The Bride Wore Botox by E, the Oral Hygiene Queen. People – women – have taken leave of their senses.
Lara says men rape and she’s right.
Great comment by Keres on patriarchal shit.
Girls can do math after all, and reading the comments — I read all of them — made my head explode. Makes me want to die, humanity is in such a tattered state.
I love this article on aging.
DrStacey, of Every Woman Has An Eating Disorder, writes beautifully and briefly about language, phrases in common parlance, as relating to women’s looks.
Sista writes about the foul-mouthed Chef Gordon. The video is fun.
I try not to link to big blogs in my round-ups, because they hardly need it, but this was so good, had to share it. Twisty, on How Bigotry Works.
I completely understand how this woman feels.
This is the difference between the “loony left” and the wingnutty right. There is no equivalence.
Evolved and Rational takes down sexist pigs. If Girls Ruled the Internet.
Teh stoopid in Saudi Arabia (I know, shocking): Religious police bans cats and dogs because men use them “to make passes on women” – they didn’t explain what the fuck they were blathering about.
Names – and their legalities.
Koonj’s article on being single, Muslim, female and in America is very interesting and partially inspired my rant on marriage (below).
Filed under: Feminism, Miscellanea
Thanks for the link on math; girls-cant-do-math has been on my mind lately. And thanks for including me! You needn’t worry, though; IBTP isn’t a big blog, only a medium-small one. Cheerio!
Apostate, that *was* a great article on aging. I loved it. “Matching inside and out” — great line.
Although, I do have one quibble. Nora Ephron’s book *was* witty. I don’t mind a good whine sometimes, especially if it’s wrapped in a well-turned phrase. And there were plenty of those.
[...] Via The Apostate [...]
Thanks for the link Apostate! I appreciate it :) This is a great list, and I’ll certainly be reading through the other links.
Great list. The last one, from Koonj, is very interesting and sheds a lot of light on some of the context for the marriage post.
I like the ageing post a lot too. Only quibble I’d have is her line about “get your hair cut and lose the miniskirt.” I don’t think ageing is something to be afraid of (and someday hopefully I’ll practice as well as preach that), but I don’t think it’s something that dictates various norms either. I completely agree with the author’s frustration at her linked post, though. It’s depressing, especially in conjunction with your link about Botox parties, that this is part of the culture of women only, and therefore yet another hurdle.
Some thoughts onTwisty’s “On How Bigotry Works” —
I am a feminist, but I have some problems with the feminist argument that there are no essential differences between men and women– just culturally constructed ones. First, it seems like in protesting against the “men and women are different” perspective, feminists seem to be wanting to join the male club, i.e., the logical conclusion to the argument “there are no differences between men and women,” is women are just like men. (If this is not the logical conclusion, please set me straight.) Anyway, no one ever makes the argument that men are just like women. Men don’t want to be just like women — even liberal men never (rarely) argue that they are just like women, although they are willing to concede that women are no different from men. This may be a small point, but it seems important to me.
Since patriarchy was created by men for men and since patriarchy sucks, if women are no different in our mental processes, does that mean that if we had the power we women would also create a patriarchy-like social structure based on the concentration of power in the few for the exploitation of the many? I hope not.
There is no doubt that patriarchy has constructed both what it means to be masculine and what it means to be feminine and has set up the human male as the standard for what it means to be fully human. But do we women have to buy the argument that the human male is the standard and therefore that the only way to be fully human is to strive to emulate male behavior as constructed by our society?
I, for one, devoutly hope that women are different from men so that as we get more and more power we can offer a different way of being in the world and a different value system which might promote the survival of the human species. If we are no different from men, then I don’t hold out much hope.
Men have no problem with the “biology is destiny” idea as patriarchy constructs male biology as essentially superior to female biology. Women need not fight against the biology is destiny point of view; we just need to reevaluate that destiny and not accept the patriarchal judgment that female biology is innately inferior.
Men are very happy with their biology. They celebrate it. I would like to see women celebrating their own biology instead of trying to deny it. Which is not to deny that ideas of male and female are so heavily constructed that it is hard to sort out what is biology and what is culture. I want to deny the negative cultural constructs associated with being female, while celebrating my essential femaleness — whatever that may be.
Although the discussion has moved on to other things, this has been bothering me so I thought I would get it off my chest. I will probably post this at Twisty’s site as well.
Elle, I guess you should lose all hope for the future of humanity then – for it’s true. Women and men are just people and beyond a few biological (but non-essential) differences, they are the same and have the same capacity for goodness or evil.
You are yourself playing into the Male is Standard, Female is Deviant, by suggesting that if women say we are not different from men – i.e., we are also just people – then we want to “be like men.” We don’t. We want to be like ourselves.
Strangely enough, the more women are allowed to be like themselves, and men are allowed to be like themselves (because remember, patriarchy defines gender roles, for both men AND women), the fewer sex-based behavioral and other differences there are between the genders.