When you do a search on Facebook for male women’s studies majors at Georgetown, about 24 guys pop up. For most of them, it’s just a joke – some of these guys also have a minor in leisure and recreation education or “money studies.”

But for one of these men, you can take Facebook at face value.

Nik Warrior (COL ’08) is the only male student currently majoring in women’s studies, according to the program’s administrator. He’s also pursuing a double major in government, for the record, but at a school where everybody and their mother is a government major, it’s the former concentration that tends to stick out.

Skeptical? It’s okay – he’s used to it. He’ll win you over, though, when he proves that he knows the difference between the second wave and third wave of American feminism.

In fact, it’s the other women’s studies majors that seem to be most accepting, and even excited, about having a man in the women’s studies program.

As for professors, he says, “Sometimes, especially at the very beginning of class, maybe they might be a little skeptical, but if you actually raise your hand and say real things and do the readings, then they realize that you’re not there to dick around or pick up people or whatever they might have thought.”

Well, that doesn’t seem so bad; it’s the same thing you have to do to prove yourself in your other classes, after all.

Actually, Warrior has been studying feminist theory since his high school days at Bellarmine College Preparatory in California. He was once assigned to research feminist critical theories for the debate team at his all-boys Jesuit school, and that experience encouraged him to take a class called Feminist Issues in U.S. History his senior year.

Warrior didn’t expect to major or minor in women’s studies when he got here, but he decided to try out the Intro to Women’s Studies class. He liked it enough to try another, and another, and eventually he decided to declare the major.

It can be a bit of a lonely life, though. Warrior is taking three women’s studies classes this semester, and he estimates that altogether there are probably 97 girls and five or six guys – and that’s counting himself all three times. And being the only guy in the classroom can bring some unwanted attention.

“One thing that I don’t really like – especially in a class where it’ll be like 18 girls and you or something – there will be something that’s related to men or a man’s perspective, and then some professor will turn to you and be like, `Hey, why don’t you tell us about this?'” Warrior said. “That’s sometimes just a little annoying, especially if you just don’t have anything to say, because suddenly it’s like your responsibility to represent your entire sex.”

Although he is outnumbered in his classes, Warrior likes that the women’s studies program is relatively small. Considering the anonymity of the huge government department, it’s kind of nice when your professors remember your name.

There actually has been something of an effort by the women’s studies program to get more guys interested in its offerings. For one, the name has changed: The program is now formally called women’s and gender studies. Several of the courses are also cross-listed in other departments, including English, theology and international affairs.

“I can’t speak for every professor who teaches in the program or serves on our steering committee, but I, myself, think it’s critical to have more male students taking our courses and majoring or minoring in the program,” says Pamela Fox, the director of the women and gender studies program. “Three years ago we changed our program name from `Women’s Studies’ to `Women’s and Gender Studies,’ in part to reflect where the scholarly field of women’s studies had headed and in part to signal to male students – straight, queer, gay – that they are included in this enterprise.”

But maybe we should stop and play a little devil’s advocate: Is it necessarily a good thing to have men in women’s studies classes?

For a long time, women’s studies departments have given women a haven where they can speak their mind about the constructed barriers of society and know that there are people who support their academic endeavors on these subjects. Having guys in the room can also stifle discussions about sexuality, complaints about a male-dominated world or descriptions of unpleasant interactions between men and women.

Overall, though, I’d have to say that it’s a very good thing to have men interested in women’s studies. Indeed, the whole point of creating academic fields for minority studies is to convince others that our viewpoints also deserve a place at the table.

And I promise, sitting in on a women’s studies class isn’t going to subject you to hours of talk about periods or man-hating – and it’s not always going to guarantee you an easy A. One of Warrior’s favorite classes, Women and the Law, is taught by a professor from the Law Center who applies fundamental ideas of Constitutional law to disputes about discrimination, families and women’s rights.

“There were a lot of guys who took that class who were really, legitimately interested in the law and how it affected women,” Warrior says. “I’ve taken other constitutional law classes, and we didn’t touch on any of those issues.”

This is the very problem that we have at Georgetown. You shouldn’t have to take minority studies classes to get exposure to theories that come from scholars who aren’t male, white and straight. In fact, in my macroeconomics class a couple of weeks ago, my professor was explaining factors that don’t count in gross domestic product, and I was surprised that she did not mention that the omission of domestic work from GDP greatly underestimates women’s contribution to the economy.

In the end, women’s studies isn’t all that different from taking any other liberal arts class. When you take a women’s studies class about history, you’re looking at the past in a unique way that brings the events into even richer detail and context.

After all, isn’t that what the Jesuit ideal of “education of the whole person” is all about?

Emily Liner is a senior in the College and a contributing editor of THE HOYA. She can be reached at linerthehoya.com. SKIRTING THE ISSUES appears every other Friday.

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