In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Recommended

Weekly link dumps for your intellectual perusal.

How to Score With Chicks (And Real Women Too)

I got some flack for some of the things I listed as my dating requirements in The Ideal Man According To Lauren. Some of them, I admit, sound elitist and snobbish, and further, they are. But these are requirements for being a long-term partner that I am committed to and will spend significant amounts of time with, not the friendly guys I talk to every day. I have far looser requirements for friends (integrity, people) but hell if I’m loosening my standards for an intimate partner.

Via Brutal Women comes another guide for dating (within my peer group) that I largely agree with, though I could have done without much of the crassness and the father-fellating comment. Numbers 1 and 5 are dead on.

In short: Try. You don’t have to succeed at everything, just be doing something interesting with yourself. Enthusiastically.

Two Things

1) Josh, one of my real life friends, has a conversation with an objectivist on the subjects of Ayn Rand and feminism. It would be disparaging if it weren’t so funny. Jim at Patriside has a recent post on the bullshit of Ayn Rand. Good stuff.

2) I just got a phone call from a friend to inform me not to go to campus. The “abortion people” are here, she said, with their big placards of Photoshop-mangled fetuses, anti-birth control fliers, and a loud, obnoxious minister exclaiming that STDs are for sinners.

I’m so going to campus.

Googlism on Yours Truly

Almost good enough for National Poetry Month [slightly edited to further poetic form]:

Lauren is _____

lauren is 6 months old today
lauren is eating solid food on 06 16 2004

lauren is nailed to the cross
lauren is the shit
lauren is the new freddie; brown is the new black
lauren is wonderful and so is her webpage

lauren is taking her own pace about discussing her diabetes and pump with those who do not know her well
lauren is so cool
lauren is the center of attention on the couch
lauren is center of attention off of the couch
lauren is a better pitcher against adam than leora is

lauren is a 12 times australian national taekwondo champion and has competed internationally for over 7 years

lauren is an experienced escort who up to now has been working for a escort agency in the north east and now has decided the time is right

Apparently, Lauren is very busy.

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What I’m Reading Since I’m Not Writing

It’s been so long since I’ve written here one of my own comments got thrown into the moderation queue. This isn’t a comeback, it’s an attempt at breaking the monotony of writing lesson plan after lesson plan. After this, I’m back to the real world through the end of the week. At least.

Anyhow, I wanted to share these links before they are so old as to be irrelevant.

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The Devil’s Tongue

As a supplement to Alley Rat’s upcoming post on Kerner’s She Comes First, I offer a post about a tongue. A plant’s “tongue”, that is.

Yesterday, a specimen of Hydrosome rivieri, one of a a class of plants commonly referred to as the “Devil’s Tongue”, bloomed here at one of the greenhouses on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. I didn’t get a chance to experience the smell, which is described as that of rotting flesh, but I was able to take a few pictures. The strategy behind the odor is to attract pollinators. (You can find information on a related species, Amorphophallus titanum, here, and pictures of this much larger plant can be found here.)

The Hydrosome rivieri pictured here is in its second day of full bloom, and I hear it does this on an annual basis. I have more pictures to share for those who are interested. Just email me.

I also thought this would also be a good post to contribute to National Poetry Month. I’m not a poet, but I like to think that I know what I like. Here’s one of my favorites from E. E. Cummings. Consider this a supplement to a supplement.

if within tonight’s erect
everywhere of black muscles fools
a weightless slowness(deftly

muting the world’s texture with drifted

gifts of featheriest slenderness and
how gradually which sescending are suddenly
received)or by doomfull connivance

accurately thither and hither myself

struts unremembered(rememberingly
with in both pockets curled hands moves)
why then toward morning he is a ghost whom

assault these whispering fists of hail

(and a few windows awaken certain faces
busily horribly blunder through new light
hush we are made of the same thing as perhaps

nothing,he murmurs carefully lying down)

[Note: This is poem XVI from Part Four of Is 5.]

I guess I’ll modestly introduce myself here. I’m Ryan of Imposter Syndrome. I live in Bloomington, IN, which is just proof positive that I’m drawn to liberal oases. Check out my blog for even nerdier discussions.

There Once Was a Girl From Nantucket

In honor of National Poetry Month, I will PayPal five dollars to the first person that can turn this post into a limerick using the words “rectify” and “analysis.” AND, you have to make me laugh out loud.

Not much of a challenge, or pay-off, but I’m feeling generous.

Under Attack

At some point this evening, this blog was attacked by a dinosaur.

Everything is now under control. Thank you for your concern.

Sunday Reads

Tongue Untied: Big Red Monkey Bootie and Pornography
Author Ian Kernan quotes from an article spoofing monkey porn, scientific research, and the ever looming gender question.

Culture Kitchen: Does the Bible Make Me Look Fat in this Dress?
A look at the body politic, tied to Terri Schiavo and the Christian religion.

Whirled View: Anger Management
Cheryl Rofer discusses American nationalism and its convergence with religion.

Chaos Theory: The things people post on the street
Pictures of strange street signs from all over the world.

Aldahlia: Indian Men
What makes a man beautiful, and why aren’t Asian men represented as beautiful through an American lens? This man in particular can approach me any day.

Kevin Drum: Sex and Gender
Drum finally gets kudos from me for his approach on this post, even if he does pigeonhole “feminist rhetoric” and “academic feminism.”

Pen-Elayne: Wrapping up Estrogen Month
As the title implies, Elayne Riggs wraps up her Estrogen Month series with a handy chart for easy browsing. Many good women were highlighted over the month of March that were promptly added to my bloglines account. Thanks to Elayne for putting together such a long and detailed series.

What Do I Know?: Cost Containing the Culture of Life
The Culture of Life according to Jeb Bush. It ain’t pretty.

Body and Soul: Moral Objections
The Conscientious Objector Policy Act in comparison to another form of conscientious objection: a soldier’s right to refuse to perform military service that conflicts with their beliefs.

Rad Geek: Fathers for Lies: selective quotation and distortion of Catharine MacKinnon’s position
Charles defends MacKinnon again, and has a telling conversation via email with Walter Schneider of Fathers For Life.
Also, Sex and the Single Superheroine: When moviemakers ignore that audiences are complex and don’t always respond to the archetypes, they will be disappointed when the money doesn’t come rolling in. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, and Hollywood continues to bankroll bankrupt flicks.

Crooked Timber: Making Men Into Fathers
A guest blogger writing a series on the economics of the family discusses how some European countries attempt to normalize more invovled fathers through TV ad campiagns. On many levels, they seem to be successful.

Pinko Feminist Hellcat: The Wage Gap Story — It’s All In The Angle
The recent discovery that college-educated, working African-American and Asian-American women make more than college-educated, working Caucasian women overlooks one major aspect of the whole. College-educated white men still make more than $25K a year than all women.

Easter

Norbizness feels the holiday spirit:

— Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. I heard it in a Beatles’ song once, so it must be true. But what if I told you that you could double the amount of mercy you obtain without having to give out any more mercy? I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out!

— Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. In a potato chip.

And because someone asked me, here are the relationships between Christian and Pagan holidays. Easter correlates with the Pagan holiday Ostara, marking the Spring Equinox, usually celebrated around March 21st. “With the return of spring,” says the site, “came the birthing of the farm animals for the year. Which is why we see bunnies, chicks, eggs and little lambs as symbols for this holiday. Part of the Ostara mythology involved the return of various deities from the underworld (symbolic of the end of winter). So it’s not surprising that this holiday got enmeshed with the Christian story of the ressurection of Christ.”

Also see the Pagan origins of the Easter Bunny.