gender

Blog Council Report

This week’s blog proposal about identity and racial issues brought up a lot of very insightful and interesting posts. Amanda’s “Pass me the ball, I’m open!” post we felt resonated well with the women in the class, especially those who have been on sports teams. Another post that sparked class interest was Lauren’s post about the rules of dating between men and women. Ben’s “High School Track in the ‘Burbs” told a great story about his experience with racism on the track team, while Caitlin’s story about growing up as an equestrian was informative and she threw in a daughter-dad story to make it a real tear-jerker. Derek provided a different way of looking at the issue, by blatantly saying he did not want to talk about it, but was still able to write a high-quality piece. As always, Joey provided some very intuitive media examples of racist comments among politicians, and we feel the class benefited from his strong opinions. Will a champion of Republican ideas step up?  The gauntlet has been laid down.

But WHO was the winner??

Our criteria for the best blog of the week was:

1. It is insightful
2. It contains many personal examples
3. It takes an idea and questions it

The blog of the week award goes to Beth, for her “Pass the Chicken Nuggets” post. We found it to be entertaining, thought-provoking, and extremely honest. We enjoyed the way Beth used so many personal examples from her finance internship over the summer, and we found it to be a very real issue that women just want to be seen in the same light as men. Beth also writes in such a way that she takes an idea, poses a question to analyze, and then does so. We found her post to be entertaining, yet inquisitive, and highly realistic.

Sluts and Feminism

You probably know all about Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh, and the media storm over his description of her as a “slut.”  Google it if you want.

Meanwhile, talking with my wife and her mother, I got on my soap box about this Bucknellian article about “Protection from Sexual Assault.”  Look, I am sure the author, Sarah Morris, is being practical and trying to be helpful.  Still, my reaction was that this is simply an update of the attitude that if women are sexually abused or misused, it is their fault. Like the recent comment in the media that in the old days, women’s I mean girl’s contraception was “an aspirin between the knees.”  Google it. Where are men individually or “manhood” as a category in her analysis?

My self-described feminist relations both said I was over reacting and that it just made sense, the article.

Fine.  I still think it is messed up that whatever amount of sexuality a women (or man) adopts somehow becomes sufficient for her to reasonably EXPECT to be coerced. I tried to rile them up by saying they are no better than the infamous women on rape jury trials who are MORE likely than men to say “she had it coming.” Look, women often enforce these gender stereotypes.  Ask most straight men: we could care less about 95% of make-up, clothes, and body type.  We are usually very simple creatures.

So, this morning, in regards the Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh news, my ma-in-law sends me this article from Slate that had the argument that some activists want to reclaim slut as their own term so that they can have “sexuality without judgement.”

She said I was “ahead of the curve.”  Natch.  Score one for me.

Related articles

• Rush Limbaugh apologizes for ‘slut’ comment (respectedlife.org)
• Rush Limbaugh — More Sponsors Running for the Hills After Sandra Fluke ‘Slut’ Statement (tmz.com)
• Limbaugh apologizes to student he called ‘slut’ (usnews.msnbc.msn.com)

My Polly-Pocket Perspective

When I first discovered what we were supposed to be writing about this week, I was not excited. That hasn’t changed. Therefore, I apologize in advance for any lack of enthusiasm that will be exposed too from this post. My main lack of excitement for this subject is simply because I think people get too focused on it. This subject distorts people’s vision of the world, and the negativity involved in this area is too frustrating. This subject is too concentrated on subjective experiences, preconceived notions, generalizations, and assumptions that I prefer not to dwell on it. And it is easy for me to restrain from worrying about gender and racial issues mainly because I am a white male, so I admit that my own perspective is riddled from the lack of subjective experiences I have had. Also, I do feel awful for those individuals who have experienced the sting of false racial or gender biases. However, focusing on the philosophical side of such an issue innately turns me off.

To put it simply, I don’t care. I don’t care if someone is black, white, yellow, or green, male, female, or androgynous, or tall or small or skinny or fat. Each and every one of us is living our own life, with different backgrounds, experiences, demographics, interests, and talents. Therefore, we should all make the best effort possible to appreciate one another for what we bring to the table. Do we have to like everyone? Nope. But how can you truly rationalize to yourself that you have any negative (or positive for that matter) opinion about who an individual is simply based on his or her appearance? Continue reading →