capable of serving cottage pie and chips. So meat with mashed potatoes on top, with fried potatoes. Because most people find potatoes delicious (calorie-police and assorted food nutcases aside).
The US find this barbaric. Right up to the time KFC gives you potato and gravy and chips in your order. So exactly the same thing.
Australian traffic lights are easing up on their oppression of women
Hardly. The symbol is sexist in the extreme, presuming that wymyn wear such stereotypical and submissive garments as skirts. Or is the figure depicted transgender? If so it sidelines, nay demonises, those who are birthed as ‘females’ but identify as males. Disgustingly regressive.
And what about people like me? When can I expect to see a crossing-symbol depicting what I now identify as, which is a garden sprinkler?
Point of order, Chester: the US KFC menu does not include any combo of both mashed potatoes and potato wedges at once, much less chips (aka french fries). In fact, the US KFC menu does not include chips/french fries of any kind, other than those wedges more akin to a sliced baked potato.
Therefore, there is no fried-and-other potato combination from KFC unless a la carte.
Wendy’s offers several fried-substance-on-baked-potato sides as well as ordinary chips/french fries, but not in combination with one another. The US tendency not to offer two potato sides at once in fast food seems to bear out.
the US KFC menu does not include any combo of both mashed potatoes and potato wedges at once, much less chips (aka french fries)
Ooh, it’s all kicking off.
The value of a Gender Studies degree revealed*.
Compliments Harry Potter discussion upthread.
The British are capable of serving…
And that’s why in 1066 William was called “The Bastard.” He left the cookbook in France.
Ooh, it’s all kicking off.
I’ve been wanting to start a good food fight in the comments, even if this wasn’t quite what I’d thought of.
To admit a weakness, even as a Person of USA I had to look up the menu online to be sure, as it’s been a while since the local KFC closed up.