"It's probably because you're a woman".

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So, I got my results for a photography project I did for University. A male friend of mine got the same percentage score as me. However, the individual feedback we received was considerably different. Mine was more positive and encouraging, whereas his was quite critical and fairly brutal. I pointed this out to him, since I found it curious that we'd ended up with the same mark yet the feedback differed so much.

He replied that it was probably because I'm a woman. The implication being that the tutor was being gentle towards me due to my gender. I hadn't considered that but it's an interesting point. However, I'd like to think that my feedback was influenced by being more active in class (asking questions, taking part in class discussion etc) than my friend instead of any preconception of my tutor.

I suppose I can't entirely rule it out, I have known male teachers who have acted kinder towards me than with the male students. Along with female teachers that have done the same. On occasion I've had a male teacher treat me with distaste, I've also had the same with a female teacher albeit for different reasons. Here are some examples of each;

Male / treated me favourably: A business studies class where I was the only female student. He tended to help me more since it'd look bad if the only girl they'd had in a while failed. My teacher was also aware that most of the boys in that class said incredibly sexist remarks and didn't want me to be deterred. We had a female supply teacher once who stormed out part way through class because she couldn't stand the rather unsavoury almost constant remarks about women. I'll admit that it made me feel uncomfortable but I just kept my head down and got on with it. Except one time when one guy told me "If you ask me, you should leave this class" and I replied "Well it's a good thing I didn't ask you then". Ended up getting top marks in that class in the end.

Perhaps I should've confronted it more, but I'll admit I was afraid to. Especially when the class contained one of my bullies. It was quite brave, perhaps recklessly so to say such a thing to a guy who had a habit of shoving me in small spaces and pushing me off chairs. Anyway, moving on-

Female / treated me favourably: I had an English teacher who kept harping on about the value of female voices. This was in a class where I was one of two girls in a class that was predominately male. Whenever women's rights came up the rest of the class would look at us and it was a bit unsettling to have so many eyes on us.

Male / with distaste: So, I'd like to clarify that I didn't want to sign up to this class in the first place. We had a College taster day where we could try out different classes. Originally I'd put down psychology, I thought it might be fun to do for a day. Anyway, my art teacher told me that I'd clearly not thought my choices out and after discussing it I agreed to check out IT subjects instead. Unfortunately, there was one empty slot in the day and he put me in a engineering class.

A terrible idea. I'm awful at maths. Thankfully the class was merely identifying different types of metals and their properties. However, the teacher told us to pair up (yet again, I was the only girl) and he looked at me with almost an expression of disgust or contempt and added "that goes for everyone, even you". I hadn't done anything wrong so being singled out seemed unnecessary. At first I joined up with someone and began to do the work but I felt like he was glaring at me and it was rather uncomfortable. Then a female teacher watching over the lesson took me to the side and asked me if I'd like to switch classes. I agreed to since I felt unwelcome. Then I joined a first aid lesson where I made an arm cast.

Female / with distaste: One maths teacher complained that I was giving women a bad name by falling into the stereotype of being bad at maths. She called me a disappointment to my gender which seemed a bit harsh. Besides her argument wasn't particularly sound.

"You're giving women a bad name! People need to see that women can be good at maths!"

I mean, the fact that you're a female maths teacher already does that. My mum is an accountant. I know of plenty of women who work with numbers. Haven't we already established this in society? Of course some people are still stuck with outdated ideas, but I don't think that it's fair to hold me as a representative for all women. Besides, I am trying it's just a bit more difficult for me with my learning issues. Yelling at me for apparently being a bad woman isn't going to solve anything.

It's this type of behavior that makes me go out of my way to avoid the opposite sex. Sorry you had to deal with that misogynistic waste of human life.