"Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too..."

My women's studies class went well today. We're discussing domestic violence and rape this week--difficult subjects to tackle. For Thursday I'm having them read up on the term "gray rape." There's a recent article in Cosmo about it and it's a hot topic on the feminist blogosphere--see Shakesville and The Curvature, for example. I'm really interested to see what my students will have to say about it. Sometimes I'm dismayed to find how conservative they are and how seemingly anti-feminist. It's hard (and just plain weird) to see young women so convinced that they don't deserve equal rights. But I remind myself that that's why I'm here, after all. To get them thinking, questioning, musing about issues of relevance. I've seen the wheels turning in more than one head this semester, and that's a start.