Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Unpacking the Backpack of Sexist Privilege


A game about who said what, on Blog Against Sexism Day:

"Feminism is hated because women are hated. Anti-feminism is a direct expression of misogyny; it is the political defense of women hating."

"Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear children."

"I beg you to speak of Woman as you do of the Negro —- speak of her as a human being, as a citizen of the United States, as a half of the people in whose hands lies the destiny of this Nation."


"Uncle Charlie: The cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands who’ve spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. And then they die and leave their money to their wives, their silly wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands. Drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge. Playing all day and all night. Smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry but of nothing else. Horrible. Faded, fat, greedy women.

Charlie (his niece): They’re alive. They’re human beings!

Uncle Charlie: Are they? Are they, Charlie? Are they human or are they fat, wheezing animals? Hmmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?"


"The misogyny that shapes every aspect of our civilization is the institutionalized form of male fear and hatred of what they have denied and therefore cannot know, cannot share: that wild country, the being of women."


"The souls of women are so small that some believe they have none at all."


"Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its 'perfection,' it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother."


"They have the right to work wherever they want to--as long as they have dinner ready when you get home."


"A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small space."


"A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can."



The candidates: Anonymous Woman; John Wayne; Ursula K. Le Guin; Martin Luther; Thornton Wilder; A. Dworkin; Samuel Butler; Susan B. Anthony; Martin Luther; Jane Austen; Jean Baker Miller



Happy blog against sexism day.



Kudos to vegankid, whose brainchild this is.

2 comments:

enigma4ever said...

Thanks for the sobering quotes...and for blogging for Women...How far have we come ?...I am not even sure some days....

( i blogged for women too....I wish there had been more notice here by the MSM....)

enigma4ever said...

I have to say this- Your Unwanted Post MANY comments...and here a column about Women and the Value of Women- and no comments...this puzzles me...so people will comment and advocate for what ? not children or children rights? or the importance of women? or women's health? Just like there were not ANY planned events or MSM coverage of the day yesterday...none really....

What does that mean in the Long run...I think we need to start asking..like yesterday...

Keep Blogging it NB...It matters.