Womanly Pursuits
update: just hours after posting this, I find myself embroiled in this argument about maternity leave. Oh, the irony.....
This article about the gender gap in media by-lines (found via Writes Like She Talks) depressed me. As I said here, sometimes I resent being made to feel like I should even have an opinion on abortion, emergency contraception, fertility, the raising of children, because I feel like my limited attention span is better spent thinking about economic development, historic preservation, assorted Clevelandia, and (at the moment) The Dark Tower.
What further depressed me is that, in taking a closer look at Alternet, who published the aforementioned piece, I noticed that 3 of the Ten Most Important Alternet Articles on Iraq were written by women, and of those, 2 were about rape.
Guess how many of the Top Ten Alternet Articles about Sex and Relationships were written by women?
All freaking 10!
Sometimes I also resent feeling like the only woman in this country who could identify Turkmenistan on a map, yet fail to pick Sarah Jessica Parker out of a lineup, rather than the other way around.
Germaine Greer, in The Whole Woman, distinguishes between femininity, the realm of little black dresses and L'Oreal, and femaleness, the realm of wombs and ovaries and workplace inequities. I just can't help but feel that too many women exist solely in the spheres of both femininity and femaleness, and pay little to no attention to, well, other things that have nothing to do with being a woman or even with being a man.
This article about the gender gap in media by-lines (found via Writes Like She Talks) depressed me. As I said here, sometimes I resent being made to feel like I should even have an opinion on abortion, emergency contraception, fertility, the raising of children, because I feel like my limited attention span is better spent thinking about economic development, historic preservation, assorted Clevelandia, and (at the moment) The Dark Tower.
What further depressed me is that, in taking a closer look at Alternet, who published the aforementioned piece, I noticed that 3 of the Ten Most Important Alternet Articles on Iraq were written by women, and of those, 2 were about rape.
Guess how many of the Top Ten Alternet Articles about Sex and Relationships were written by women?
All freaking 10!
Sometimes I also resent feeling like the only woman in this country who could identify Turkmenistan on a map, yet fail to pick Sarah Jessica Parker out of a lineup, rather than the other way around.
Germaine Greer, in The Whole Woman, distinguishes between femininity, the realm of little black dresses and L'Oreal, and femaleness, the realm of wombs and ovaries and workplace inequities. I just can't help but feel that too many women exist solely in the spheres of both femininity and femaleness, and pay little to no attention to, well, other things that have nothing to do with being a woman or even with being a man.
Labels: Women
posted by Christine Borne at 11:48 AM
5 Comments:
Could not have said this better. If you have time, Christine, I strongly recommend you go to my blog and search in it on "marie wilson." then, look for the three installments I wrote about an interview I did with her. You will see that she echoes what you're saying - that minimum wage, health care, social security, security, these are ALL women's issues! She's the head of the White House Project which seeks to get women into politics and leadership positions. You should think about being one such woman!
now now, what is with all the complaining, you're a WOMAN of course you are expected to have opinions that represent all WOMEN, I know as a black person I'm expected to have opinions that reflect all black people, or even better, all black women because we all care about the same things
the only people that can afford to have children in this country are professional athletes and they are never home enough to parent them, raising your own children is overrated, the rich have Nannies and look how well Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton turned out.
Hi Lady - here's where this one-dimension of going back and forth with comments is lacking: I can't tell if you're writing tongue in cheek or not, so please don't misread, or try not to, my comment on your comments? :)
I think the first comment by you is in fact tongue in cheek and I know exactly what you mean, being Jewish and having people announce to me that they'd never met a Jew before and I sure don't seem like what they expected. Duh. So - I hear you on that re: women and being black and what others think that means we should know or think.
Now - the thing about the affordability of kids and rich people having nannies? My experience indicates otherwise. And, I would add for humor that many female athletes have trouble conceiving due to what they've done to their bodies. I'd also say that raising my own kids hasn't been overrated, but I'm not sure anyone else would want to raise them - I mean, they're mine. And I'm good with that.
Lady- I'm so positive that your tongue is in your cheek that I can almost see it from here - yep! There it is! My, grandma, what a big tongue you have!
One of my biggest complaints is that in certain circles, it's assumed you have a particular opinion on things. Sometimes (but not often) at work, my coworkers will discuss politics with the assumption that because we're all young and we're all living in New York, we all vote Democrat and believe in global warming. Now, I do vote democrat and I do believe in global warming, but sometimes I just want to say, "you know, *I* voted for George Bush last time..." (I didn't, but you get my point!)
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