Tonight we had a rather provocative #fem2 discussion over privilege, patriarchy, raising boys, identity politics and feminism over Twitter. You can find the discussion through Twitter Search.
I helped facilitate the discussion by opening it with this vignette about kids (it actually happened a couple of weeks ago):
Talking about how to raise boys to be feminists, @phdinparenting sent us a link to a post she has on the subject. Raising A Feminist inspired and spooked me at the same time. Canada declared women "persons" in 1929. Mindbloggling considering my father was born in 1926.
Which takes me to the closing of the twittercast. more this way»
There was a hysterical moment during The Situation Room. Blitzer asked Gergen what did he think of McCain's appearance and defense during this second "interview" between McCain and Palin. He was dumbfounded. It was awesome!
Gergen didn't have a response and said just that. Afterwards, Roland Martin and the othersagreed that the interview was an embarrassment. It wasn't because of Katie Couric's behaviour. The woman has struck gold with these Palin interviews. It was the patriarchal and condescending nature of McCain's appearance.
But I will say that it’s past time for men of color who consider themselves allies to women of color, who recognize that their freedom can’t come at the expense the women who share their history, to meditate on and interact with the words, the ideas, the actions of the women of their communities. It’s time for them to contemplate something deeper and more profound than “rape=badâ€â€“it’s time for them to look at their own roles in the creation of “race=male,†and why it is that every woman of color I have read, talked to, interacted with, watched, heard of, all have an extremely thoughtful critique of various issues like Tookie Williams, Leonard Peltier, hip hop, Abu Ghraib, suicide bombers, lynching, etc etc etc–and yet most men of color don’t even know that Latinas, black women, and Native women are ALL disproportionately imprisoned compared to their white counter parts. Or that Asian women are committing suicide in frightening numbers. Or that our work around rape extends well beyond a “no means no†campaign. Or that the women men do organize with have all probably been on some type of harmful birth control at one point or another. And they’ve all also probably carefully weighed their words at some point or another–considered how they could say something in the “right wayâ€.
It’s time for men to contemplate this in meaningful, thoughtful and transparent ways, with other men of color, with boys of color, with the men that call us bitch, cunt, vendida, traitor, thundercunts, ho’s, nappy headed, ugly.
. . .The homeschool community is a culture, religion—to some a cult—in itself. I loved many aspects but certain things were hard to understand. For example, many people thought women should dress very modestly and with head coverings. Definitely the more “earthy†you were the better: grind your own grain, natural foods, bake your own bread.
Many also believed that couples should let God plan their family – and I mean no interference on your part—because it showed you had more faith. Moms should stay at home while dads provided for the family. All of these were what proved you were a godly woman. Of course, you needed to do this all with great delight and in an organized fashion.
I began to have difficulty with this culture as our children got older and their gender roles began to be more defined. . .I started to feel pressure about how my kids behaved and what they wore. We were not a family that believed that girls must wear dresses, but many of our friends did. more this way»
Still watching the live news conference on CNN and thinking it should be required viewing in every school worldwide -- that is, if we do mean to create and preserve real environments that sustain human life by right instead of might.
"Fighting back was simply not an option."
When one is "not equipped for a fight" and reason fails in the face of unhearing, blinded, singleminded Borg-like purpose with superior numbers and ammunition, then Reason itself becomes an unreasonable response forcibly redefined against your will, becoming not an academic exercise but a raw first-rung survival skill, a matter of figuring out who is fit to survive and what it will take.
"We realized that our efforts to reason with these people were not making any headway. Nor were we able to calm some of the individuals down.
It was at this point that we realized that had we resisted there would have been a major fight, one we could not have won, with consequences that would have had major strategic impact. We made a conscious decision to not engage the Iranians and do as they asked.
And even that kind of Raw Reason falters without intelligence, sound information for making wise decisions, and being allowed untwisted, unmanipulated communication within one's one group of fellows and with the real world. Reason stripped, blindfolded and shoved up against the wall to hear the sound of guns being cocked. more this way»
My college-loving book and culture nut daughter blogs, too. Writes rings around me already, to be honest, and certainly around the unhoned writer and thinker I was at her age!
She gave me permission to crosspost her latest work here. It's true I thought Liza, Lorraine, moiv and CaLiberal (who I keep wanting to call Callie!) would especially like it, but also I want her POV accessible here at Culture Kitchen, because I hope it will speak to a larger progressive audience in the too-often-unheard voice of young feminism, from the direct line of fire in the culture wars.
RUMINATIONS ON OLIVE OIL
Standing in line at a fancy grocery store, I spotted a display among many :
EXTRA EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL! It proclaimed.
Excuse me? I thought. Extra extra? Isn’t that a little unnecessary?
That is to say, I never really understood the concept of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to begin with. Is it made from olives that aren’t allowed to touch other olives? Are they modestly shielded from life’s elements by tarps?
And Extra Extra Virgin Olives - what on earth does that entail?
Or does the “virgin†refer to the oil itself? Has it never been mixed with another oil, commingling and developing new, brassy flavors? I certainly hope not, one takes for granted when one buys olive oil that it is, in fact, olive oil, and not some other hybrid. But then it seems that they shouldn’t have to bellow about its virginity so explicitly. more this way»
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Clinton had to raise the stakes by raising the bar: It’s Tuesday or bust.
And along with victimhood, Clinton has finally found a powerful theme, the same theme that George W. Bush used at his convention and in his reelection campaign in 2004: Vote for me or die.
With her “3 a.m. phone call†ad, she is saying exactly what Bush said: I will protect you and your children, and the other guy will not.
Yes, there is irony in a Democrat trying to getting the nomination by adopting a Republican tactic, but, hey, you know what? It worked back then, and Clinton is betting it will work now.
