Introductions

Hello! My name is Catherine Walsh. I go by Catherine or Cat. This is my first semester at Fredonia although I graduated from high school in 2008. First I went to Jamestown Community Collage and got my Associate's Degree in Fine Arts then I transferred to Edinboro University near Erie, PA. I went there for a summer class and Fall Semester of 2011 then decided to take some time off, work, save, make art and plan to get back in school. So here I am at SUNY Fredonia and so far I love it!

I signed up for this class because I have an interest in Women's Studies, women's issues and Feminism, historical and modern. A lot of my art work in the past has dealt with issues specific to women. This class was suggested to me by a friend of mine and former Fredonia student who now teaches Medieval Literature at Kent University.

One thing I've noticed is that people in our class interchangably used the term Women Writers with Women's Writers. I see a problem with that since a women's writer implies that the author is writing for women, it does not denote the gender of the author. However, "Women Writers", the term the book likes to use, and the name of the class, seems to imply a woman who writes. The book asks which term is more preferable 'Women Writers' or 'Women Who Are Also Writers'. I feel that either label alienates half the human race by making it sound as though the writing is directed toward women. Perhaps that also explains why our huge class titled "Women Writers" is full of women with not a single male student in attendance.

To sum it up I believe that writing should transcend gender. Even if the subject matter deals with the female (or the male) experience specifically I think that a wider audience could be reached by not labeling the writer or the writing by the sex of the writer.