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Julie White will star as a feminist teacher in HBO’s “Women’s Studies”

Raise your hand if you took a women’s studies class in college (or for the young’uns out there, if you plan on taking a class in the future).

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Personally, women’s studies was my underage gay bar. It was a place to scope out the other queer girls, their straight allies (my unrequited love) and the girls who needed a little help figuring out they were gay and latched on to the closest short lesbian (me) they could get their hands on. Grades didn’t matter so much as your use of the term “patriarchal society” and willingness to attend the Vagina Monologues. Those days are sorely missed but, thanks to HBO, we may get a chance to go back to class.

The cable network is developing Women’s Studies, a show which will center around “a onetime famous author who, after a tumultuous period as a feminist ‘It Girl’, is now a professor at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast.” Acting veteran and Tony-Award winner Julie White has been cast to star as the show’s lead.

Normally I’d be a bit skeptical about a show with a premise like this one. Sure, it’s bound to have plenty of LGBT references and characters, but will it all be handled correctly or will it only perpetuate bad stereotypes? But, the people behind the camera give me great hope. Master executive producer and writer Ben Karlin (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) has taken the lead in developing the project. Celebrated playwright and author Theresa Rebeck (NYPD Blue) is set to script the show.

With resumes like those, it’s hard not to get excited. That being said, I’ll slow my roll until the show comes out (or at least once the previews make their way out). What do you think — will you be setting your DVRs to see what happens or do you want to keep your women’s studies experience in the past?

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