BY ANDREW JOSEPH PEGODA

People have the right to take gender studies classes. These classes include an emphasis on how patriarchy and gender stereotypes affect everyone. Negative impacts of boys being told “don’t cry” and girls being told “be quiet” are important and long-lasting.

States controlled by conservative politicians have increasingly sought to ban gender studies at colleges and universities. Where they do not succeed through legislation, they sometimes succeed through sheer bullying, as is currently happening in Texas. Some universities now forbid discussions of transgender people. These attacks are part of larger campaigns seeking to dismantle efforts that increase inclusion, equity, and diversity and instead prioritize STEM courses erroneously thought to increase career readiness.

The same refrain among supporters comes up repeatedly in meetings and conversations, even in social media comments: College students are adults and should be able to take gender studies classes if they so desire. Such thinking makes sense given how people have historically seen colleges as bastions of discovery and independence. Among professors, this argument is the logical extension of how we’ve been trained to think about pedagogy. Adult learning theory emphasizes how our students are more independent, bring more life experience, and desire choice. In this moment, however, arguing for gender studies on the grounds that students are adults is misguided and could well backfire.

Those hostile to gender studies already think this academic field is only about “freaks with pink hair,” “radical queer perverts,” and “bra burning hippies.” Suggesting that gender studies should specifically be open for adults immediately suggests that something is wrong or inappropriate with gender studies that warrants such censorship. It could even add weight to arguments that such courses should be excluded from state funding. Would we ever articulate an argument that a class on Shakespeare or marketing is valid because adults are the enrollees? No.

Gender studies is appropriate and even necessary for anyone or any age. Everyone lives with the consequences of gender every day. Gender studies has even successfully been integrated into curricula, starting with kindergarten, by simply teaching children about basic consent and autonomy.

Censorship is threatening African American and Mexican American Studies, too. Laws now exist in Texas that potentially criminalize “obscene” lessons in literature, biology, and art. And beyond the sphere of higher education, states, districts, and K–12 schools are banning books at an unprecedented scale. Instead of arguing that college students are adults and should be able to take gender studies classes, there is an opportunity for proponents of learning to show broad allyship and to take blanket positions against all forms of state censorship. A core component of feminism, after all, is forming community and joining forces against oppression. We ought not argue for gender studies in colleges at the expense of continued censorship at other levels of education.

Further, if we think about the position that college students are adults and should be able to take gender studies classes, we must ask: Who is an adult? What about students who are clearly minors? Many students begin their first year of college at the age of seventeen. These students can’t vote or buy tobacco just yet and can’t buy alcohol for several more years. If we’re not careful, we could unintentionally invite more clauses defining who an “adult” is and what rights an adult is afforded.

College students should be able to take gender studies classes because they are valid, life-changing, and even lifesaving. The interdisciplinary knowledge covered allows all students to immediately discover real world connections to their future career paths.

Andrew Joseph Pegoda is lecturer of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Houston. Visit https://andrewpegoda.com to learn more.