Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Does anyone else remember this joke from the last time around?
Q: How does a Republican congressman mark the place he stopped reading in a book?
A: He bends over a page.
The Republican this time around is Mark Foley, and apparently Rep. Shimkus (R-IL) knew what was going on and encouraged Foley’s socializing with these young men.
Last month I discovered something called The Carnival of Bent Attractions, which was hosted this past month at A Delicate Boy’s blog, and I’m a part of it.
Do check out some of the other posts that were highlighted as part of this month’s Carnival, because there’s a lot of interesting stuff there, like Jay Sennett’s stuff on MWMF, the woman who reports on why her gay friends thinks it would suck to be straight, Nina Smith on the economics of lesbian motherhood, and those lovely feminists in Wales on the intersection of queer & feminist politics.
My tie-collecting, fiestaware-buying brother in law never answered my questions when I was doing research, but finally now, in public, he’s addressed my having asked them, even if he still hasn’t actually answered them.
And then started thinking. Interesting where he took relatively simple questions about marriage & relationships & gender roles, no? To Paul the Sexist Apostle and the Ephesians.
(He made it into the book anyway.)
I’m a little surprised, though I guess I shouldn’t be, by the brouhaha created by Forbes re-printing an article from 1973. (That’s a joke, folks, it’s a new article, but it could have been written in 1973. The whole premise of said article is that career women suck as wives and mothers – more likely to: not have kids, not stay home with kids, cheat, get divorces, etc. etc. etc.)
What amazes me is that this got by an editor. Is sexism so not apparent to people? I mean if a woman wrote an article in Forbes that men who have careers make bad husbands and fathers, the hue & cry would be outrageous. But writing an article judging how good women are in their “natural” role is perfectly reasonable?
The whole thing makes me ill. As does the use of the term feminazi. What a bunch of schlock. I’m reminded of that old feminist slogan, “Men of Quality Love Women’s Equality.” Not many quality men out there, apparently, at least not if the Forbes’ forum for discussion of said article is to be believed.
But the sense of humor in response is quite satisfying: this little slideshow on why to marry a career bitch, in particular. Oh, & Forbes took down the original article, so if you want to read it, it’s archived here.
Well, Caprice tagged me, so here are my bookish answers:
1. One book that changed your life? The Diamond in the Window, by Jane Langton. It’s a pre-teen book, maybe YA (Young Adult) about two poor kids who live in a crazy house in Concord, Massachusetts, and whose aunt gives piano lessons to awful children while the banker is always trying to repossess. But the story is about a poem the kids find which is a transcendental dream poem, and leads them through a series of dreams. There’s one about mirrors that shaped how I thought about my own life and choices.
2. One book you have read more than once? The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Yes, I do read books about grown-ups, but they’re not the ones with the deepest meanings to me. I re-read Narnia every few years, as a kind of refresher course.
3. One book you would want on a desert island? Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It’s a good combination of simple and complex that would keep me occupied. (Favorite story: went into a bookstore for a copy and couldn’t find it, asked the staff. Staff person says, “Oh you mean Les Mis, like the musical?” Oy.)
4. One book that made you laugh? Butch Is A Noun, forthcoming from S. Bear Bergman. There are bits in it that made me laugh out loud on the subway, & Betty even let me read it to her outloud some, which is pretty much verboten when it comes to gender books. Though sometimes I read Judith Butler outloud to make her laugh, but in a very different way.
5. One book that made you cry? More kids books, but more recent: His Dark Materials. The scene where she is separated from her familiar is almost too painful.
6. One book you wish had been written? I have to do this one historically, because otherwise I think, “Well if you’d like to see a book written, write it!” So, instead, The New Academia Series: Volume I: Accessible Prose (published c. 1982 or so).
7. One book you wish had never been written? Get your sticks and stones, kids: The Bible.
8. One book you are currently reading? Betty gave me a copy of a book called Dragon Wing and so far it’s entertaining. It’s certainly a nice break from the umpteen gender books I was reading as research.
9. One book you have been meaning to read? A book called The Trouser People, about Burma.
10. Now tag five people: JW, Maurice, Kathy, Donna, and John R. If any of them actually get back to me, I’ll post them here. (But feel free to use the comments section, folks! That’s what it’s there for!)
Santorum is for the rights of LGBT Americans, so much so he’ll sign a statement attesting to the fact.
But, um, wait a second. He might need to re-think that one. Someone might not vote for him if he supports the queers. Checks with aides.
Um, right: constituents are not for the queers: Santorum takes it all back.
The images come from a UK feminist group (out of Cardiff, Wales,to be specific) that’s put them together to raise awareness especially among younger women who sometimes takes the rights a previous generation (or two) have earned for granted.
I’d love a t-shirt (and/or a button) that says this, too:
Just a reminder to check out your local PBS schedule during June. Our local PBS channel has been showing some great shows for Pride Month: things like back to back episodes of In The Life, a celebration for Oscar Wilde’s birthday, a great little documentary about Queerspawn (the children of LGBT parents, & in particular about Family Week in P-Town), a profile of Audre Lorde. Especially check out the late night programming; tonight at least it was all programming about LGBT folks. Screaming Queens, Susan Stryker’s documentary about the Compton Cafeteria Riots, is on the 30th.
Apparently our current pope – who I prefer to call Pope Maledict – has called LGBT relationships “weak love.”
Sometimes I wish I could take people and shake them, or – as Jim Johnson of Straight, Not Narrow points out: to tell them to shut up when they don’t know what they’re talking about.
I could have never explained to anyone before Betty started presenting as female what it’s like to live in the world as an LGBT couple, and I thought I knew. I really did. Faghag for years, lesbian hangabout for years – but really, I didn’t know. Weak is not the word for it.
There is some good news, though – the religious left is on the rise. (Where have you guys been?)
This little bit on Hulabaloo is one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a while: daughters dressed in prom-type dresses go to a Purity Ball with their dads, and they learn to fox-trot together. All good. But then at some point during the ball, the girl looks up at her father and says:
“I pledge to remain sexually pure…until the day I give myself as a wedding gift to my husband. … I know that God requires this of me.. that he loves me. and that he will reward me for my faithfulness.”
Patriarchy, anyone?