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Articles

Using the F-Word in Philosophy Classes

Ellen Miller on the word which can generate so much instant hostility and misunderstanding.

I love to use the f-word when I’m talking about philosophy! What could be better than to combine philosophical jargon like dualism, ontology, and existentialism with swear words? I teach courses where I regularly use the f-word, the word dreaded by today’s college students and the international media. I first encountered the f-word as an undergraduate at Douglass College, the women’s college campus of Rutgers University. I attended a meeting of the Women’s Caucus in my first year of university, but was turned off by my impression that women had to hold certain shared beliefs in order to truly belong to that organization. This is in part how feminism becomes a nasty word, an off-putting word, a word you don’t want attached to your identity. Feminism has become the dreaded f-word! My initial impression of feminist and women’s groups is one I now hear from my students, both male and female.

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