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You know, that reading of things that makes your head stretch, and other things that make you nod and go "Wow! That's soooooo right!"
I've been hammering the Beauty Myth as hard as I can - it was due back at the library today, and I'm still only half way through and haven't even starts "An Introduction to the Australian Government" plus I've agreed to do some books for Ticon... goodness. :-)
Things of interest: Patriarchy Hurts Men Too seems to have always been a realisation of feminism. At some level. :-) It gets a mention in the Beauty Myth, published in 1980. Given it takes a few years to write this sort of thing and then a year or two to get it published... :-)
Love Will Solve Everything - I happen to agree. Noami makes the point that if we loved ourselves and each other truly and honestly, we would't want to purchase useless stuff that makes lies up about our age health and beauty. We'd just enjoy life and have fun instead of buying shit.
It's so weird to read this, and then flick through my favourite magazine. It made me sad. Sure, there were less photos of naked or near naked women, but there were three large two page advertisments for beauty products which really did underscore the "religious" nature of the product. Noami points out (even 16 years ago) that the beauty product selling industry is a religion. You're taking it on faith that it does *anything at all* and a number of insider whistleblowers have told women time and time again, that really, the creams and etc they buy do NOTHING. And yes, because we are so unsatisfied with ourselves, we pay a fortune, because at least then we can prove that we tried....
It's so weird to watch TV using this mind set as well. Why is there a woman in the tub for the treasures in the tub scratchies? Why not manflesh? Why not just a bubble bath with some un-named hand feeling around and being amazed at the discoveries from under the bubbles? Why is the woman basically faceless even though I can see her features? And then another add, and three seconds later I can 't even remember what any of these women look like or her uniqueness or physical attributes or *anything*. She really is just a product - any individuality has been skilfully pared away until we have this walking droid with a face painted on. All the women on tv look the same. All the make up and the hair and the clothing. But around me, every woman is different.
Naomi also talks about how every woman has an inner light that film, camera, make up is trying to replicate. I happen to completely agree with this too. Every woman does shine, especially when she is happy and alert and active and involved in her life. So why then do we try so hard to replicate this light in faceless droid images of pinned, tucked, masking taped, made up, artificially lit, constructed scenarios? Why do we even look at these advertisements or images? The women on TV are identical. No one I know is identical. No one I relate to is identical. No one I love is a 2d character, and yet women routinely accept role models who are models.
I'm only half way through the book, and I'm wondering how it's going to end! Another very valid point Naomi makes is that when we see true love on TV, it tends to be a chaste kiss and then the camera pans away, and it's all left to the imagination. But when it's a rape or a murder, we have to watch it in gory details. We never really had any images or training in what true love feels like or what to do with loving sex before we got bombarded with violent rape. Rape is now sexualized and exciting, and loving sex is passé and boring. How do we make it fashionable? Is it possible to make loving sex fashionable? Do we really have to break down our entire society to help men and women become completely fulfilled and happy?
I was talking to someone a few weeks back and we were talking about the Informtation Age. How people think this is the Information Age. I would disagree. I still think we're in the Data Age. We're collecting numbers as fast as our little PCs can store them. Information comes from making meaningful sense of data. I think we're starting to see changes which will lead into the Information Age. I am kind of hoping I can spend all of femmeconne silent. I want to hear what other people say. I know I speak too much. And I get too carried away! I truly believe that if we can make men and women happy, then we can (together) start to solve the problems our society has. But as a whole, our society is capitalistic driven, and until we gain the happiness we need to know when enough is enough, we're never going to be able to make changes. But how do we reach the every day person? Is this a path that has to be learnt alone? Can't we hold hands and do it together?
We (John and I) have enough. I have enough stuff. Enough money. Enough love. Enough energy. Enough enthusiasm. And I want to help other people find out that they have enough too.
Having enough is scary. I think a lot of people are scared of not having enough. I know a lot of people are scared of a lot of things. Seeing as Naomi has pointed out, that diet and beauty are religions has been very illuminating. I want people I don't know to come to femmeconne. I want people I disagree with to come to femmeconne. I want people to make use of the space I am trying to provide.
What weirds me out is that women fear this. I guess it's so deeply entrenched that the other woman is your enemy, that it's hard to break down without conscious thought. The other woman is NOT your enemy. The enemy is capitalism, really. That magic $$. Money was supposed to be able to get you the things you wanted. Instead, it's the way of keeping you working. Every one is so frazzled by money. What's a life worth? What's a fuck worth? What's an innocent worth? ($12.50 for a movie ticket these days, so I guess innocence is worth less than $12.50) Of course everything has a dollar value, it's a capitalist society.
Anyway, I should stop here, but for amusement I shall post a link to an article on BB. After all my talk of problems within our society here, BB is talking about putting more rules and structures in place to make sure the bullying and sexual harrassment that happened last time doesn't happen again. So basically, people don't know how to treat each other respectfully and with care. Y'know, it's kind of amusing that a TV show based on the voyeuristic hope of watching couples make out or have sex has to now train the contestants to ensure that they act in a noble and polite manner whilst stuck in a cage with each other.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18550213-29277,00.html
:-)
I've been hammering the Beauty Myth as hard as I can - it was due back at the library today, and I'm still only half way through and haven't even starts "An Introduction to the Australian Government" plus I've agreed to do some books for Ticon... goodness. :-)
Things of interest: Patriarchy Hurts Men Too seems to have always been a realisation of feminism. At some level. :-) It gets a mention in the Beauty Myth, published in 1980. Given it takes a few years to write this sort of thing and then a year or two to get it published... :-)
Love Will Solve Everything - I happen to agree. Noami makes the point that if we loved ourselves and each other truly and honestly, we would't want to purchase useless stuff that makes lies up about our age health and beauty. We'd just enjoy life and have fun instead of buying shit.
It's so weird to read this, and then flick through my favourite magazine. It made me sad. Sure, there were less photos of naked or near naked women, but there were three large two page advertisments for beauty products which really did underscore the "religious" nature of the product. Noami points out (even 16 years ago) that the beauty product selling industry is a religion. You're taking it on faith that it does *anything at all* and a number of insider whistleblowers have told women time and time again, that really, the creams and etc they buy do NOTHING. And yes, because we are so unsatisfied with ourselves, we pay a fortune, because at least then we can prove that we tried....
It's so weird to watch TV using this mind set as well. Why is there a woman in the tub for the treasures in the tub scratchies? Why not manflesh? Why not just a bubble bath with some un-named hand feeling around and being amazed at the discoveries from under the bubbles? Why is the woman basically faceless even though I can see her features? And then another add, and three seconds later I can 't even remember what any of these women look like or her uniqueness or physical attributes or *anything*. She really is just a product - any individuality has been skilfully pared away until we have this walking droid with a face painted on. All the women on tv look the same. All the make up and the hair and the clothing. But around me, every woman is different.
Naomi also talks about how every woman has an inner light that film, camera, make up is trying to replicate. I happen to completely agree with this too. Every woman does shine, especially when she is happy and alert and active and involved in her life. So why then do we try so hard to replicate this light in faceless droid images of pinned, tucked, masking taped, made up, artificially lit, constructed scenarios? Why do we even look at these advertisements or images? The women on TV are identical. No one I know is identical. No one I relate to is identical. No one I love is a 2d character, and yet women routinely accept role models who are models.
I'm only half way through the book, and I'm wondering how it's going to end! Another very valid point Naomi makes is that when we see true love on TV, it tends to be a chaste kiss and then the camera pans away, and it's all left to the imagination. But when it's a rape or a murder, we have to watch it in gory details. We never really had any images or training in what true love feels like or what to do with loving sex before we got bombarded with violent rape. Rape is now sexualized and exciting, and loving sex is passé and boring. How do we make it fashionable? Is it possible to make loving sex fashionable? Do we really have to break down our entire society to help men and women become completely fulfilled and happy?
I was talking to someone a few weeks back and we were talking about the Informtation Age. How people think this is the Information Age. I would disagree. I still think we're in the Data Age. We're collecting numbers as fast as our little PCs can store them. Information comes from making meaningful sense of data. I think we're starting to see changes which will lead into the Information Age. I am kind of hoping I can spend all of femmeconne silent. I want to hear what other people say. I know I speak too much. And I get too carried away! I truly believe that if we can make men and women happy, then we can (together) start to solve the problems our society has. But as a whole, our society is capitalistic driven, and until we gain the happiness we need to know when enough is enough, we're never going to be able to make changes. But how do we reach the every day person? Is this a path that has to be learnt alone? Can't we hold hands and do it together?
We (John and I) have enough. I have enough stuff. Enough money. Enough love. Enough energy. Enough enthusiasm. And I want to help other people find out that they have enough too.
Having enough is scary. I think a lot of people are scared of not having enough. I know a lot of people are scared of a lot of things. Seeing as Naomi has pointed out, that diet and beauty are religions has been very illuminating. I want people I don't know to come to femmeconne. I want people I disagree with to come to femmeconne. I want people to make use of the space I am trying to provide.
What weirds me out is that women fear this. I guess it's so deeply entrenched that the other woman is your enemy, that it's hard to break down without conscious thought. The other woman is NOT your enemy. The enemy is capitalism, really. That magic $$. Money was supposed to be able to get you the things you wanted. Instead, it's the way of keeping you working. Every one is so frazzled by money. What's a life worth? What's a fuck worth? What's an innocent worth? ($12.50 for a movie ticket these days, so I guess innocence is worth less than $12.50) Of course everything has a dollar value, it's a capitalist society.
Anyway, I should stop here, but for amusement I shall post a link to an article on BB. After all my talk of problems within our society here, BB is talking about putting more rules and structures in place to make sure the bullying and sexual harrassment that happened last time doesn't happen again. So basically, people don't know how to treat each other respectfully and with care. Y'know, it's kind of amusing that a TV show based on the voyeuristic hope of watching couples make out or have sex has to now train the contestants to ensure that they act in a noble and polite manner whilst stuck in a cage with each other.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18550213-29277,00.html
:-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 12:38 pm (UTC)From:I have a few other books in that vein if you need more reading material, btw.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 12:39 pm (UTC)From:And are you coming to femmeconne?
:-)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 12:40 pm (UTC)From::-)
Sorry.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 12:52 pm (UTC)From:right on sister!
The other woman is NOT your enemy. The enemy is capitalism, really. That magic $$. Money was supposed to be able to get you the things you wanted. Instead, it's the way of keeping you working.
a big amen to that!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 12:58 pm (UTC)From:You insane yet?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 05:56 am (UTC)From:You insane yet?
I think so. currently typing one handed with laptop perched precariously on my knee...
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 01:07 pm (UTC)From:Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, despite the fact that it's all voluntary, being stuck in a cage doesn't tend to bring out noble and polite actions in any species, least of all humans.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 01:12 pm (UTC)From:Hmmm. Will have to think about that one some more. I'm now at the section talkind about food and guilt, which I can also relate to Vensa, who would just eat and eat and eat and feel guilty about it instead of realising it was an emotional reaction to her circumstances and dealing with it in a different way. Assuming she wanted to deal with it in a different way. But just with less guilt.
:-)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 01:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 02:19 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 02:22 pm (UTC)From:except to say that i love you, except to say thank you...
"The other woman is NOT your enemy"
You are my first memory of the truth in this statement.
The truth in the statement above, with the memory i hold of it, gives me strength when that truth is challenged.