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Open Letter
Mar. 7th, 2008 11:30 amDear Democratic candidates - STOP IT. Just stop. You are two capable, intelligent, qualified individuals with different faces and personas and incredibly similar voting records and you're turning what started out as giddy glee into something rivaling disgust in me. No one thinks I'm going to shift my allegiances and suddenly vote conservative, but really. Just really.
Dear Job - stop being so complicated and exhausting. I realize that it's up to me to solve the difficulties in our production cycle, to take on even MORE work without more financial compensation and if we do have a recession coming I should be happy to be employed in my field, but really, it gets old sometimes. The cats are more well behaved than y'all most days. However, the cats do not dress up in ill fitting motorcycle leathers and hilarious white leopard print riding boots and wander around the office, so perhaps the hysterical laughter evens things out.
Dear Charlotte Allen - you're not a satirist, and your certainly not a humorist. So, either learn to do one or the other and definitely stay off my side! I fail to see the value in looking at women as foolish unless you intend to actually be funny. Self-mocking is terrific fodder sometimes, but not when it comes across as actually bitterly unaware of what you're doing. Basically, I'm less offended by your words than by the fact that you couldn't pull off whatever the hell you were aiming for. Try harder. Do better.
We get our noses tweaked for the parts of that piece that resonate, and the parts that are just blatantly ridiculous and stereotypical, and yet...![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pellucid made an excellent point about the way that female activities are devalued simply because they are female activities. And we allow that. We say "I'm not watching Grey's, or buying Cosmo, or crying over men so you're wrong." We don't say, "Hell yes, I'm doing all those things. I'm also rocking my job, my hobbies, and my family life. Can you say the same?"
For me, it triggers the "what defines a feminist" buttons. Because while I know I'm smart, articulate, talented in certain areas, and good at math, I also love shoes, and dresses, and movies about kissing, and books about sex. I'm a feminist because I believe in equal rights, equal consideration and equal opportunity for the sexes. Because I believe that aside from easily peeing my name in the snow (and if you think this is a stereotype, you've never been around boys and beer and a Minnesota winter), I can do the same things that a man can. That's feminism people. Do I have different interests and inclinations than most of the men I know? Sure. But I wouldn't judge them if they wore pink and high heels. There is a morphological difference, there may even be neurological differences, but feminism means that opportunity is equal and that we regard EVERYONE as a human deserving of the same rights and responsibilities. Full stop.
I think that our interest in ass-kicking women has a lot to do with the way they balance the scales for us, project our physical fantasies. It is hard, as a women, to develop the same strengths as a body built to be bigger, faster, stronger than our own. In response, we feel (can feel) vulnerable to the bodies of men, to their wills and whims. Sure, we're stronger these days, more capable, but the morphology remains, and when we see women kicking ass in media, it's a fantasy come to life of a woman on completely equal ground, a women not ever threatened by a physicality that is out of her hands. It's giddy, and sexy, and empowering. It's... for me it's similar to the reaction I had during the X-Files movie and earlier eps when Scully steps in, takes charge with a big voice and a big gun. This tiny little hardcore scientist showing that it doesn't take big balls or big muscles to get things done. That she's found a way around the morphology and physicality and it's terribly swoony:)
And that topic went strangely off the rails:) Sorry folks:)
Dear Job - stop being so complicated and exhausting. I realize that it's up to me to solve the difficulties in our production cycle, to take on even MORE work without more financial compensation and if we do have a recession coming I should be happy to be employed in my field, but really, it gets old sometimes. The cats are more well behaved than y'all most days. However, the cats do not dress up in ill fitting motorcycle leathers and hilarious white leopard print riding boots and wander around the office, so perhaps the hysterical laughter evens things out.
Dear Charlotte Allen - you're not a satirist, and your certainly not a humorist. So, either learn to do one or the other and definitely stay off my side! I fail to see the value in looking at women as foolish unless you intend to actually be funny. Self-mocking is terrific fodder sometimes, but not when it comes across as actually bitterly unaware of what you're doing. Basically, I'm less offended by your words than by the fact that you couldn't pull off whatever the hell you were aiming for. Try harder. Do better.
We get our noses tweaked for the parts of that piece that resonate, and the parts that are just blatantly ridiculous and stereotypical, and yet...
pellucid made an excellent point about the way that female activities are devalued simply because they are female activities. And we allow that. We say "I'm not watching Grey's, or buying Cosmo, or crying over men so you're wrong." We don't say, "Hell yes, I'm doing all those things. I'm also rocking my job, my hobbies, and my family life. Can you say the same?" For me, it triggers the "what defines a feminist" buttons. Because while I know I'm smart, articulate, talented in certain areas, and good at math, I also love shoes, and dresses, and movies about kissing, and books about sex. I'm a feminist because I believe in equal rights, equal consideration and equal opportunity for the sexes. Because I believe that aside from easily peeing my name in the snow (and if you think this is a stereotype, you've never been around boys and beer and a Minnesota winter), I can do the same things that a man can. That's feminism people. Do I have different interests and inclinations than most of the men I know? Sure. But I wouldn't judge them if they wore pink and high heels. There is a morphological difference, there may even be neurological differences, but feminism means that opportunity is equal and that we regard EVERYONE as a human deserving of the same rights and responsibilities. Full stop.
I think that our interest in ass-kicking women has a lot to do with the way they balance the scales for us, project our physical fantasies. It is hard, as a women, to develop the same strengths as a body built to be bigger, faster, stronger than our own. In response, we feel (can feel) vulnerable to the bodies of men, to their wills and whims. Sure, we're stronger these days, more capable, but the morphology remains, and when we see women kicking ass in media, it's a fantasy come to life of a woman on completely equal ground, a women not ever threatened by a physicality that is out of her hands. It's giddy, and sexy, and empowering. It's... for me it's similar to the reaction I had during the X-Files movie and earlier eps when Scully steps in, takes charge with a big voice and a big gun. This tiny little hardcore scientist showing that it doesn't take big balls or big muscles to get things done. That she's found a way around the morphology and physicality and it's terribly swoony:)
And that topic went strangely off the rails:) Sorry folks:)
