Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Must-Tards X
Feminists, do you want to hold Linda Hirshman up as your representative? Do ya? Do ya really?
MINDY FARABEE: Why do you take issue with what you call “choice feminism”? Why not live and let live?
LINDA HIRSHMAN: When women opt out, and make what they call in preemptive language a “personal choice,” they’re doing harm to two interests I have. One is they’re doing harm to themselves, and insofar that they are human beings, as a political philosopher, I’m interested in every one of them. Secondly, they’re doing harm to others. Opting out makes women dependent, it hurts other ambitious women, and it doesn’t use their full capacities. I want to have a social conversation about it.
:
FARABEE: What about those who say raising children is the most important job a person can do?HIRSHMAN: I have no idea what they mean by that. If, in fact, it were the most important thing a human being could do, then why are no men doing it? They’d rather make war, make foreign policy, invent nuclear weapons, decode DNA, paint The Last Supper, put the dome on St. Peter’s Cathedral; they’d prefer to do all those things that are much less important than raising babies?
I love these sayings, because they’re so stupid. I’ll tell you what I think is actually going on: People think that women’s lives aren’t important enough to merit a real analysis. We get aphorisms in place of analysis. Why do we say stuff like that instead of actually trying to figure out what’s going on here when it’s women whose lives are at stake? If you can make an argument for why childrearing — especially in the context that they are at school from the age of around five on for most of their waking hours — why that is the most important job, I’d like to hear that.
Got it. So if I’m a woman, and I fail to support feminism and womens’ choices, Hirshman doesn’t like me. If I do support womens’ personal choices about working vs. staying home, then maybe she’ll approve of me — BUT! — in making my “choice,” I have to choose to work, or else she still disapproves. I’m opting out, I’m making other women dependent, I’m hurting ambitious women. So it’s kind of like ordering any color Model A Ford I want, as long as it’s black. Some choice.
So to earn her approval, if I’m a woman, I have to support womens’ choice, then I have to “choose” to work.
But maybe even that won’t do the trick!
Because I could be a woman, support womens’ choice, choose to work…and then, paycheck in hand, trot down to the magazine stand and buy…Playboy for my husband, instead of Cosmopolitan or Ms. for me. Is that okay, Linda Hirshman? Probably not!
So I have to support womens’ choice in career over home, choose that for myself, cash the paycheck, not patronize Playboy, or Hooters, or The Man Show or anything advertised on Comedy Central…buy Cosmo, buy Ms., and then…VOTE REPUBLICAN! Would you approve of that?
PROBABLY NOT!
You see, once you start down this road of “Oh no, we can’t just let you live your life as you choose because you’re still attacking me”…once you go down that road, there’s no stopping. You have to keep on marching, relentlessly, unstoppably, unceasingly, until the entire world is nothing but massively-produced carbon copies of yourself. In this case, women must support womens’ choice…exercise that choice the way Hirshman wants…use that paycheck to support the products Hirshman wants supported…support her political causes…oppose the ones she doesn’t like…and, it’s logical to assume — quite illogical not to assume — a whole fistful of other crap she wants done her way.
Oh I suppose she could insist some things be done her way, and other things not be done her way…she does have that option open to her. But there’s no reason to promote such an inconsistency. No reason except political expediency, a wilfullness of upholding some objectives that are politically inexpensive, and foresaking others that are more politically costly. Nothing principled about that. Or…personal fatigue. Nothing principled about that either. The only option that remains, is to remain consistent. Micromanage everything a woman has earned the right and privilege to “choose”…or micromanage nothing. Clearly, “micromanage nothing” is an option that doesn’t appeal to Hirshman. So, she must micromanage everything.
Grreeeeeeaaaaaaatttt job, feminists. Just great. Real crusaders for womens’ liberty, you are.
Update 9/6/06: What the hell is this, “Show The World I Need To Be Slapped Silly Week” in Feminist-land? Germaine Greer, feminist expatriate from Australia, says the “Animal Kingdom has finally taken its revenge” on Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.
Australians were outraged Wednesday over feminist writer Germaine Greer’s claim that the death of wildlife documentary maker Steve Irwin was payback from the animal world. “Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress,” Australian expatriate Greer wrote in an article in London’s Guardian newspaper. “The animal kingdom has finally taken its revenge.”
:
Greer, an academic who left her native Australia in the 1960s, had written: “The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing 10 times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire, animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn.”
I tell ya…some days, it’s just good to be a man. There are nutty men out there, and there are women who are much smarter and saner than the Hirshman/Greer duo. But us guys have it good. Nobody’s making a point of picking out our most loudmouthed and psychotic specimens, and sticking microphones in their faces.
Batty women like this speak up, and they reflect poorly on all feminists…and not too well upon women in general. But thanks to their zaniness, they get all the coverage from the press. Girls, I think you should hunt down this pair and duct-tape their gaping maws shut — to safeguard your own collective reputation.
Chickies like Hirshman and Greer, they make more and more of the dreaded “chauvinist pig” wherever they go.
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