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

Happy New Year!

zuzu

Hope your 2007 is starting off better than mine — I went to do a quick load of laundry tonight, and the washing machine ate it. I can’t get it out until the washing-machine mechanic comes tomorrow, and so it sits, damp and moldering, in the basement, locked away from me.

I miss my pants.

52 thoughts on Happy New Year!

  1. I’d be taking that baby apart and rescuing my jeans and hanging them on a line in my apartment. But of course, that would probably not be the best way to react to such a situation in the long run.

  3. It’s doable. At my last job another woman and I had to get a washing machine through a doorway that was too narrow for it, and it was getting replaced anyway, so–well, it’s mazing how many pieces you can get a washing machine into with just some simple hand-tools and determination. Pants: rescued!

  5. You’ve been saved – you’re not supposed to do laundry on January 1 or else you run the risk of washing someone you love out of your life. Fate was looking out for you!

  9. If it’s any consolation, I spent my New Year’s Eve (and the two previous nights) alone, in a hotel, trying to leave New Mexico to get home to my friends. I was prevented from doing so (or even from leaving the hotel) by the fact that Albuquerque does not know how to deal with snowfall. I was supposed to come home on Friday, but didn’t get home until late Monday night. To add insult to injury, the hotel didn’t even have vegetarian food, and while there is a wonderful street of cafes and shops about 3 miles from the hotel, neither buses nor taxis were running and the sidewalks were a solid sheet of ice. So I was reduced to eating power bars from the hotel gift shop for more than one meal. And listening to all the drunks in the hotel while trying to sleep before my 6:17 AM flight. Good times!
    (Sorry, couldn’t help sharing my tale of woe.)

  10. Eek! That’s happened to me, and I feel your pain. The basin that the washer drains into clogged up, and all the dirty gross water backed up onto my just-washed clothes. This happened to be shortly before a first date that I was really excited about, and I had been trying to wash my jacket. I ended up making a nifty de-clogging tool out of a coat hanger, but I still didn’t have time to wash my clothes again. So I went naked. No, wait, that last part’s not true.

    I seem to be very empathetic today: Betsy, I also kind of feel your pain. I spent New Year’s surrounded by boxes and a disassembled bed, but at least I had fake chicken and beer 😉

  11. Zuzu, that’s horrible!

    I know this is wildly off-topic, and I apologize, but I wanted to send a link to you and Jill.

    This article on alternet, by Liz Funk, who writes for Women’s eNews, quotes Gary Miller’s horrible friggin’ article about women (“girls”) who go to clubs. It’s horrible and I can’t believe Alternet ran it. Also, read the comments thread if you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit.

  12. Oh, good gravy, Jenny. I’ve spread that link around.

    You do remember that she’s the same one who jumped on the “Feministing is all about breastblogging” train about a month too late?

  13. Ha! I spent New Year’s eve drinking way too many dirty girl scouts.*

    *creme de menthe, kahlua, and bailey’s: absolutely disgusting, and then somehow really, really good.

  14. “Dirty Girl Scouts”–omfg.

    that actually sounds really good. but, maybe with some kind of chocolate liqueur, instead of kahlua? chocolate sounds like a better binder than coffee, with mint and…whatever Irish Cream is.

  15. Isn’t Ann of Feministing an assistante editor over at Alternet? Man, reading that made me furious!

    The dirty girl scouts sound fantastic! I prefer chocolate cakes: equal parts vodka and frangelico with a twist of lemon rolled in sugar. Delicious!

  17. I guess frangelico is hazelnut, but it tastes like chocolate when mixed with vodka and the lemon. Bartending is the new alchemy!
    For example, the oatmeal cookie: equal parts jagermeister, goldschlager, butterschnapps and bailey’s. It tastes JUST EXACTLY like a buttery oatmeal cookie.

  21. No, I can vouch for it, Belle. It tastes terrifyingly, perfectly like chocolate cake, for no apparent reason–though when I had it, it had hazelnut liqueur in it.

  22. No, I can vouch for it, Belle. It tastes terrifyingly, perfectly like chocolate cake, for no apparent reason–though when I had it, it had hazelnut liqueur in it.

    Obviously demonic, then. I’ll have to have some at my next party.

    The dirty girl scouts weren’t transcendant–they were just the sort of sweet drink that tastes really good when you’re tipsy.

  23. Flame me if you want, but I don’t see what’s so horrible about that Alternet article. It’s a well-known phenomenon. When I was married, my 19-year-old stepdaughter and her underage friends were regularly given “VIP cards” at clubs. (Her mother and I didn’t find out until much later, of course. We were pretty pissed.)

    As for this Miller, I read his whole article in that student paper, and I agree he was an asshole. But his article started out with a kernel of truth (the part that Alternet quoted). It wasn’t until later that he went flying off the rails by calling women whores.

    You can argue, I suppose, that it’s patronizing or overprotective to tell young women that they shouldn’t be going to clubs. But what these club owners are doing is playing on the naivete and inexperience of women who are barely out of (or still in) their teens. They deserve about as much respect as credit card companies that blitz college students with applications.

  24. The point is that it *is* patronizing to shake one’s fingers at young women or assume that they’re being naive or preyed upon or taken advantage of or what have you and that they wouldn’t go to clubs if their friends hadn’t lured them there with promises of cheap drinks.

    Why the hell *shouldn’t* young women go to clubs and take advantage of reduced covers and drink prices? It’s perfectly rational. They want to go out and drink and dance, and here someone comes along and makes it easier and cheaper for them to do so. That they’re often being used as bait for men who get charged full cover doesn’t mean that they’re not being rational actors when they take the deal.

    The problem is not with the young women taking what’s being offered to them, it’s with the clubs for offering it to begin with and the enforcement authorities who look the other way at clubs letting in underage drinkers and giving away alcohol.

    Gary Miller was right about one thing, which was that it’s unfair of clubs to charge more to men than to women (just as it’s unfair for salon owners to charge more to women than to men for a haircut or to drycleaners to charge more for women’s blouses than men’s shirts). His problem was that he blamed the women for being stupid and slutty.

  25. Bitter Scribe, to start off, my first beef with the article was its title, especially the “Sacrificing Dignity for Attention” part. I’m not a huge clubber, but when I do go out dancing, I’m not sacrificing my dignity for attention. I hate the insinuation that there must be some desperate underlying reason for my club-going–a pathetic need for manly attention, perhaps. The article itself wasn’t appalling, or at least, not as appalling as Gary Miller’s drivel. I mostly thought the author was creating a bigger deal out of underage clubbing than necessary. I think shaking one’s ass is a pretty innocuous activity.

  26. You can argue, I suppose, that it’s patronizing or overprotective to tell young women that they shouldn’t be going to clubs. But what these club owners are doing is playing on the naivete and inexperience of women who are barely out of (or still in) their teens.

    How, exactly, are they “playing on naivete and inexperience”? Are you seriously suggesting that said women wouldn’t seek out cheap drinks, fully aware of why bars are offering them? I honestly doubt that many of them harbor any illusions about it.

  27. You can delete this comment if you want, but I noticed that most of my posts initially get eaten up my moderation and have to be approved. Is there anything I can do to avoid that? Is it because of my IP address?

    I just want to be sure that I haven’t thoughtlessly posted something that got me tagged as a buttface.

  28. Jenny, as far as I know the moderation is on automatic pilot; at least half of mine get stuck in the queue, and no, i have no idea what makes one okay and another, not. let’s see if this one goes through right away–

  30. Are you seriously suggesting that said women wouldn’t seek out cheap drinks, fully aware of why bars are offering them? I honestly doubt that many of them harbor any illusions about it.

    No, of course not. And Jenny D., I agree that on the list of the world’s woes, underage clubbing ranks pretty low.

    It’s just that I have a big problem with club proprietors encouraging underage women to drink. IMO, that brushes right up against the ethical line, if it doesn’t cross it.

    The problem is not with the young women taking what’s being offered to them, it’s with the clubs for offering it to begin with and the enforcement authorities who look the other way at clubs letting in underage drinkers and giving away alcohol.

    I couldn’t agree more. I wasn’t out to scold young women in any way. But I do feel that 19-year-olds often don’t have mature judgment where liquor is concerned, and I think it’s despicable for club owners to pander to that.

  31. The point is–club owners view women as commodities, and they deserve censure for that. So why am I the one who’s being undignified if I don’t pay cover? What am I supposed to do–insist that I pay?

  32. “I miss my pants.”

    Ah, what a delicious quote for New Year’s Day, although in most people’s cases, it means something entirely different.

    Sorry about your clothes, but thank you for a wonderful laugh.

  35. Is there any grey booze?

    I’m so sorry about your pants, zuzu. I once went on a trip without packing any of my pants (left them hanging on the line outside) and felt truly bereft the entire time.

  37. That won’t kill you?

    Ideally. I’m envisioning a very potent drink that’s grey at the bottom and gold at the top served in a tall straight glass with ice. For the first time I feel that my utter ignorance of any non-grape-derived alcohol is a problem.

  38. Ideally. I’m envisioning a very potent drink that’s grey at the bottom and gold at the top served in a tall straight glass with ice. For the first time I feel that my utter ignorance of any non-grape-derived alcohol is a problem.

    Weeeeeellll…there’s bergamot-flavored liqeur, which would be Earl Grey. Does that count? With any one of the host of golden alcoholic beverages.

  40. is pernod grey?

    Apparently not. Neither is gray goose vodka, anisette or anise. Bastards! The only references I can find to grey booze involve home brewing – not worth it.

    On the other hand, bergamot flavored liqueur sounds good. And a plumb bob is a chunk of pointed metal for hanging from a plumb line.

  43. Excellent! Now all I need to do is get some pastis, a whole bunch of golden liqueurs, a large bucket for crushed ice and a number of test tubes. I don’t see how this could go wrong at all.

  45. Excellent! Now all I need to do is get some pastis, a whole bunch of golden liqueurs, a large bucket for crushed ice and a number of test tubes. I don’t see how this could go wrong at all.

    Maybe it’s an experiment you could save for the beginning of next new year.

    Incidentally: “lemondrops except with poire” was the best bexperiment I’ve ever taken part in.

  47. Weeeeeellll…there’s bergamot-flavored liqeur, which would be Earl Grey.

    Really? Oooh, I love Earl Grey tea. I bet I could figure out a way to bake scones with that liqueur.

    Right, off to my scone recipes!

  49. Ha! I was actually just considering a Madeleine recipe I could adapt too, so thanks! That saves me the trouble.

    The truffles sound lovely. I will have to try those.

    I did find a recipe I have for Spicy Scones that calls for milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I’m thinking if I substitute liqueur for at least some of the milk, that could be lovely. Maybe if I use half liqueur and half cream, that would have more of a milk-like consistency…

  50. If I recall correctly, the liquor that forms at the top of a pot of sourdough starter is grey. Ugly, but potent. I think it was the original “hooch.” Correct use of it is to stir it into the rest of the starter and just don’t think about it.

    I haven’t had a sourdough starter for many years now, but when I did, I did it the old Alaska-gold-rush way.

  51. Our list of spam words is vast. It’s nothing personal.

    Poker is a lovely game. Especially when you play the Texas Hold ‘Em version – there are so many online casinos you can practice at with fake money, so that you can then play it for real with friends and take their money. For a start, you’ll be able to pay for viagra indefinitely whenever you need it.

  52. Heh – not to be too dark, but I can top the missing pants. I started my new year off with a bang when the MRI showed a lovely little tumor (benign, fortunately) sitting behind my eyes.

    I’m going to miss my brain…

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