Brodkey and the politics of research

          When I was an undergraduate I remember one particularly disturbing incident in one of my classes. One of my classmates, a  middle aged woman, was commenting on a research text read in class. She agreed with this study but only because she saw similar results in other studies. In other words, she did not make any critical analysis of the study's conclusions but accepted them as a religious person might accept the tenets of their faith.
            Studies can be slippery. They are not as objective as some would like to portray them. All researchers are human beings; They are not absolutely objective, as Dr. Cauthen pointed out in class. Researchers come from a particular background and operate within a particular professional context. At times these contexts allow little room for any findings that may dissent from established orthodoxy. Thus, these "objective" studies are cover for "preaching to the choir".
               Brodkey's article is a perfect example of these phenomena at work. Many in academia today are influenced by two schools of thought, feminism and Marxism. These are not the only schools of thought that have influence but they are among the most prominent. In her article, only two men are featured among the graduate students. Among the basic writers there are none. She tries to draw a sweeping general conclusion while almost ignoring fifty percent of the population. This might suggest that she does not see examining men as important, or perhaps she is trying to focus more on women to make up for inequities in past research. Also, she is strongly influenced by the focus on social classes presented in Marxist literature. This is not to say she is espousing communist doctrine, but that social class does seem to be important to her. She sees many of the actions of those in the study as motivated by class factors.
             If there is a lesson to be learned here, the lesson is that objective studies must be read more critically. As with my aforementioned classmate, many students are far too credulous and are reluctant to challenge the findings of scholars. One must remember that scholars are people too and not Greek gods at the summit of Mount Olympus.