Feminist Rant

A break…ahhh! I will now cater to my much neglected blog.

“smart women become doctors, smarter women marry them”

Last semester, our class was split into groups and assigned to random middle schools throughout Broward County to spread the news that cigarettes are bad! This was a for our Tobacco Cessation course and in order to pass the class, we had to do a 50 minute presentation with videos and games on the dangers of tobacco use. My group included two others and we were stuck in a ghetto middle school with a grumpy old lady that obviously hated her job/life for 5 class periods/the entire day! So there’s the setting, here’s the rant.

In one particular class period, we ended our presentation about 15 min early and decided to open up the floor to these rowdy group of 7th graders on any general questions. I began by asking, “So how many of you all want to grow up to be doctors?” To which a perky girl that obviously hit puberty way to early in her life, replied, “I don’t want to be a doctor, but I want to marry one!” I shouldn’t have been shocked, but I was, so here I was trying to pull my thoughts together to tell her she was a pathetic excuse for a young woman give her encouraging words on how women shouldn’t have to rely on men for financial stability in their future, etc, when another chick pipes up with, “Yeah, I’m definitely marrying rich.” Jarod, my med school buddy/partner is loving this, as he replies, “That’s my girl!” The teacher takes over at this point and asks bimbo girl #1 what she plans to do with her life while her doctor hubby is at work saving lives. Bimbo girl #1 replies with, “Well, somebody has to spend all the money he makes, I’ll stay at home and decorate the house.” Which then turns into a full blown discussion on interior decorating between bimbo girls #1, #2, and friends. Jarod turns to me and remarks, “They start goldiggers young these days.” The bell rings, everyone leaves. I’m appalled. A.) The teacher did nothing to remedy the situation, to explain or empower these young impressionable minds. B.) That girls this young are still in that “male provider” mindset. I really believed that upcoming generations would be over this antiquated way of thinking and it’s sad to see it still exists. I didn’t have this experience with any of the other 4 classes, but one experience in itself was enough. I went back home and hung out with the girls as we traded stories on whose “tobacco cessation” experience was the worst. I brought up my story and the girls were startled, but not to my point of shock. Ingrid provided the point that maybe the financial setting may have had something to do with it, in that, these girls’ mothers, unhappy with their current status/way of life bring their girls up to look for something better, embedding them with ideas on marrying rich. Not gonna lie, yes, that’s an easy way out, but what about doing something for yourself, getting an education, working hard, striving to succeed, doing what you want to do and whatever makes you happy. But then again, who I am to judge, as long as these girls know they have an option. If they are educated on these options and they still want to marry rich, more power to them. Male docs beware!