I’ve just finished reading yet another MacKinnon book, Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws, and as usual, it’s absolutely brilliant. The book is well worth a complete read; I paste below some perfect gems. (My used copy is marked DISCARD by the Porter County Library system. In itself, telling. Sigh.) Reading this now. It’s heavy-going, but well …
Category: gender issues
Dec 31 2021
Killing What You Enjoy
So I saw an ad on the website of the far-too-nearby gun club for a book by one of its members (“The Gun Guy”) that “takes the reader through the joyful and humorous stories about life at the hunt camp, hunting culture, and the joys of nature and wildlife.” I wrote him a short letter: …
Dec 25 2021
On Volunteering
Ever notice that women, far more often than men, are expected to volunteer their time and their effort? On the one hand, the implication is that women’s work has no value. On the other hand, since they’re expected to do whatever it is, the implication is that it has considerable value (it needs to be …
Dec 05 2021
“Sexual harassment is primarily targeted at women who violate gender roles.”
Berdahl found that women with relatively masculine personalities (e.g., assertive, dominant, and independent), compared to women who meet feminine ideals, experience the most sexual harassment. That is to say, “sexual harassment is primarily targeted at women who violate gender roles.” https://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Berdahl%20JAP%202007.pdf Good to know.
Dec 01 2021
The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart – A MUST READ
As I was reading this book, I realized right away I wanted to post about it, so I started making a list of bits to mention, but very quickly there were just too many!! So – A MUST READ. This book is FULL of all the stats you ever wanted to support your personal experience: …
Nov 01 2021
Open Season on Women: More evidence of the pornification of our society
I live in a small lake-centered community about three hours north of Toronto, consisting of about thirty houses: about ten are occupied year-round; the others are occupied mostly just during the summer. So, small neighbourhood. Over the past few years, I’ve experienced six instances of what I would call over-the-top insult. Specifically misogynist insult. Man …
Apr 14 2021
The Sexual Politics of Meat – Carol J. Adams
Highly recommended. The title says it all. Among a whole lot of ‘worth mentioning’ bits, I’ll mention the reference to Irving Fisher’s study (p.43) involving meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian non-athletes. Vegetarians, whether athletes or not, had the greatest endurance (as measured by three strength tests). “Even the maximum record of the flesh-eaters was …
Dec 18 2020
Why the fuck are ATVs, jetskis, snowmobiles still legal?
“By 2050 at the latest, and ideally before 2040, we must have stopped emitting more greenhouse gases [typically caused by the burning of fossil fuels] into the atmosphere than Earth can naturally absorb through its ecosystems (a balance known as net-zero emissions or carbon neutrality). In order to get to this scientifically established goal, our …
Dec 15 2020
On gender identity and changing your sex
Let’s say we are born with a gender identity. Either (1) it isn’t a binary, in which case there’s no need to change your sex to attain some sort of ‘fit’ (2) it is binary, but it doesn’t necessarily or always align with sex, in which case again there’s no need to change your sex, …
Dec 10 2020
Reducing sexism: non-binary sex and sex-neutral language
That sex is binary makes sexism so easy. What if sex existed on a spectrum? But, you may reply, it doesn’t. Contrary to so many transactivists, sex is a matter of biology, and you are either male or female; barring the exceptional, one has either XY chromosomes or XX chromosomes. True, but saying that sex …
fiction
