Onion Sends Up Oberlin

The Onion has a noice story allegedly relying on a report from Oberlin College Women's Studies professor Barbara Klein. It is entitled: Women Now Empowered By Everything A Woman Does, which while not true, like most Onion articles is frighteningly close to the truth.

As recently as 15 years ago, a woman could only feel empowered by advancing in a male-dominated work world, asserting her own sexual wants and needs, or pushing for a stronger voice in politics. Today, a woman can empower herself through actions as seemingly inconsequential as driving her children to soccer practice or watching the Oxygen network.

While Barbara Klein is a fake, the Oberlin Women's Studies program is very real. In fact, when I was in student government there, one of my greater achievements was helping to authorize allocating a new faculty slot to women's studies through a joint faculty-student committee in charge of such decisions.