I recently spent some time at another blog (someone had linked to one of my posts and invited me to the discussion), and I discovered that several of the discussants conflated gender and sex. I was shocked. (And in fact, that possibility so didn’t occur to me that I continued the surreal discussion for some …
Category: gender issues
Aug 26 2013
The Silence of Descartes and Bacon
Reading (again) (this time in Daly) about how during the Renaissance it was so inconceivable that women were knowledgeable, especially with regard to the human body, that when they cured various ailments, they were not lauded as competent physicians but accused of consorting with the devil; such ‘witches’ were tortured with eye-gougers, branding irons, spine-rollers, …
Aug 22 2013
The Little Birdies
So I’m out walking today, and as I pass a neighbour tending his bird feeder, I wave. And the guy calls out to me “I’m feeding some seed to the little birdies!” The little birdies? What am I, twelve? No, I’m female. (I have a hard time believing that he would’ve said the same thing …
Aug 19 2013
Police urge riders to use caution after second sexual assault by fake taxi driver.
Right, that’ll work. Women should use caution. Okay, as long as we’re putting the responsibility on the women (sigh), how about a women-only taxi service? Anyone out there looking for a job? Someone with a BBA could prepare a business plan, someone else could prepare a Kickstarter proposal to get funding (I offer my editing …
Aug 17 2013
Reporting What Women Do
What if, for just one year, the media reported 90% of the time what women are doing instead of, as is now the case, what men are doing? Not because what women do is better, or more newsworthy, but just to see how it would change our outlook, our world view. The news might be …
Aug 16 2013
Sex and So You Think You Can Dance
When So You Think You Can Dance first started, they had one winner. In season 9, they decided to have two winners: one male and one female. I thought it was because they realized the odds were stacked in favour of male dancers since most of the viewers/voters were female (and, presumably, heterosexual) (and, presumably, …
Jul 30 2013
Parents furious? Please.
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/01/15/parents-furious-after-young-boys-suspended-after-playing-with-imaginary-weapon/ I’d be uncomfortable around any child who enjoyed pretending to kill–anything. Especially if that child was going to grow up to be a man, was going to be flooded with testosterone for several years. I’d also be uncomfortable around any adult who considered that behavior “a game”.
Jul 27 2013
Bare Breasts: Objections and Replies
[I wrote this piece back in the early 90s when Gwen Jacobs did her thing (yay, Gwen!), but apparently it all still needs to be said. A couple years ago, I was ‘spoken to’ by a neighbour for taking my shirt off on a hot summer day when I was out kayaking. Most amusingly, I …
Jul 25 2013
Bare Breasts: Objections and Replies
[I wrote this piece back in the early 90s when Gwen Jacobs did her thing (yay, Gwen!), but apparently it all still needs to be said. A couple years ago, I was ‘spoken to’ by a neighbour for taking my shirt off on a hot summer day when I was out kayaking. Most amusingly, I …
Jul 23 2013
Developing Authority and Being a Parent
I’m wondering whether it’s just me or…whether most women who never become mothers simply never develop an authoritative manner. Men have it from the get go: they are automatically thought, by themselves as well as by others, to be authorities, and early on, they develop both the habit of telling others what to do and …
fiction
