A recent paper by the Independent Women’s Forum found that (surprise! surprise! in my best Gomer Pyle voice) gender studies courses across the nation espouse a message from a skewed perspective. They found it “odd” that academia would teach something from such a slanted political view. To cite one example, they discovered that students are taught marriage is a prison that women are tricked into despite the fact that study after study shows that 80% of college women cite marriage as a life goal. That’s a lot of trickery.

Another study out of Canada lamented the fact that colleges were dropping Women’s Studies in favor of Gender Studies. Elizabeth Seagren, who taught Women’s Studies at the University of California laments the fact the courses now do not teach more effective feminist activism. Her critics lament the fact that she laments the state of Gender Studies.

To summarize the basics of Gender Studies without the associated cost, it goes something like this:

Gender is “the relations between men and women, both perceptual and material. Gender is not determined biologically…but constructed socially;”

Therefore, one must start with the study of social relations;

All social relations in a hierarchal, capitalist society revolve around class;

All existing genders come as a result of social perceptions or economic privilege and family history;

The study of gender boils down to feminism.

Put another way, you are really not going to learn anything in Gender Studies. In fact, you’ll be fed lies. For example, you will be inundated with “statistics” showing a gender pay gap, a lie so blatant that it has been debunked by so many on so many levels, yet it persists. You will be taught that there is a non-existent rape culture, particularly in Western culture. You’ll be given a PowerPoint presentation long on imagination and short on truth showing how fictional characters promote violence against women. You’ll be taught that “slut walks” somehow magically empower “the sisterhood.”

Unfortunately, the only way any of these things taught in the name of education can be justified is through good old-fashioned lying. Hence, we have the documented examples of rape hoaxes, bogus statistics, and the discovery of problems that do not exist.

They used to make fun of student athletes taking courses in pottery because it was easy and it inflated a grade point average. Gender studies is pottery on steroids. It’s easy… just spout the lines and nod your head and you’re in. Unfortunately, you may have to sit next to some female who is showing her empowerment by dying her hair some hideous shade of blue or pink and reeking of body odor because she refuses to shave her armpits in an act of feminist defiance against the patriarchal society keeping her down.

And she will be insufferable to boot. “Can I borrow your notes” will result in a screed against male patriarchy and another example of women being “raped” by a male-centered culture. Gender studies students are easily offended and joining the cult of feminism will likely cost you some friends somewhere along the line.

They also teach you to ignore personal responsibility. Everything is always someone’s fault except your own. Women are at the mercy of men. Gay men are at the mercy of heterosexual men. Blacks are at the mercy of whites. Gay black men are at the mercy of black and white heterosexual men and women.

And you will likely end up a sales clerk at Forever 21 or The Gap because there is no job market for graduates with a degree in Gender Studies. But even that will not be your fault because your lack of a job will be blamed on a capitalist, colonialist, imperialistic, consumer-driven society dominated by white men. If any potential Gender Studies graduate wants to “waste” money, at least make it useful waste and donate to a charity. Spending money- usually not their money- on such courses is on par with using dollar bills as toilet paper.

The graduate will likely find that there are no jobs in the real world that put to use any of the “knowledge” they gain in these studies. A human resources department will not hire you because of your knowledge of rape culture, white male privilege, or editor of employee handbooks for dog whistle sexism.

In fact, the only job Gender Studies prepares you for is a teacher of Gender Studies. This then allows you to teach more unsuspecting students what you learned so that they can then graduate to become a Gender Studies teacher, and on the cycle of idiocy goes.

The saddest part is that these people deep down know the degree is worthless. But by then, they are so deep in student debt and, let’s face it, a job at Forever 21 or the Gap is not going to pay off those student loans, so they go to graduate school to earn a degree in official victimization and whining. If they’re lucky enough, they’ll earn a PhD in obtaining grant money for useless studies. Left in the wake are a plethora of miserable women who wasted not only money, but their youth.

Perhaps there is a rape culture, but it is feminist women raping unsuspecting fellow women all in the name of Women’s or Gender Studies. You can be a Lefty, pinko raving mad Communist, a Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren-loving socialist, liberal, progressive, bra-burning armpit-haired feminist for free ranting against Victoria’s Secret models marching in the street without having a degree in Gender Studies.

It is a cycle of idiocy and women being duped by women into the idiocy is the greatest hoax and disservice ever foisted on academia in the name of women.