Editor’s note: Mary McCall is a tutor at the Writing Center.
MLA handbooks. Thesauruses. Bookmarked Web sites for citation. These are some of the many resources that the Writing Center has at its disposal.
But something is missing: male tutors.
“It’s not that males aren’t capable,” said Alyssa Ginelli ’09, who works at the Writing Center. “They just don’t want to.”
Margaret O. Tipper explains in “Real Men Don’t Do Writing Centers,” that the reason for the lack of male tutors might be attributed to the common conception of an editor as a maternal figure.
Tipper, director of the Writing Center at Gilman School in Baltimore, writes that female tutors are seen as offering “refuge, nurturance, emotional support [and] personal guidance,” qualities that strengthen the mother metaphor.
Another explanation for the absence of male participation within the Writing Center could be the stereotype that women are stronger in English, while men’s strengths lie within the various mathematics and sciences.
“Men tend to think within the box,” said Max Farinato ’09. “English and poetry cannot simply be confined to the physical word. It takes a creative mind to grasp the true meaning of words.”
Ginelli agreed.
“Girls have more of an interest [in] talking things out and coming to some kind of an agreement,” she said.
However, at the Writing Center one does not need to be an English major to help other students with their papers. The tutors within the Writing Center represent a range of majors including biology and history.
Some students see the position of a tutor within the center as one played by a teacher.
Michael Csorba ’09, an English major, said that such an area is “traditionally seen as [a] female-centered role.”
Dr. Betsy Bowen, who is acting as director of the Writing Center while Dr. Beth Boquet is on sabbatical, shared the same perspective.
“People misperceive tutors’ roles as ‘helper’ and still associate helping roles with women. When they do that, they underestimate how much skill and training is involved.”
Despite this notion, Csorba said that he would feel comfortable working within such an environment dominated by females.
“I work at an internship with 14 women,” he said.
Nora McGilvray ’08, a tutor at the Writing Center, doesn’t understand why some men are deterred from working there.
“Honestly, I’m baffled by it,” she said.
“I can’t point my finger on why there are not a lot of men,” said Ginelli.
In spite of the possible percieved stereotypes involved with the Writing Center, Dr. Bowen remains optimistic that some male students will be interested in working there.
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