tell me what's a pretty girl to do in a land of metaphors.

[intrikate88]

"Another of the most important components of [Richard] Rorty's theoretical perspective is social hope. He has an optimistic hope for the future and the potential for humans to create new and better worlds that imbues individuals with an overwhelming sense of hopefulness. This optimistic hope is also an important component of third wave feminisms. Hope means to us that there is a possibility that, as Rorty puts it, all people will have access to full-fledged personhood." -"Liberal Irony, Rhetoric, and Feminist Thought: A Unifying Third Wave Feminism Theory," Valerie R. Renegar and Stacey K. Sowards

The fact that, in this world, all people DON'T ALWAYS have access to full-fledged personhood? UGH. It's true though. So many people questioning others' right to exist, right to have a voice and use it, right to use their talents or their leadership abilities or their culture just because they're not following all the details of the rules nobody talks about.

I don't even understand how that is possible and that our planet is so primitive that we can't manage to treat people like people.

(While the rest of you have been watching Doctor Who, I have been researching third-wave feminism essays for an article I have due in a week. Not that I mind oh wait I totally do I want new Doctor Who NOW but god there is a lot of crap in the world for no good reason and its all cited in these publications. Ick.)

I now return you to your regularly (though not as much as we would wish) scheduled Doctor Who squee.

Comments

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

I WOULD AGREE. VERY MUCH SO.

♥

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. WHAT IS THIS WORLD.

Also you need to read this (http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/waiting-for-hell-yes.html) and this (http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/adulthood-and-its-discontents.html) because this woman, she reads my mind sometimes. (I should actually start commenting on her blog lol.)

[the-stook3.livejournal.com]

Last night I was listening to Utah Phillip's 'What is a pacifist?' (http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/4gK0NaNS2Zo-utah-phillips-what-is-pacifist.aspx) and your comment struck me as being in a similar vein. Utah recounts the words of Ammon Hennacy:

“You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century industrial America. You came into the world armed to the teeth with an arsenal of weapons, the weapons of privilege, economic privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege. You’re going to be a pacifist. You’re not just going to lay down guns and fists and knives and hard angry words. You’re going to have to lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed. Well, you try that.”

Funny that we've spent all this time evolving as a species and yet we are nowhere near realising our possibilities as human beings.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

YES. THAT. Privilege is so powerful, and so few people see through it. I was talking with my (black) coworker the other day and she was talking about some of the discrimination she has faced and I was talking about some of what I faced as just female, even having white privilege. And my father, who IS that white male in your quote, who doesn't see the privilege. So he sees that he has to work to prove himself, but so do women and minorities. So complaining that we've got it hard is redundant... except it's not. Because when you don't have privilege you have to work twice or three times as hard to prove yourself- and for no reason. You have to face the double standards that when a man takes the lead he's "being a man" but when a woman does she's called a "dominatrix bitch". Or maybe that's just me.

I just don't get why, after all this time, we're STILL dealing with this shit. Why there's still rape and people thinking how much melanin in your skin has to define how you act.

Thanks for the link, that looks really interesting.

[the-stook3.livejournal.com]

we're still 'dealing with this shit' because we haven't learnt to put down our weapons. We, as a species, cling to whatever gives us a sense of power over others. Physical violence may no longer be the norm, but fear, suspicion, paranoia and greed still drive basic human instincts that take (some) individuals back to the primitive.

The interesting question is "why, after all this time?". Evolution has the power to change behaviour, so why haven't women chosen men to sire their offspring that are free of these 'weapons'? The problem is that some favoured characteristics are correlated and the alpha-male is hard to ignore!

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Both your points are true. Though I do think that women want to see confident men (WOAH MASSIVE UNSUBSTANTIATED HETERONORMATIVE GENERALIZATION ALERT) who aren't mired in the sort of fear and insecurity that drives that need for power. But there is a type of posing that looks like strength but is really power-grabbing and victimizing; a masked desperate fearful weakness. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference.

[the-stook3.livejournal.com]

sexual selection is a game of masks - and women are just as adept at playing as well.