Just this morning I graded an essay from a male student, one who clearly prides himself on his "sophisticated" writing style when in fact all that he does is throw big words around about his big thoughts without actually having or supporting an argument. His body language and attitude in class (when he bothers to come to class) so clearly signal that he holds me in great disdain.
(cont'd) I should also add that he's a Philosophy-English double-major, and so he's convinced that his big ideas are somehow "True" (which is a big beef I have with our Philosophy department, since I think the profs. actually encourage this). So I'm sure that he's going to be convinced that I just didn't understand his paper because I'm not quite bright enough.
(cont'd) What bugs me about all of this is that I actually end up spending longer grading his paper and writing my response to it than I do to other students because I'm trying to build an air-tight case to defend my criticisms of his paper; I clearly should respond as I always do to student papers and have confidence in my own judgment, but somehow students like this always rattle me a little. So I'm impressed by your clear confidence in this!
OK, I'm going to wander into the dangerous waters you offered here, Mel, by making a huge generalization: my Hispanic male students are some of the nicest, most motivated, and brightest students as a whole. They respond really well to feedback on their writing, despite the fact that one would think culturally they might be inclined not to take the advice of a woman seriously. Ditto for most of my black male students. But big white guys can be a problem.
Eh, my recnet problem student wasn't big, but he was a white male, and tried to act like he was big. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I'm female? if it's because I'm young? because I'm a TA and not a professor?
I'm sure it's a little bit of all of it, but my being a female adds a whole new (and really frustrating) dimension to my teaching experiences.
Fascinating . . . when I've had attitude problems with students it has always been, by far and large, with white male students who clearly feel that they are much too smart for my class (even when, in fact, their performance and grasp of the materials would clearly indicate otherwise), and who also seem to have difficulty respecting my authority because I am a woman (and, in particular, a non-white woman, I'm also guessing). It is also true that students of color, women students, and gay students clearly seem to find my presence affirming and/or empowering. Is this the inevitable trade-off, I sometimes wonder?
Wow, strange thing about those aggressive white males...
Of course, I am one of those myself: white male student (not big, though), and I've noticed that it is those types that are more "opinionated".
Part of this I blame on the fact that white males have succeptible egos, and part of that I blame on various profs who take certain students and stroke said egos (hey, we all want to encourage students, but sometimes they don't quite take it as plain "encouragement").
I've also noticed that certain males don't "take" to female profs because (theory only) they remind them of their mothers who were the first people they rebelled against in high school 
I, on the other hand, love my mommy :-D
Interesting. I had the "I'm so smart" students in both male and female flavors, but I do have to agree that the students who tended to favor physical intimidation (looming, speaking loudly) and threats ("I'll go to the chair!") did tend to be large white men. Not that other students didn't have their own forms of manipulation (weeping, claims of mysterious, undocumented mental disorders), but the big and the loud were invariably male and white.
(cont.)
(resumed)
Alas for them, I have loud large male relatives and I was fully invested in my authority to wield the grade hammer as appropriate, so it made not a whit of difference (except maybe to prejudice me negatively when trying to decide how to handle a borderline grade).
That said, I also had many lovely large white men act as mentors to their fellow students, write beautiful papers, and struggle manfully in endless office hours. In many classes, in fact, their cheerful assertiveness tended to place them among my favorite students.
Rana
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