A Creative Look At The Effects Of Western Hegemonic Beauty Standards on Women 60+
Patricia Oliver, 74
Professor Oliver entered the classroom with an energy that could not be ignored. Her eyes were bright, careful. She wore Levi's and a white collared button-up—casual, but collected at the same time. Before she spoke, she stood at the front of the lecture hall-style room—silent while resting her lower back against the edge of a rectangular table with her feet crossed and toes pointed to the ceiling—and watched her students chat, gossip, laugh, and sit. Without a word, and without demanding attention, as if she had just pulled a rabbit out of a hat before their eyes, her students felt her presence and ceased their activities to focus on her. This is how Professor Oliver's classes always began.
Pat Oliver has taught in classrooms throughout Southern California, including West Los Angeles College, Pierce College, California State University Northridge, and her alma mater California State University Los Angeles. She currently teaches courses like Interpersonal Communication, Rhetoric of Women, and Gender Communication at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As her reviews on ratemyprofessor.com reveal, her students simply adore her, and with good reason. A 74-year-old woman, Pat has the heart and spirit of a 25-year-old. She shares with her students charmingly funny stories from her past, and looks to their expertise of current pop culture to keep her up-to-date with the latest celebrity news and gossip, always finding creative ways to connect such headlines with gender and intercultural studies. What makes Pat Oliver a well-liked professor is that she cares. When she waits at the front of the room observing, it's her way of checking in, feeling out the vibes and emotions of her students.
Once she starts talking, though, and the clock strikes class time, students better be in their seats; Professor Oliver's greatest, and quite possibly only, pet peeve in relation to teaching is students who walk in late to class. She will embarrass them in front of the class and, chances are, get a little angry. But, in true Oliver fashion, she'll apologize to you later and everyone will laugh together. This is how Professor Oliver's classes always end.
"Everything about the media says to us that we don’t want what age brings."
"When you live, your skin does fall apart, but the lines are from laughing, or grieving, or being amazed."
"I’m in a world that purportedly does not mind my age as a professor at this private university."
"We’re in a culture that shoves most of us outside, and age is huge, and I think we revere men."
"If I had a facelift you’d lose some of me that is over the years of teaching all of you."
"We just don’t like age in women at all."