I started out genuinely excited for this course, but the course left me extremely disappointed. Most of Professor Guzman's readings were super inaccessible, and his lectures made it even more confusing, which made me feel like this class was elitist. I felt like instead of a professor, I saw him as a gatekeeper, withholding knowledge instead of explaining it in a way that students of all backgrounds can understand. I also felt disappointed in him because he did not fulfill his moral obligations as a gender studies professor. Gender studies is closely tied to social justice and issues, but he clearly has the privilege to only care about social justice in the context of academia as opposed to some of us in the class who have no choice, which made the class feel insulting. There were students who made comments during lectures with racist, ignorant undertones (specifically towards Black students), and he allowed those comments to be said without mediating the discussion or addressing how those comments were hurtful to the Black students in the classroom. He contradicts the purpose of gender studies in the class because he says he does not like to get political in his gender studies classes, but this is a political discipline with a discourse established by activists and their theories. The fact that he tried to create a neutral, apolitical class setting in a gender studies class felt nothing less than oppressive. I also felt uncomfortable with the fact that he used his marginal identities to make it seem like he is justified in allowing and perpetuating apolitical and blatantly oppressive opinions and interactions that were reflected in the class. Him stating his marginal identities does not take away from the fact that he is a WHITE man refusing to acknowledge his white privilege, speaking on behalf of oppressions that do not apply to him and he is not properly educated/passionate about when he does not have the range (that he does not seem to care about outside of academia), inevitably leaving him to taking up space, perpetuating white feminism and allowing white feminists in class to feel comfortable with their ignorance while simultaneously allowing others who are excluded by white feminism to feel pushed out and silenced.

The professor did not prepare for the midterm and final. It was like a pop-quiz and whoever showed up in the class had the chance to take the midterm.