Delicious LiveJournal Links for 6-22-2010

[andrewducker]

• Playing The Ugly Card
  (tags: feminism women)
• Gay Walmart Employee Forced To Wear Identifying Clothes
  Huzzah for Utah!
  (tags: gay usa EpicFail)
• The Toshiba AC100 Android laptop. If they can iron out the niggles then I want one...
  (tags: android laptop technology)

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> straight from a patriarchal definition of female worth

Interesting. Because women buy into and feed and propagate that constantly.

[andrewducker]

Women are part of the patriarchal system. And it hurts lots of men too.

[innerbrat]

I'm always surprised by expressions of the sentiment that only men can wield tools of the patriarchy and nothing a woman does can hurt other women.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure if it's internalized oppression -- it sometimes seems there's a genuine desire to normalize and straightjacket other women.

[innerbrat]

Yep. I agree.

1) sometimes when people don't get one, they're both women.
2) if you've been told all your life that you have to conform to certain rules, and you see someone you think is breaking them, you lash out at that person.
3) As far as I know, men aren't sat down at a young age* and told "this is how to keep women in their place" - the patriarchy is a self perpuating sustem ingrained into our society. Everyone is exposed to that society, men and women alike. (Everyone is told how to play the ugly card, everyone gets to play it.)
4) Crab buckets.

And stuff. My brain isn't here.


*though maybe they are! I've always wondered what the boys were told when the girls were told about tampons

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Crab mentality -- hell yeah.

> if you've been told all your life that you have to conform to certain rules, and you see someone you think is breaking them, you lash out at that person

That's just our hardwiring as social animals -- behaviour is to be conformed to. Triumph and tragedy all in one.

> I've always wondered what the boys were told when the girls were told about tampons

Ha! I can't remember, but whatever we were given to do we were mostly speculating on what on earth the girls would be told. I really think it might be better to tell everybody at once: this happens to girls, deal with it. I'm sure the thinking is that the girls would be embarrassed, but then taking them to one side to do it is surely only demonstrating that there's something to be embarrassed about in the first place.

And I'm sure it's already long grained in by then.

[innerbrat]

That's just our hardwiring as social animals
I don't understand the word 'just' in this statement. Of course it's part of our existence as a social animal.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Well I guess when I read a statement like yours I automatically (and incorrectly it seems) assume that the behaviour is being ascribed to jealousy, envy, anger, etc: that it's on a personal level and there's a larger degree of volition than I suspect there really is.

[broin.livejournal.com]

"...the patriarchy is a self perpuating system ingrained into our society. Everyone is exposed to that society, men and women alike."

I think that's one of the reasons I find the word 'patriarchy' distracting and unhelpful. Similar structures tell guys they can't cry or can't be nurses. But 'patriarchy' implies someone's in charge, and it's probably the men.

I work in an all-female charity and we had a staff night out. My colleagues opened the conversation with a discussion of women's roles and stereotyping from men and how awful that was. Maybe 30 minutes later, they were bitching - in a very personal way - about some other colleagues. I brought that up and obviously got a lot of surprised looks.

Oh, I remember. I'd mentioned a friend who does glamour modelling, and my colleagues assumed she must be under some guy's thumb.