Colleen Clemens on Gender & the Olympics | Clip from August 16, 2016 episode of The Sit Down

* This clip is from the August 16, 2016 episode of The Sit Down. To listen to our entire discussion with Colleen Clemens, click HERE. 

We're back! Today on The Sit Down I welcome Dr. Colleen Clemens, associate professor of non-Western literatures at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. We talk about the ways that issues of gender are front and center at the Rio Olympics, despite some pretty atrocious media coverage. More women are competing in this year's Olympics than ever before. The are shattering some Olympic records, but still are only getting second-rate coverage in major media outlets.

Then we talk about teaching and working in higher education. Millennials may be getting a bad rap in the mainstream media and the "get-off-my-lawn" privileged class, but they are coming to college campuses with much more interesting relationships to gender than the binary gender roles of "traditional" American culture. We talk feministing in higher ed in the classroom and as a faculty member in the workplace.

Finally, we talk Trump, misogyny, and the last gasps of privileged white guys. Can we draw a line from Death of a Salesman, through Falling Down, right to The Donald? You bet we can. In the face of Trumpism, is there anything to be optimistic about in this year’s presidential election? Tune in to find out.

Check out Colleen Clemen’s piece on the media’s coverage of the Olympics, “Dear Olympic Media: Do Better by Women Athletes,” over at Teaching Tolerance. For more of her work, check her blog RIGHT HERE.