In Conversation with Michaela Pembroke
By Briana Gomez ‘26
“Feminism is not a rule book but a discussion, a conversation, a process.” - Tavi Gevinson
“How can we affect change in the world when only half of it feels invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?” -Emma Watson
What is a feminist? How has society shaped us to view women, to view each other? How has entertainment affected the way we see things? These are the types of questions that students who take the semester elective course “The Female Persuasion” tackle. I had the opportunity to speak with Michaela Pembroke, who teaches the class, about the details that make it stand out among the other senior electives and the importance of having such a class in the curriculum.
Q: What is the purpose of this class?
A: I try not to be very clear with my students on what the purpose of the class is because I find it very exciting and fulfilling to see my students create their own meaning of the course. They determine what connections they're seeing between the different texts. I want to make space for students to find those connections. I want to leave it up to them to interpret things in their own way. Students who take this class are given the opportunity to create their own meanings of certain texts, and this type of liberation is what leads students to discover different concepts that might even inspire each other.
Q: What do you think this course provides for its students? What impression do you think this class gives to its students?
A: I might want to phrase my answer as I hope this class provides a space for my students to really wrestle with and unpack some real world issues, whether that be sexism, their understanding what feminism means both in the broader world context or in the context at GFA, or their understanding what allyship means. I like it to be a space where my students can process and question their lived experiences up until this point and then find power in language, especially to articulate their experience and then speak truth to power or critique oppressive systems whatever they may be.
So a lot of the work we do in class is reshaping and rethinking about the way we perceive entertainment and pop culture, and the way the world is. For example, in class we watch and study “The Bachelor,” the ABC reality series, and we study that because we then pair it with the Shakespeare play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” Although it seems like those two have a very odd connection, it’s not just watching TV during class, we truly study it as an academic text because this is a show on mainstream television that is broadcasted during prime times (8-10 pm). This show has a massive influence on the American culture. Even if people are watching and commenting on how ‘This is trash’ or ‘It’s just a way to turn my brain off and escape from my homework or job,’ what people don't realize is that it still impacts you in subtle ways. What I really want to do is unpack that impact with my students and talk about how gender is performed or how romantic relationships are performed on TV, and the concept of “who gets rewarded and who gets punished” and see how it plays out in similar ways in the Shakespeare play that we read. We also read other essays that are used as critical frameworks.
Q: Would you say this is a class with a lot of debates? Is it a class that is very open for debate? Or would you say it depends on the people?
A: I guess it really depends on the people. Generally speaking, although other people might see it differently, I tend to never really use the word ‘debate’ in my classes. I try to treat it as more of a conversation. You're not trying to necessarily argue a particular side per se, but it's more ‘how can I articulate my interpretation or my lived experiences in a way that other people can access and understand’ and then ‘how can we build a dialogue together or build the conversation?’ I try to frame it as more of a collective understanding and how we can, as a class, achieve a more coherent understanding of something.
Q: On average, how many people take this class? And how many identify as a woman? How many don’t?
A: I first ran this class in 2020, there were ten students in that class, and every student in that class identified as a woman. The next year, there were about 15 students in my class and most of them identified as a woman. Last year, which would've been the third year, most students identified as a woman.
Q: Would you say that this course intimidates people who don’t identify as women? What is some advice you'd give to those students who are afraid to voice their opinion when it comes to a course named The Female Persuasion?
A: You know, I don’t have the word ‘feminist’ in the course title. The course is called ‘The Female Persuasion,’ but people read it as ‘The Feminist Class,’ which is interesting because we talk about this as a class. As a teacher in general, I try to be very intentional about welcoming everyone and trying to make my classroom space be a place where everyone is invited and welcome and their perspective is valued. It’s interesting because senior year, or at least in the elective program, students choose to be a part of certain classes, and it's interesting that statistically over the years, the students in this class identify as a woman. Some of them even come into the class and say ‘I identify as a woman, but I’m not a feminist.’ And that's a very interesting perspective that we discuss together.
Q: How do you feel about this class? Do you think someone should consider taking this class if they want to get into different concepts or immerse themselves into a different perspective that they aren't used to?
A: I do think students should dive into this class although they haven’t really touched the surface of such topics. I love teaching this class, I love teaching electives, in part because I teach both sophomores and seniors, and it’s wonderful to see the growth they've had throughout high school. It’s wonderful that students have an opportunity to wrestle with things they’ve been thinking about, writing about, or obsessed with, that they've haven't had the chance to verbalize.
For their final project, since we've read a bunch of texts together, students are asked to put a given text that they've studied in conversation with a different text of their own choosing. For example, it could be a movie that they've seen that could be similar to The Bachelor. While rewatching certain things, students start to make their own realizations, maybe discovering how problematic it is, or it could simply raise questions or make you notice things you didn’t catch before and it could really impact how you see this movie. This is how I teach my students what analysis is, changing the way you see the world or articulating how your impression of something has changed based on prior study or thinking. And by the end of class, people get into some really deep and important sustained studies that often become very fulfilling.”
