A new (for me) answer to the classic question, Why aren’t there any great women Xs, occurred to me when I saw a website for a small company of composers specializing in music for dance troupes (all four composers were male) shortly after a male friend of mine confessed that if he wasn’t getting paid …
Category: feminism
Jun 23 2014
Men who need Mom to clean up after them
I spend a lot of time walking on the dirt roads near by place, as well as on the old logging roads through the forest. Twice a year, I take a large garbage bag with me to pick up the litter – mostly beer cans and fast food containers, but often whole plastic bags of …
May 19 2014
Brunettes, Blondes, and Redheads
So the other day I started reading Iron Shadows by Steven Barnes. He’s apparently a bestselling author. Which is really disturbing. Because four sentences in, he describes a woman as “a small wiry brunette”. Seriously? Does anyone actually identify women by their hair colour any more? That’s so—1940s. Isn’t it? I check. The book’s copyright …
May 02 2014
Grey’s Anatomy, Flashpoint, and Who knows how many others (I don’t – and this is why)
Why didn’t Bailey get the Chief of Surgery position? For the same reason Ed jokingly says to Greg, when he questions his rank, “Should I get you a dress?”—and they both laugh. Because in 2012 being a woman is (still) (STILL!) (STILL!) (STILL!) being subordinate. I love that on Grey’s Anatomy,* so many main characters, …
Apr 17 2014
“If you’re feminine … “
“If you’re feminine, I gathered, you enjoy things that are fundamentally unenjoyable, take plesaure in actions that are intrinsically painful, and derive most satisfaction from the gratification of someone else’s desires, anyone else’s.” Class Porn, Molly Hite
Apr 06 2014
Power or Responsibility?
Several years ago, a local arts centre ran an ad for the position of General Manager. It caught my eye – for a second, I must’ve thought of applying. But then my conscious self must’ve recognized it as being out of my league and I read on. But then I thought, wait a minute! I’m …
Mar 22 2014
Making Taxes Gender-Fair
Since men commit 90% of the crime, they should pay 90% of the tax that supports the judicial system. Prisons are expensive to build and maintain. As are prisoners – they don’t work while they’re in prison, so we have to support them. Then there’s the expense of the police forces and courts that get …
Mar 12 2014
And now for something completely depressing
And now for something completely depressing: http://100percentmen.tumblr.com/
Feb 23 2014
Dangerous Sports
I haven’t really kept up with the sexism in the Olympics, mostly because the nationalism bothers me so much I don’t even watch them anymore, but I suspect there are still some sports in which women aren’t allowed to compete. Perhaps because of the tired, old, and fucking patronizing ‘You could get hurt!’ This from …
Feb 11 2014
The Proverbial ‘Walking Alone in a Park at Night’
In a rape trial, that the woman was walking alone in a park at night has been considered relevant – presumably it’s a mitigating circumstance: the accused can be excused for thinking she wanted it if she was walking alone in a park at night. What!? Why? Why is it that a woman walking alone …
fiction
