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Plugging a few of my friends' blogs today! GO READ IMMEDIATELY!
Vanessa hazards a guess about why her generation is so apathetic. She blames the 80s nuke scares and Scifi, which makes sense:
The American people of my generation, born in the late seventies, grew up at a time when outright nuclear destruction in the next decade or so was a virtual guarantee. Pop culture was saturated with this idea. Probably like 80 percent of the movies and TV shows I watched as a child (my dad, bless him, was probably a little lax on the whole "Rated R" concept) were either action movies set in the present where scary Soviets were trying to annihilate us, or dystopian science fiction where scary Soviets already had. Even Star Trek: The Next Generation, the one scifi universe where humanity apparently managed to get their shit together, talked about a post-World War III dystopia.She believes the overall result of this doomsday-prognosticating is the pervasive belief that There's Nothing We Can Do.
So when this specific impending doom vaporized just when we were entering high school I think we suddenly had to figure out what the hell to do with our lives, I think we went all jaded and sarcastic and became Nirvana fans who could care less about the world because it could explode tomorrow...except it never got around to doing so.~*~
Why do women trash other women? A lifelong puzzle to me, as a feminist. Those of you who saw Heathers and its rather pallid update, Mean Girls, know exactly whereof I speak.
I've recently dealt with the situation of a grown woman who seems to have regressed to high-school-level clique-mentality. And this is the kind of person who should know better, as feminists should. Why do we do this? Maybe because so many feminists felt like persona non grata in high school, so they are making up for it now? I have no idea.
In any event, Renegade Evolution has had enough of it. Beware, video is Not Safe For Work and for that matter, not safe for anyone of delicate sensibilities who needs copious amounts of smelling salts to get through the day. (So, if you faint easily, stay away please.)
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Belledame generously hosts the feminist trainwreck thread of the month at her blog, Fetch Me My Axe! Yes, everyone gets in on the action. Don't miss the fun!
Queen Emily writes about ignorant people, while Zan changes her blog to MY FAVORITE COLOR! (love it, Zan!) Adrienne writes about how she learned to read and incidentally reminds us of the importance of feminist books for children, while the wonderful La Lubu gives us a whole reading list for kids!
Raven travels to Luverne, Minnesota, to say goodbye to a friend who has passed. She shows us the stunningly-beautiful prairie that sustained her spirit during the visit.
And Octogalore keeps on keeping it real, with her fabulous feminist posts about age and appearance:
[Women] are schooled to view other characteristics to supplement our view of what’s attractive. And given the ingrained myth of the man being the more active in the world, while the woman supports or receives, characteristics going along with this action are imbued with perception of attractiveness.This is why an older woman of achievement is still judged in a radically different way than a man of the same age and achievement.
We all know, in many stories with a female protagonist, the conclusion is a proposal or wedding (name a “chick flick”). That’s the end goal. Stories with male protagonists often have to do with career tumult (Bright Lights Big City) or intrigue (Godfather) or action (Mad Max, Indiana Jones).GO READ THE WHOLE THING! (Although she is currently supporting Hillary, some of us can't wait until Octo runs for the office herself!)
I come back to this from the previous post:
“I think if the roles of man = provider/actor and woman = decorative, passive receiver were more averaged out, we'd see more [situations in which women’s age and maturity are part of, or at the very least do not diminish from, her attractiveness].”
Many will toss out things like “biology” and “wiring” and back that up by talking about things like spreading of seed. To which I toss out things like “birth control” and “who has more orgasms per unit time?” and “child support” and “three months [last trimester, the only time most women experience significant impact from pregnancy]” and “breast pump.” I do not know many guys who have a desire to have large numbers of expensive dependents with multiple women. Nor do I know many women who were bedridden and/or unproductive during a large part of their pregnancies. I do know many men who experienced the same post-partum bond as their spouses. I am no biologist and I’m not claiming it plays no role, but I think the degree to which it does is greatly exaggerated.
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