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Reads

Jill

Who wears the pants in this economy? Hanna Rosin’s book, “The End of Men,” is excerpted in the NY Times. I haven’t read it yet, because I am dreading reading it. But you should read it.

Did you see Clint Eastwood’s speech at the RNC last night? Oh man. You should see it.


Bill Nye the Science Guy challenges Akin to a duel of the minds. Would have liked this much better if he hadn’t used the r-word, though.

This essay on violence is incredible and important and heart-breaking (major trigger warning).

If you only read one of the links posted here, make it this one about the children of rape (again, trigger warning for sexual assault, genocide and violence, among other things). The last paragraph is a particular gut-punch.

24 thoughts on Reads

        2. Well, since the link goes to a site that calls itself “The Global Satirical Newspaper of Record,” I figured out readers would be sharp enough to get it.

  4. Jesus, Jill. Way to start the weekend off with a bang, there.

    (I think I’ll go hug the baby and the cat, now.)

  6. OT, but I didn’t know where else to post it:

    So, remember that thread we had about the guy who watched porn on a plane which contained some dude assuring all of us little ladies that we were getting hysterical over nothing because no man could possibly sexually assault us on an airplane, because of seatbelts and lots of people around and stuff?

    So, well, he was wrong. Big surprise, I know.

  7. Good grief, that NYT Hanna Rosin article! The sexism and backhanded classism just oozed everywhere, I could hardly get through it without losing my lunch. What is it with the NYT these days, anyway? Every time I start to think about actually shelling out their subscription fee to read all their content they print crap like this.

    I’m so afraid now to take a peek at the New Yorker article, is it really that awful?

    1. I want to like Hannah Rosin because I think we need more female journalists, but she sure doesn’t make it easy!

  8. I can’t say I liked or didn’t like the Rosin article (or Rosin), but I did find it pretty striking since I live in the Rust Belt where manufacturing jobs that used to support a household are growing very thin. The shorter version of the article is that patriarchy hurts men too.

    It’s sad that adherence to a patriarchal belief system makes men as a group less flexible when the economy is changing into a service and caretaking economy. Note, for example, how the men interviewed react when asked why they don’t apply for service or healthcare jobs. I know my nurse friends really appreciate having men on staff for a variety of physical and social reasons, but the stigma of nursing being a woman’s job keeps many men out of the industry. Also noticed how the men profiled viewed starting level jobs as beneath them, then were shocked to see how quickly their wives were promoted.

    It was also interesting how the religious definition of “head of household” is changing in order to keep men at the top of the social order even though women are reaching financial parity (or dominance) in middle and working class families. They become the spiritual leaders, or the “saving us from hypothetical burglars” leaders. Or even more depressingly considering the political climate, especially the anecdotal tales I’m hearing about folks I know stockpiling guns, canned food, and water in case of the impending race war/rapture/apocalypse, the survivalist leaders.

    1. I was interested that two of the men said that their choice of jobs was restricted because they were in the South. I wonder whether that’s actually true. I imagine most American men have the same attitude.

      1. Well, I think the South has a pretty explicit approach to patriarchy, i.e. the white narrative of Southern ladies and Southern gentleman from the antebellum period onward, including rigid gender roles, religiosity, and chivalry, whereas it’s less-defined in other areas of the U.S. I’m in the Midwest and I definitely see this attitude among men in my social circles, particularly how men who feel disenfranchised when it comes to the workforce turn to other macho hobbies and belief systems to compensate. But what’s telling is that they would be empowered to get additional job training and skill development opportunities if they could let go of the machismo, but they frequently don’t.

        1. I also noticed that schoolteachers are on the list of hopelessly effeminate jobs. Usually when I talk about something as a sign of the end of civilisation, it’s a joke, but this…

      2. Oh, and not kidding about the belief that there is an impending race war/apocalypse. I know of three older guys off the top of my head that genuinely believe that a second Obama term will lead us directly to the end, and are putting together gun and ammo collections and other survival supplies just in case. One of them is my frigging dad.

        1. Yup. Sadly this is also the case in AZ where I repeatedly hear people speaking in public places about the need to “stock up” because if Obama is re-elected he’s going to essentially get revenge for Trayvon Martin. I shit you not. I’ve heard that same idea repeated at least 4 times by 4 different random strangers talking amongst themselves.

  9. OT, but I didn’t know where else to post it:

    So, remember that thread we had about the guy who watched porn on a plane which contained some dude assuring all of us little ladies that we were getting hysterical over nothing because no man could possibly sexually assault us on an airplane, because of seatbelts and lots of people around and stuff?

    So, well, he was wrong. Big surprise, I know.

    I seem to remember that post being about a man watching gay porn on a plane. Are you sure that he wasn’t claiming that a gay man is unlikely to sexually assault a woman on a plane?

      1. Anyone who has considered the situation must surely realize that this type of assault (groping of a sleeping woman) will happen? Just considering the number of airline passengers it seems a statistical inevitability. The number of reported cases seems to be low, but I would assume many assaults are not reported (and most are probably much less blatant).

        That specific case is not formally proven yet, so this older case might be even better if you want a counter example?

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