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A shriek of inarticulate* anguish

What follows is a feverish rant borne of grief and frustration.
I was loudly and proudly pro-life (and fundamentalist Christian) for much of my life. My family remains both of these things.
I feel vomit rising in my throat (apolgies for being graphic) when I read the thousands of comments on the popular news blogs hardending their hearts to the plucking of this human being–of George Tiller– from planet earth because “he did the same thing to the 60,000 unborn babies who never got to see the world.”
I want to cry and scream and shriek to the heavens over the righteous and smug and wholly intentional blindness–the SHEER #$**&@!!!-ing self-satisfied blindness–of people I once claimed as ideological kin (Only I was only 17–at least my smug obtuseness can be excused!)
People who smugly proclaim that they are “saving lives” and that G. Tiller’s death “forced the women who had appointments with him that Monday to now have to carry their their precious babies to term, praise God. [Amen]. ”
I genuinely try to avoid demonizing the people behind ideologies–I make such an effort, even when it burns– but I feel such anguish, all I can say now to them is:
You heartless bastards.
You cruel, happy folk.

Good on you, Oprah

A year ago if you asked me if I would commend Oprah for anything, much less for defending feminist viewpoints in the face of conventional social disapproval…well, I’d have to shrug because in all my life I had never watched an Oprah show.
A schedule change over the past year made it so that her show was on during the exact time I was home and awake. So I watched. I watch.
And became interested in this woman who, yes, is very accepting of a number of problematic things: extreme consumerism; American ignorance of non-Western societies; reification of essentialized gender; Steve Harvey’s relationship advice (need I say more?), BUT, who is also, I feel, moving incrementally toward the humanist light.

A year ago if you asked me if I would commend Oprah for anything, much less for defending feminist viewpoints in the face of conventional social disapproval…well, I’d have to shrug because in all my life I ...

Do we have a better word than “privilege”?

Those of us who are both in academia and sensitive to the diverse lifestyles and intellectual perspectives of those around us know that there are some terms and ideas one doesn’t just throw out there into non-academic society, at least not haphazardly.
Academic ideas, no matter how prosaic they may seem to us (“Imagined Communities” still gets people riled up? Seriously?), rub some in the “general” populace the wrong way.
They are often denounced as pretentious, out-of-touch, pie-in the-sky (hence, the enormous popularity of politicians who indulge in and are rewarded for hokey, folksy populism).

Those of us who are both in academia and sensitive to the diverse lifestyles and intellectual perspectives of those around us know that there are some terms and ideas one doesn’t just throw out there into non-academic ...

Anti-feminist cheer to bring a smile to your face

Many an anti-feminist blog or news piece or comments section has sent our blood pressure sky-high.
You know what I’m talking about.
These are often the blogs that make light of domestic violence, that construct elaborate apologias for rapists and trot out the vicious rape-victims-are-liars tropes. These are the sites blindly wedded to sociologically-inept arguments for gender essentialism. These are the sites that are so smugly confident in their bloggers'(non-existent) powers of logic, and so doggedly oblivious to the authors’ own privilege that our collective humanist/egalitarian stomach turns.
But sometimes, anti-feminism can be so wide-eyed, so wholesome, so EARNEST, that it brings warmth and cheer to the wintry hearts of even the unfunniest, French-theory-quoting, man-hating “lesbo”/whore feminazis:
Turn up the ...

Many an anti-feminist blog or news piece or comments section has sent our blood pressure sky-high.
You know what I’m talking about.
These are often the blogs that make light of domestic violence, that construct elaborate apologias ...

Stay at Home Daughters: When Patriarchy is longed for

*A very long post on a very vexing topic.*
Everything that mainstream and even right-wing America believes is good is, to the Daughters, poison.
To the Visionary Daughters/ Issacharian Daughters/ stay-at-home daughters movements, the words “independence” and “self-achievement” are anathema.
Who are these daughters?
They are young, predominantly European-ancestry women living in the West, practicing Christianity and Judaism, who not only believe, as many evangelical Christians do, that a woman’s role in life is to support her girls alone, but who encourage unmarried young women to live with their parents and to forego outside jobs in favor of “training” in housework. They do this so that they might help their *father* fulfill his life-vision, until such time as the ...

*A very long post on a very vexing topic.*
Everything that mainstream and even right-wing America believes is good is, to the Daughters, poison.
To the Visionary Daughters/ Issacharian Daughters/ stay-at-home daughters movements, the words “independence” ...

Because assertive women must be “divas”

Palin Sexism Watch:
I know there’s not a lot of love for Palin’s policies around here, and with good reason. But policies aside, this woman’s trajectory intrigues me.
And this really annoys me on all women’s behalf.
Women who are assertive, who know what they want and make known their needs, and who express ideas that don’t mesh perfectly with their supervisors’ or colleagues’…women who want their own way…we’re “divas.” (Add to that all Black and selected Latina women, who are Divas apparently by virtue of their ethnic ancestry).
A man who was concerned that his running mate’s campaign was portraying him a negative light–and who took actions to correct this–would NOT be called a diva. He’d be called ...

Palin Sexism Watch:
I know there’s not a lot of love for Palin’s policies around here, and with good reason. But policies aside, this woman’s trajectory intrigues me.
And this really annoys me on all women’s ...

Anti-B.C. Pharmacies Don’t Just Serve Anti-B.C.’ers

You know,
I support private pharamacies’ bids to not provide birth control of any kind on the grounds of the pharmacists’ beliefs.
(Yes, I know there are many who argue they shouldn’t have gotten into the business to begin with, sort of like a very conservative Orthodox Jew or Muslim who believes in segregation of the sexes should not become a flight attendant).
But I caveat:
(1) By statute, there must be three standard pharmacies in town for every one such “Pro-Life” (i.e. pro-increased abortion, pro-acne, pro-birth-defected kids of other drug users, and pro-“hormonal” and gynecological issues) pharmacy.
(2) In small towns and rural areas that can only support one pharmacy, these pharmacies cannot set up shop.
I ...

You know,
I support private pharamacies’ bids to not provide birth control of any kind on the grounds of the pharmacists’ beliefs.
(Yes, I know there are many who argue they shouldn’t have gotten into the ...

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