Sweating the Small Stuff

This post gave me a laugh, as I have been having a horrifying frizz experience of my own. My graying hair no longer goes into pleasantly frizzy, non-beauty-compliant curliness of its own accord, and now wants to be simply frizzy. I have begun to use "product" to smooth out the frizz, and spend far too much emotional energy worrying about succumbing to patriarchal ideas of acceptable appearance.

"I've never done my hair!" I argue.

"But I look like Grandmama Addams!" I reply.

"And what's wrong with that? She's an old lady and can look however she wants."

"She didn't have to fit in at work."

Catholics in the News

I admit to an addiction - no matter how often I swear off reading anything about the catholic church, I fall off the wagon when I see an article like this one in Slate about the late John Neuhaus. Granted, "catholic intellectual" is a contradiction in terms, but whenever I feel low on adrenaline, the church can be counted on to give me a boost.

Neuhaus's views, as summarized by Winters, are so intellectually flawed I hardly know where to begin. Pro-choice advocates are not in favor of eugenics; tarring us with Sanger's views from nearly a hundred years ago is intellectually dishonest. If blacks are disproportionately opposed to legalized abortion, why do black women have a disproportionate share of abortions performed? I have heard the accusation that they are pressured into it repeatedly since the 1970s, but have never read a statistic or even heard an anecdote about how this is happening. Sorry, a vague accusation that society is responsible is not proof. There is a disparity between "blacks" being largely opposed to abortion, and "black women" choosing abortions. Is the opposition to abortion inflated by the opinions of men, while the decision to actually abort is made by women? Society should address poverty, but until that glorious day comes, women are faced with decisions about their very particular lives. Should individual women be forced to take on a burden that society shows little inclination to help them bear?

The Catholic Church's dogma about human dignity is a canard. The true social policy of the Church is a hierarchical one - rules are made from the top, by wealthy men who claim particular insights into the mind of God. Woman have no dignity in this view - they are simply to obey, and to let their bodies be subject to the whims of nature in a way that no man facing illness or hardship is expected to.

My Political Two Cents

I'm not anti-Hillary, but am afraid that, if she is the Dem nominee, the media's hate-frenzy will make their treatment of Gore and Kerry look like schoolyard taunting. Can you say President Huckabee?

Here's a politician to watch for the future. Thanks to Thoughts from Kansas.

Feminism, Environment

A posting at Feministing brought up the topic of reusable menstrual products.

One of my pleas for the environment is for women to reduce the amount of disposables they use. Even if menstrual cups or flannel pads aren't for you, choose products that use the least toxic, polluting, or non-biodegradable components as possible. Especially don't use plastic applicator tampons - cardboard or manual insert only. You don't need pads individually wrapped in plastic - to carry supplies with you, keep a few pads or tampons in a clean zippered bag that gets reused and can be washed.

Plastic is forever. Once a plastic product is made, it persists in the environment forever as trash. Plastic items accumulate in areas of the open ocean where currents create eddies, creating an ugly soup. Beaches on remote islands have pill bottles and tampon applicators wash up on them. Plastics don't "biodegrade" but they do leach chemicals into the water and soil. Some of these chemicals are suspected of being endocrine disruptors. See Science Blogs and Deep Sea News for more particulars.

One Last Word

Some Notes on Revolution

Can't believe I forgot to put Twisty on the blogroll.

Can't Take the Heat

Anyone who reads feminist and political blogs is already aware of this, so I won't recap the details. Relevant links are at: Feministing, Amanda at Pandagon, Chris Clarke at Pandagon, and elsewhere.

I left this comment on Creek Running North, Chris Clarke's blog. Edited slightly here.

I don’t suppose I have anything new to say about all this, except maybe that Markos and his ilk have no idea how thick women’s skins really are. We must constantly monitor ourselves and our surroundings, judging this to be not worth worrying about, that a risk not worth taking, and the other thing just plain scary. If our skins were all that thin, we’d never leave the house.

I was talking with some friends - all of us middle-aged women - about the recent murder of a young woman who made a bad choice of companions. We all teetered on the precipice of “we don’t blame the victim, but what the hell was she thinking?” We started toting up the ways our behavior has changed since our days of youthful invulnerability - not walking alone after certain hours or in certain areas, not being friendly to strangers in bars, etc. Age and experience have made us all too aware that the world is particularly dangerous for women, regardless of age or beauty.

I admire an earlier commenter for confronting her harrassers, but the fact is my fat middle-aged ass is not capable of such a response. I’ll forgo the pleasure of a walk on a hot summer night rather than risk being tomorrow’s headline. I hope Markos is satisfied.

Late Rant on International Women's Day

Feminism is something that will get my rant gene fired up.

From comments at Echidne: But what if some of the people you are referring to see feminine characteristics as not bad, but not male? Seriously, assigning misogyny to people who state that they believe in a division of roles based upon gender can be a reach too far.

Echidne's answer: People who state that they believe in a division of roles based upon gender tend to assume more than just the division of roles based upon gender. They tend to assume that good roles are naturally suited for men and that wiping poo is what women do best. Really.

Who decides what is "feminine" or "masculine"? Who decides if I, a woman, am able to study math or science, or make a decent wage? It's hard to see a society that places these matters in men's hands as anything other than misogynist. When women are allowed to freely choose their roles, they choose from a broad spectrum of roles, sometimes rejecting the "feminine" roles of wife and mother entirely. When men have control of women's roles, women are confined to the roles men want them to have - subservient to and serving men.