Holes In Thoughts

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Misguided Feminism

I've written on productive feminism before (1, 2), but this bears another mention. There is a cry going up to the heavens from hardcore feminist supporters who are saying they will not vote (or, incredibly, vote for McCain) out of anger about Senator Clinton's loss of the Democratic nomination:

The Obamabots are under the delusion that if Obama wins the nomination (which he hasn't yet, by the way), all of us in the Hillary camp will forget about the misogyny and come over to their side. Make nice for the sake of party unity. Forgive all the abuse.

Nope.

Several of us have tried over the past couple of months to explain why that won't happen, but the Obamabots don't seem to understand. And I know why: it's because they don't take sexism seriously. When women say we will not reward misogyny, we’re laughed off. The Obamabots just tell more jokes and hurl more insults and write more crass articles about how the little lay-dees have their little pan-tees in a twist.

While I can see why a feminist would be upset at general bias, Barack Obama was not the cause of that bias. In fact he made a point to tell her to stay in as long as she wanted to, emphasized their friendship in speeches, and never said anything to or of her that could be construed as sexist. He obviously didn't agree with all of her policy ideas, and many of her campaign tactics, but frankly that's what an election should be about anyway. So why blame him?

Moreover, he two candidates' stances on a wide variety of issues is very similar. If a feminist were to agree with Clinton's policy ideas and was not just voting for her because of her gender (which would in of itself be sexist), then he is the next-best candidate. If John McCain appoints judges to overturn Roe v. Wade as a result of a feminist boycott, well, you could press shirts with irony like that.

Not everyone who votes against Obama is a racist and not everyone who votes against Clinton is a sexist. Surely some people are! But to lump everyone together like that is counterproductive because it insults feminist allies. All of the falsely-accused will stop listening to reasonable feminists.

Finally, I wish they would consider the possibility that while there's certainly a LOT of misogyny that has been spewed, a lot of people really, honestly, just thought Obama was a better option on purely merit-based grounds.

Labels: feminism, idiots, Obama, politics

posted by Steve @ 4:34 PM 0 comments

Sunday, February 03, 2008

First!

The curious phenomenon of people feeling gratified about making the first post in a popular comment thread (such as this example on Barack Obama's website) always weirded me out a little. Those people would have no trouble on my little blog, since I hadn't had any comments posted on it since early 2006. Since it's mostly a means of getting ideas down, and cataloging things that I think are awesome, I don't mind yelling into the black hole that is the blogosphere. I've been keeping a homepage for similar reasons since 1994.

I hadn't had any comments from people I didn't know until a few weeks ago, on the 24th. I had my first 2 comments posted by people I didn't know in person. It took me almost two weeks to even notice.

The first post was in response to my short riff on responsible feminism, which also applies to most activist ideas. A very nice person named Cate basically posted an agreement post, which I appreciate in bewilderment at the frightening idea that people might actually read what I write.

The other one, amusingly, was in response to my Will Rogers anti-consumerist quote. It said that the best way to save money was to get coupons and provided a link to a coupon website; this is possibly the best bit of spam I've ever seen.

The prospect of people actually reading my work prompted me to re-design the blog's look for the umpteenth time. I hate using templates (I'm a web designer, after all), and I take nice pictures sometimes, but I've had a terribly difficult time getting a good photo to work. So I am eating a lollipop, and notice it's very green... and there you go.

Labels: blog, feminism, Internet, true, writing

posted by Steve @ 4:57 AM 2 comments

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Birthing isn't something I'm gonna do.

I'm male. I don't get to do the more involved half of baby-making. I just watched the trailer for The Business of Being Born, which is a Ricki Lake production about how natural birthing is pretty rare nowdays and how hospitals-as-businesses have a lot to do with that. It's most likely going to present hospitals as The Evil and midwifing and water-births as The Ecstasy, but hyperbole notwithstanding, the points are sound.

This is something Rachel actually decided quite awhile ago, since her aunt (I think) is a midwife. She's also the kind of tough-minded feminist that can't believe that she (and most anyone else) can't do what women have done since there were women. I admire that, and know full well I'll need a gauntlet to keep my hand from being broken off during childbirth.

No, this is not a veiled way of saying she's pregnant, despite the fact that we've had something like half our friends and most of her co-workers tell her that they've had dreams that she is pregnant. (Grammatically, that is an awesome sentence.) But we've discussed how and why we're going to have kids, though the exact times aren't something anyone can exactingly plan (nor should it be). Honestly, the only thing that really makes me think is how she's going to get her Librarian degree amongst part-time jobs and/or pregnancy.

It's all academic now, of course. Really. Of course, it takes like a month to find out, so how would I know?

Labels: feminism, kids, Rachel, women

posted by Steve @ 2:49 PM 0 comments

Feminism & Power

In relation to my previous post on feminism, I wanted to point out the false feminism of Hillary Clinton (I'm obviously a big Obama supporter), but someone beat me to it in a more concise fashion:

If Hillary Clinton wins, her success will become a lesson in how women should achieve power: marry well; put up with any humiliations your husband throws at you, and then, maybe, if you fight dirty, and ask your husband to run your campaign, you might be able to ride his coattails to your “own” political success.

That basically sums it up. Actually, the article runs down a list of all of the reasons I like Obama over her that almost exactly mirrors my own. On the other hand, people like Faye Wattleton, who probably has done a lot for women in general and is the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation and current president of the Center for the Advancement of Women, actually seem to believe that this is progressive feminism:

"Well, I think that Bill Clinton's role is that of the spouses of all the candidates, he's participating as a surrogate for his wife who is running. And I think that its entirely consistent with the ascension of other women to the top offices in their country; they come about it as the result of the president being their spouse or being members of prominent families. So I don't think that we should be so upset and agitated about Mr. Clinton's participation..."

If that's her big draw, she should be nowhere near candidacy.

Labels: feminism, Obama, politics

posted by Steve @ 12:08 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Great Feminism

I like real feminists the way I like real conservatives: when they aren't pushy, arrogant and myopic, they have some great ideas. For that matter, most 'idea groups' (religions, political positions, social issue people, etc.) have a point, when they're being rational.

Here is an example of what I would describe as a good feminist article. It doesn't talk much about women, per se; it's about the infantilization of America's men. Here's what they mean:

"The benevolent patriarch of the '50s has been replaced by an adult teenager who spends his time sneaking off to hang out with the boys, eyeing the hot chick over his wife’s shoulder, or buying cool new toys. Like a fourteen-year-old, this guy can’t be trusted with the simplest of domestic tasks, be it cooking dinner for the kids or shopping for groceries."

The implicit feminist concern is that in their haste to wave the women-can-do-anything banner,

"the women's movement has freed men from the straightjacket of traditional machismo, others have blamed it for depriving them of their identity."

In other words, responsible feminists want men to be as responsible, capable and intelligent as they're hoping to become themselves. True feminism isn't a matriarchal fantasy; it's the evening of burdens. I do laundry because I work at home. It just makes more sense. I don't feel emasculated, and she has clean clothes.

I still have to open jars, though.

Labels: feminism, reason

posted by Steve @ 12:17 AM 1 comments

About Me

Name: Steve
Home: Tucson, Arizona, United States
About Me: I like to think about things, and I occasionally like to write what I think.
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