Thursday, January 02, 2014
A status check on feminism
Last night I was watching an always interesting local program here called Chasing NJ and there was a segment on the increasing number of women who are getting breast augmentation surgery without the benefit of general anaesthesia. The host had asked one woman what was her motivation, after all we're not talking a critical and life-saving operation and she said so she can feel more "confident." So I got to thinking about the apparent increasing cultural irrelevancy of modern feminism, the guys want a nice ripe soft breast to handle so wouldn't want to disappoint the boys would we? So who's more sociologically relevant here Hef or Gloria Steinem? Now before you get on my case I actually agree with a few points of feminism our society's overemphasis on beauty and physical perfection being one of them but you have to ask yourself whether feminism as an overall life philosophy has ever really caught on. I mean are women demanding larger and thicker penises? It would seem for all the talk of women's empowerment these days we're still at heart a bit of a patriarchal society. Thanks gals.
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Men don't understand women and probably vice versa. It is probably as basic as
ReplyDeleteme having no compulsion to shave my legs and put on make up. :)
We've evolved from Gloria Steinem to Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug to Give the Boys What They Want. It's amazing.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a comment but it didnt publish. I will try again later.
ReplyDeleteI see there was a snow storm in your area. Did you get the day off (like the million
ReplyDeleteschoolkids)? Or did you have to strap on your snowshoes and do an arctic trek?
I went to bed fully planning on reporting in, woke up and Yonkers didn't plow my 'hood so I called out. I don't know why I pay taxes.
DeleteA BIT of a patriarchial society? Where committees to talk about women's reproductive rights have no women on the committee, where 'rape can't cause pregnancy', where 'she asked for it', where 'some girls rape easy', where women make less money than men and laws that could fix that are voted down, where females are sexualized practically from birth with the whole pageant mentality, where you can buy a t-shirt for your preteen that says 'too pretty to do homework', where a size 8 is considered full figure (average woman is a 12) and the aspired for standard is a 0 or 2, where you get shamed if the gap between your thighs is not big enough, where teenage girls get boob jobs, where Barbie dolls are an anatomical impossibility, where women are institutionally beat down, where laws regulate what you can and cannot do with your body, where you pay more for insurance, where some states want you to buy preemptive insurance in case you get raped, where the average fundamentalist Christian shares more opinions than they will ever admit-with the Taliban. Yeah.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully I make less money than some women.
DeleteThe whole Cosmo mentality is predicated on giving the guys what they want. God forbid should they put the thing on ice and give it a rest.
ReplyDeleteGender seems to be an ongoing problem in the military, but a woman major outranks
ReplyDeletethe men under her command. Which reminds me of a goofy but true tale:
I was talking to a young mfg. supervisor who had returned from Desert Storm. He
had been a Captain in charge of a company, so he had platoon lieutenants and various enlisted leaders. One was his company master sergeant, a plumpish black
master sergeant. She was tough and well-respected and high on his list of dependable troopers. They came to a cross roads, got out the maps and were trying to figure out where they were when a caravan came plodding up. He sent his
interpreter to ask for directions and he came back with an exasperated look..
"The sheik wants to by Master Sgt. Lewis and wonders if two camels and a bag
of gum Arabic is enough."
And what is this 'thanks gals'? Are you trying to say that somehow the fact that men continue on an institutional sociocultural level to keep women less than equal is the fault of women trying to get equal treatment? That's the sort of cattywampus twisted mentality that makes us a rape culture. It's also the same kind of mentality that turns 'tolerance for others' into 'persecution of me'. You see how pervasive this thinking is? You don't even realize you're part of it.
ReplyDelete"Rape culture", wasn't it radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon who coined that term or was it Andrea Dworkin or the both of them? Naomi Wolfe, now there's a more moderate feminist imo. What I'm saying is and this was the whole point of my blogpost but that this craze of women getting boob jobs feeds into and helps perpetuate this male-oriented culture. I hope that clarifies.
DeleteAnd feminism, treating women equal, won't 'catch on' because men (specifically conservative/Republican men) refuse to allow it to be so, and their women defend that sort of shit.
ReplyDeleteFurther exemplified by the tendentious arguments about birth control; arguments that are not only sophistic, but disdainful of the woman as a human being.
DeleteAll we ask BB is that folks pay for their own shit other than that there really is no "position" on bc. Saty again my point is that feminism as a philosophy has not exactly caught on with women since if it did they wouldn't be feeling so insecure and getting boob jobs to make themselves more attractive to men.
DeleteI see it as a bit more than that: it is fine to believe in something and live it.
DeleteIt is wrong to force your belief on others...unless you like Fatwa.
"In the case that led Sotomayor to issue the injunction, an organization called the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged objected to the ACA’s contraception requirement. All the Little Sisters have to do is fill out a form and the organization will be under no obligation to pay for birth control for its many employees – which include home health aides, nurses, administrators and a variety of women who may not be Catholic or, like 98% of sexually active Catholic women, may choose to use a birth control method other than natural family planning – but apparently a form is too great an intrusion on their religious liberty.
DeleteWorth noting: the Little Sisters and other groups opposing the ACA contraception mandate claim that the hormonal contraceptives covered function as “abortifacients”, preventing an embryo from implanting in the uterus. That may be their sincerely-held belief, but it’s not a scientific one. In fact, studies indicate that the methods at issue prevent fertilization, not implantation. But facts and science are no match for faith." Not only are
the Little Sisters refusing to cover birth control, they are refusing to let
others (the ACA third party) cover it. In the event they win their case,
Z-man and your company is run by Christian Scientists, you will never have to worry about a colonoscopy...or even a doctor. Of course, companies being what they are, many will claim to be Christian Scientist just to save money on insurance. Weird, but quite possible in the current
atmosphere of Duck Dynasty America. Perhaps the libertarians are right.
Outlaw health insurance, outlaw healthcare...and the Little Sisters will be
REALLY busy....
So now you're picking on the Little Sisters.
DeleteAw, call me the Hitch.
DeleteFor all its critics say this for faith, I can walk down the street in Fundieville and not worry about getting mugged. Beats Newark.
DeleteAllow me to calibrate your argument though about the patriarchal society. Sometimes a patriarchal society can be in favor of of abortion. Indeed many men are far more pro-abortion than women for their own vested interests. Hugh Hefner has always supported the pro-abortion cause not because he's a feminist but because it fits in with his playboy philosophy. Many men often harass women into getting abortions so they don't have to pay child support. There's your flipside to your patriarchal society argument.
ReplyDeleteOh, so because SOME men favor abortions the rest of the shit that the rest of them do to keep women down makes it "not" a patriarchal society?
ReplyDeleteFeminism is a very abortocentric philosophy.
DeleteSo you're saying that feminism isnt about treating women equally?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah I'm all for that only trouble is the women at work don't wanna take the garbage up or unload the truck. Equal pay for equal work.
DeleteIt doesn't matter what kind of work is being done. Whether it's unloading a truck or selling groceries men and women should make equal amounts of money, and the GOP has consistently refused to enact legislation to make it be so, and in some cases eliminated existing legislation. They do this despite the fact that it makes it more difficult for women to provide for their families, and despite the fact that making it more difficult for women to provide for their families means more families have to stay on those same social services that the GOP is so convinced are bad and require slashing and/or elimination. So there you have it in a nutshell: the GOP creates a rock and a hard place for people; make it more difficult for people and then blame them for the fact that they require help. Go party of personal responsibility!
ReplyDeleteNot to be confused with the more minority libertarian wing of the GOP who would like to get rid of the safety net altogether. NYTimes has an article today about the War on Poverty bringing in a mixed bag. Women getting paid less than men for the same work, the most common explanation I hear from conservative scholars is that women often interrupt their work history to rear children and deal with family so the job experience that correlates to higher wages is often gappy. I think the feminist theory of institutional sexism is faulty though. Many years ago when I started in my job a few women who were doing the same work were getting paid more than me. Now if institutional sexism were this engraved law in society it would have been the other way around but I'm not seeing that.
DeleteHow do you explain the GOP's insistence on refusing to pass legislation that would make wage discrimination illegal, and dismantling those laws that do?
ReplyDeleteDoes a woman get paid less than a black man gets paid less than a white man? Does a black woman get paid less than a white woman? How does this work?
Delete'How do you explain?' The GOP just elects troglodytes with that mindset.
ReplyDeleteYour comment is misleading. The GOP does not support the wife abuse guy and it's my understanding in the system we have in place almost anybody can throw their hat in the ring. Remember Lyndon LaRouche?
Deletevoters are an impediment sometimes. Ms. Cheney was running as a patriot. Probably inherited from her 5 time draft-dodger father.
DeleteIt is indeed sad the issue of lesbianism drove a holiday wedge between the two sisters. Now if Mary and Heather went upstairs for a little turkey baster action ok but really sad in a way.
DeletePatriarchal society; exemplified by bible-thumper Phil of Duck Dynasty-
Delete"A good woman is "hard to find. Mainly because these boys are waiting until they get to be about 20 years old before they marry 'em. Look, you wait till they get to be about 20 years old, they only picking that's going to take place is your pocket. You gotta marry these girls when they're 15 or 16, they'll pick your ducks. You need to check with mom and dad about that, of course." Not sure what to make of TV polygamist
series. Is that even legal?
You both are assuming that every patriarchal society is going to be anti-abortion. China has a forced abortion program for women who go over the one child limit, that's a patriarchal society. I'd hazard a guess that Kim Jong-un is rather patriarchal in his thinking. How 'bout how Putin dealt with Pussy Riot? I'm also not going to be looking for a hillbilly for my life's philosophy. Phil Robertson is obviously not Deepak Chopra.
DeleteYou'd think that with all the accusations of a war on women the GOP would be at least trying to make a good impression by not voting against wage equality and so forth. Oh, wait, I forgot... the GOP doesn't care about making good impressions with women, blacks, Hispanics, poor people, old poor people, veterans...
ReplyDeleteTo say nothing of scientists. 6% of scientists admit to voting Republican and the big question is why so many?
DeleteThe phrase "war on women" has become passe now, you don't really hear the Dems using it anymore since ObamaCare has turned into such a "disaster" to use Michael Moore's term and ObamaCare affects women bigtime. Wage discrimination - where is the empirical proof? where is the proof of the anti-gender animus at work? you can't just pass a new law based on feminist postmodern deconstructive theory. Very few white guys work in the sushi industry, do we pass a law?
DeleteScience can't cure death BB so you can have faith in it all you want and I really don't think of scientists in political terms anyway, how they vote and all that. Do I care how Louis Pasteur voted or how Jonas Salk felt about this politician or that? Just give me the vaccine or cure or medicine but since it's a subject that interests you seems they are for bigger gov't. Must have something to do with grant money.
DeleteI heard that there's a GOP something or other who thinks that the big platform for 2014/6 should be anti evolution. I think that's a winning strategy and heartily recommend it.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, the climate deniers are out in force because they don't understand that climatology is a crazy complicated science.
And in further news I have been made to understand that I am mighty high strung today and it might bear watching. I should say I have (by executive unilateral decision without consideration by committee) decreased my Seroquel by 375mg/day for about the last three weeks. I have my reasons.
Well since Darwin's theory is not established scientific fact yet I think reasonable people can disagree. It's like if we took superstring theory and treated everybody who's not a superstingist with disdain. Climate change denial, well right now most of the country with the exception of CA and FL are in what is now called a Polar Vortex. I tend to agree mildly with the global warmists after all there hasn't been any ice skating on ponds and lakes in my neck of the woods since I was a kid but again reasonable people...
DeleteI would argue that reasonable people might disagree with evolutionary theory, but to put on ban on evolution into a party platform seems ludicrous. Nor do ourplant friends complain about
Deletethe explanations of things evolved.
For once I agree with you. For me personally if Evolution is such a great theory how come it hasn't been certified yet? Earth is round, the earth goes 'round the sun and that's that but seems we can't quite bring Darwin's theory to the next level and so it just simmers and perks with controversy.
DeleteAre you a follower of Frank Stoeber\'s
Deletecontributions to String Theory?
How's the Polar Vortex been treating you?
ReplyDeleteLucky, it went by my right shoulder as I was looking north. Up to +35 today.
DeleteRelatives in N WI reporting -32F overnight. Coldest I ever saw was -40F back there. Odd thing, they never used to close the schools, when did that
start?
Nine degrees here this morning with a wind chill of -3. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 50.
ReplyDeleteFirst time this has happened, got up really early to go to work and got the scraper out. Only thing was the frost was on the inside of the windshield and not on the outside.
ReplyDelete