Feminism

Anyone interested in feminist theory, particularly as it applies to technology, ought to peruse the gender_cyber_archive, unless you already have and I'm the last to find out about it. In the archive are written essays and audio lectures in .ram format. I'm especially interested in these:

• Joan W. Scott, Fictitious Unities: «Gender,» «East,» and «West»
• Donna J. Haraway, Alpha Bitches Online: the Dog Genome for the Next Genderation
• Anne Phillips, Feminist Politics: Facing the Future
• Susan Stanford Friedman, Locational Feminism: Gender, Cultural Geographies, and Geopolitical Literacy
• Angela Thomas and Valerie Walkerdine, Girls and Computer Games
• Maria Pini, Girls on Film: Video Diaries as 'Auto-Ethnographies'

Cross-posted to Kairosnews.

After the election and the emotionally-charged reactions to it, Michelle and Cindy have started afresh, deleting their old blogs and starting new ones. I don't quite understand the motivations, mostly because they've done it for personal reasons I can't possibly know. While I'm dismayed to lose the old posts, I respect their decision, and they don't owe anyone an explanation. I'm more concerned about the likelihood that some will stop blogging completely, like Rana, who has announced that she's going on hiatus indefinitely, and now Jeanne, who is thinking about taking Body and Soul down.

I know it's awfully melodramatic, but images of self-immolation on a pyre of virtual burning books keep coming to my mind. I might as well say it -- suttee -- because I can't pretend not to notice that these are all bright, eloquent women. It should be obvious that I have nothing but respect for all of the bloggers I've mentioned, I certainly understand the desire to retreat and reflect for a while, and I'll support any decisions they make about their blogs, but it's precisely because I hold them in such high regard that I must object to the decision to stop blogging (in the case of Rana and Jeanne, that is).

NB to Cindy, Michelle, Jeanne, and Rana: Please correct me if I've misrepresented your motivations. People have assigned motives to me before that hadn't even occurred to me, and I don't want to do it to anyone else. I sincerely apologize in advance if I have.

A news story for which I was interviewed came out today. If you'd like to read it and aren't registered at philly.com, you're welcome to use my login info. Email: abstractgroove at lycos dot com, password: ararat2

I'm only quoted a couple of times, short quotes at that, and a little oversimplified, but it's to be expected. Oh well.

I want to start the sequel meme! I mean, after the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, they released "More Dirty Dancing." After "Songs from Ally McBeal," they released Heart And Soul: New Songs From Ally McBeal Featuring Vonda Shepard. If they can do it, why can't I? :P Here are 100 more things about me:

1. I have never bought or sold anything on eBay.
2. My least favorite household chore is cleaning out the microwave.
3. My second least favorite household chore is ironing. For years I bought only clothes that didn't require ironing.
4. About twelve years ago, I wanted to be a writer for Soap Opera Digest. I mean it was my dream job. Ugh.
5. I love almond butter and jam and honey sandwiches on stone ground wheat bread.
6. I prepare and eat such sandwiches in a ritualistic manner. I put the honey on the bread first, so that it can absorb into the nooks and crannies. Then I apply thick layers of almond butter and jam. When I take a bite, the almond butter and jam ooze out from the crusts of the bread, so in between bites, I constantly run my tongue around the crusts of the bread to catch the excess, like I'm eating an ice cream cone on a hot, windy day.

Lauren asks her readers, many of whom are feminists and Democrats, to define three terms from their perspective: morals, culture of life, and values. I've been thinking about these, and I'm reading George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant, so Lauren's prompt dovetails nicely with what I've been thinking about lately. However, the thoughts that have been buzzing around in my mind aren't of defining "culture of life" exactly. Instead, I've been thinking about what we need in order to have such a culture. I'll start by stating what should be obvious if you know me: I'm pro-choice, and I think abortion should always be an option for women, especially in cases of rape and incest. That being said, though, I would much prefer it if women were spared altogether the helpless, anguish-filled, alienated-from-the-body experience of unwanted pregnancy (when they probably tried to prevent it). For women's sake, it should be prevented. So here's my seven-point (so far) plan, in no particular order. These ideas are nothing new; I just wanted to get them all out there so I can see them. I want to stress that these ideas don't only apply to teenagers, but to every man and woman of procreating age:

I just got the green light to write two articles for the Gender and Information Technology Encyclopedia, one on Gender Theory and Information Technology and one on Gender and Intellectual Rights Concepts. 8) Should be fun and a good exercise for my dissertation research.

Cristina has translated a piece written by Mircea Cărtărescu titled "A Few Reasons Why We Love Women" (November 1 post) and written her own response. She muses that Cărtărescu's text possibly "could not even be conceived in this culture," and would most likely be read as at best essentialist thinking that takes "men" and "women" as already-constituted groups and reifies the man-woman gender binary (but that's just me in my poststructuralist feminist hat), and at worst would be read as, to use Cristina's terms, a "patriarchal political statement." Yeah, probably. But I have to say, the pieces don't bother me at all. To be honest, though, the fact that Cristina's a good friend of mine and that, well, I wouldn't mind running off to Split with Cărtărescu do have a bit to do with it. :evil:

Tonight I discovered Meow Power, a new feminist e-journal. They're seeking essays for their first issue:

Meowpower feminist online journal is looking for papers for its inaugural issue as a quarterly journal. We are seeking papers from a variety of approaches and topics including but certainly not limited to: body image, pop culture, music, television, film, spirituality, sexuality, literature (classic or popular), theory, politics, LGBT, violence and the body, historical approaches personal narratives, creative writing, academic papers, journalistic writing. Please send your completed paper and a CV or writing resume to submissions@no_spam.meowpower.org take out the no_spam) by November 12.

The first issue is slated to appear in late December; I'll be checking back around that time, for sure. I like that they embrace the kitten-with-whip girly-girl aesthetic that, I realized once again as I shopped at Barnes & Noble today (some of my purchases are pictured here), has me firmly in its grip.