Wow, that's the class: so it really is a cartoon?
I had a human sexuality psych class that was REALLY REALLY bad (another class where I sat in a circle), I dropped it out of disgust...probably because I was 18 and easily pissed off at the time - it would have been an EASY A, all you have to do is play to the prof in those classes - and if you're really good amuse yourself with "postmodern generator" jargon to see what you can get by with.
Still though, the class wasn't THAT ideological (as in openly Marxist / cartoon feminism) it was just a passive-aggressive "i'm OK, you're OK" kind of thing.
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
i am still trying to get my head wrapped around modern feminism. Bert had a thread a while back that got me thinking on this stuff, but the more i read the more i am just like "ugh, really?".
in a lot of ways i am on board with feminist goals (treating women with respect at home and in the workforce), but i don't see how telling people to "check their privilege" or arguing over polygamy accomplishs that goal.
i mean, a lot of what i read seems more about harping on the fact that white men say and do careless things and less about answering questions like "why do women make up such a small percentage of the STEM workforce". it is probably just the stuff i read (i need to read more books and less tumblr), so i don't want to make any sweeping judgements yet.
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine - Elvis Presley
Aristophanes:Everything you know is patriarchal which necessarily makes their society a perfect ideal utopia of freedom where you can fuck anyone you want and no one can get upset about it...and where you can get mad at people for being sexually attracted to others).
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
Aristophanes
"they want to undermine everything that is "culture." Redefine marriage so that it just delineates various contracts (They don't want the state involved in relationships, but they want the tax breaks, etc. that come from state recognition). Get rid of monogamy. Allow children to be raised by "the community." their ideal world is "not patriarchal" (Everything you know is patriarchal which necessarily makes their society a perfect ideal utopia of freedom where you can fuck anyone you want and no one can get upset about it...and where you can get mad at people for being sexually attracted to others). that was not a string of bad jokes either."
That's truly terrifying. I always assumed that there had to be something about feminism that I was misunderstanding, but it sure sounds like my worst stereotypes about it are perfectly true.
"AND when I brought up my play "Lysistrata"
See what you did there.
Student,
I feel the exact same way about everything that I've heard about modern feminism. It's just f***ing ridiculous. I'm an ardent supporter of allowing women to be treated on their own merit, rather than due to preconceived notions about the sexes, and in the modern day I really think that there are decreasingly few people who think otherwise, but feminism in the modern day is just conspiratorial and angry as much as anything else. They're trying to make a simple ideology into a science in order to justify their own feelings of victimization as well as explaining differences in behavior within the sexes.
True feminism, or more accurately anti-sexism is believing that one is not ultimately defined by one's sex and going out into the world and succeeding, thereby destroying any inaccurate stereotypes that exist, and acting like a person rather than a sex. Someone who does this is more valuable to the cause of equality between the sexes than a thousand bitching feminists, especially since their ideology is by now so incredibly off base and over in left field that it's intellectually bankrupt.
Also, tumblr is basically the seventh circle of intellectual hell. Going there makes me want to chock on hard boiled eggs. What's especially funny is that feminism is especially popular among females on tumblr, reinforcing stereotypes about women being bitchy, artistic, and intellectually superficial/incapable (they can't even go onto a real forum but rather spend their time writing out relatively small comments that get thrown around by the dozen)
the more i read the more i am just like "ugh, really?". ....in a lot of ways i am on board with feminist goals
I'm with you, at least in sentiment. The problem for me, after being around A LOT of artists / bohemians, humanity department types, humanty grad students / adjuncts / etc, reading "avant garde" leftism, a short stint in NYC, and aspects of being in CHicago...There is sort of a shock that comes to your senses: yes you hate the poor, misogyny, battered women, war, etc, etc - even with a passion - but not in the same way many of these people are talking about - in fact you radically oppose it.
Next thing I know I sound like (and get called) a "reactionary" neo-con or the harshest logical positivist in the world - two things I feel I have nothing to do with.
I think Mencken made the comment once on how he was a "radical thinker" one year and the next a "reactionary" all without changing his position, I think I kind of know what he means.
I think a lot of these ideology things are playing on people's good sentiments, and sneaking in a Trojan Horse.
There are worse things than being called a logical positivist.
I went in thinking that there would be some anti-imperialism, but nothing like that was discussed. The other students mentioned "slut shaming" as being a byproduct of patriarchal society; like it is a big deal to make fun of sluts. They also were big on opposing the "categorical marriage" (the types of marriages - gay marriage, polygamist marriage, etc.). They also tried disassociating women from having children and raising children. like the human race could go on without them; women, that is. ...and the class was full of freaks.
I can give you guys (and girls; everyone is loved) a reading list if you want it. I only read four pieces from it (the minimum to complete the papers). The only one I thought was half decent was Simone De Beauvoir and even she referred to "men" as a group of human beings and "woman" as some kind of soul-type/essence. She focused on Freud and said that sexism didn't "start" it has developed. So, not all bad stuff.
one of the authors, Firestone, refers to romanticism as the purposeful, yet contradictory, sexualization of women. She goes so far as to say that men do not recognize it, but are victims even though they encourage it. blood boiling type of stuff.
I am positive that the Dept. funneled students into it because every time slot had more than one class available except T/TH at 4-5:15. For that there was only one...
Yes. It is a stark piece of evidence of social engineering. There aren't enough who realize that the cultural promotion of gay marriage and abortion are simply a toned down eugenic/birth control scheme. moralize anything and society will create more of it.
Also, WHERE ARE THE REST OF MY OFFICIAL GRADES!?!?
No exams for me :D
Yeah, the semester is almost over and two professors have yet to finish grading our midterms.
I'm amazed at how long it takes professor to grade exams nad papers.
Gotst all but one grade in
A, A-, B+,B+. ahem D (latin -fuck off), now just waiting on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche class to come in.
Student:It is time to GO HAM!
Aristophanes,
This post comes to you in 3 parts.
#1. I would actually dig seeing a feminism reading list. do you mind sharing?
#2. congrats on the grades! except latin. but i know what that is like. i took 2 years of latin in high school. i thought it would be an extended lesson in history--it was an extended lesson in pain. :( i'm guessing you need to do this for a philosophy degree? will you have to do ancient greek too?
#3. i always take "go h.a.m." to mean to work your ass off. of course, i didn't start using the term until i heard it in a gorilla zoe song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN1N9P43YR4
PS* the only thing i remember from latin was that it really pissed off the girls in my class when a friend purposefully mistranslated "feminae sunt in via" as "the women are in the way" (more correct translation: the women are in the road).
"i took 2 years of latin in high school. i thought it would be an extended lesson in history--it was an extended lesson in pain"
Lmao, I love these forums.
We cannot attach pdfs can we? If we can let me know
The List (imagine it is a bloody horror movie like Carrie):
A Sentimentalistʼs Defense of Contempt, Shame & Disdain - Kate Abramson
Against Marriage and Motherhood - Claudia Card
The Second Sex - Simone De Beauvoir
Should There Only Be Two Sexes? - Anne Fausto Sterling
The Culture of Romance - Shulasmith Firestone
Marriage and Love - Emma Goldman
Sexual Politics - Kate Millett
Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence - Adrienne Rich
On Being the Object of Property - Patricia J. Williams
Impartial Respect and Natural Interest - Sabina Lovibond
Could It be Worth Thinking About Kant on Sex and Marriage? - Barbara Herman (read below for lulz at the feminists)
"Sexual union (commercium sexuale) is the reciprocal use that one human being makes of the sexual organs and capacities of another (usus membrorum et facultatum sexualium alterius). This is either a natural use (by which procreation of a being of the same kind is possible) or an unnatural use, and unnatural use takes place either with a person of the same sex or with an animal of nonhuman species. Since such a transgression of laws, called unnatural (crimina carnis contra naturam) or also unmentionable vices, do wrong to humanity in our own person, there are no limitations or exceptions whatsoever that can save them from being repudiated completely." Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy "The Metaphysics of Morals," §24, trans. & ed. by Mary J. Gregor (Cambridge University Press: 1996 [1797]) p. 427
lol
there were a few others, but ...
you know what is fucked up? We didn't even read Mary Wollenscraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women... I would have read that. She speaks of the association of ideas, not slut shaming.
Thanks! I've still got a 3.0 GPA even with a D in latin! So, it's all good.
Latin, I took because you do not have to speak it and English is like 75% Latin. It was waaayyyy harder than I thought going in. I purused the grad courses for philosophy and you do need latin and/or greek and/or Hebrew proficiency for some of the classes. F that. There are plenty of translations of Hutchinson, Bacon, Cicero, and Plato et al for me. Latin was infintely valuable for understanding language syntax. I learned more about english in latin ... than in english class...
Schopnhauer said that Latin is what tied Europe together in a cosmopolitan fashion. I feel cheated that we are not ALL taught Latin or greek in elementary school like it used to be. It used to be the language of the learned until about 1850ish. Up until 1960 you HAD to KNOW latin in order to get into Oxford at all.
Schopenhauer asks if writers that do not write in Latin are "writing for tailors or cobblers?" hahahaha
haha, feminists...
I took espanol and latin in high school. the only latin I remembered was "Quid Facit?" (for obvious reasons we though facit was a funny word in 9th grade); "what is he/she/it doing?"
...teneor patriae nec legibus ullis. - Vergil, Aenied; Book II line 159
"I am possessed not by any laws of the country."
Okay. My last Final Exam is tomorrow. Then I am totally done with the semester and quite possible done with classes for the reast of my life. That's kind of a sad thought, since my final exam is on a topic I don't really care about. But whatever. Time to give it one last push.
NO. SLEEP. TILL. FINALS!
Good luck, hombre.
Two down and three to go.
Fucking done:
Grill, Ouzo, and Cigars on my patio tonight. Too bad all my friends and fam are busy, however some quiet "me time" is nice as well.
One of the disadvantages of having a crazy ass heterodox schedual, it's really tough to go out with people sometimes.