Bad Women, a bold addition to this year’s English curriculum, challenges 11th and 12th graders to reexamine the narratives of women labeled as “bad” throughout history and literature.
Taught by Upper School English Teacher Kenley Smith, the full-year elective has already sparked intrigue and excitement among students in its inaugural year.
“There’s a focus on gender and morality and ethics and how we sometimes expect different kinds of ‘good’ behavior from women than we do from men. And looking at how that plays out in literature.”
The class explores various stereotypes of women portrayed in media and how they influence societal perceptions.
“Right now, the major theme is we’re discussing the stereotypes of a defined ‘good woman’ versus a ‘bad woman’ and we’re reading different novels that display different types of bad women,”Mae Gordon ’25 said.
The workload is similar to to most her Smith’s non-AP English classes.
“The expectation being around 10-to-20 pages a night, which varies a little bit. They also do annotations, which I expect in all my classes. And I would say the other expectation is that they come ready to participate, since we do a lot of Harkness discussions in class.”
Gordon finds the workload comparable to her other AP classes.
“It’s the same annotations every night, and we typically have tests and that kind of stuff at the same time as the other classes,” Gordon said.
In the spring, 1oth and 11th graders take a survey to decide which classes should appear on the curriculum.
“I have been trying to get this class to go for a long time,” Smith said. “Students choose the electives. We give them the list and they vote on the electives. But it was under different titles, and it was, you know, the female gothic and all kinds of things. And then [English Department Chair Dr. Donald Reese] said, ‘why don’t you just call it Bad Women?’ And I was like, ‘that’s a genius idea.’ And so, we did.”
Reese expressed his deep trust in Ms. Smith and her teaching abilities, highlighting their long-standing professional relationship and her impact in the classroom.
“I have been teaching with Ms. Smith for about ten years, and she is a consummate professional and a fantastic teacher,” Reese said. “I have every confidence that Ms. Smith is helping students in Bad Women—and in all her classes—to develop critical thinking, close reading, and academic writing skills that will prepare them for all sorts of situations in the future, both in school and in the workplace.”
