Via Jeff Wood, Robert Stacy McCain pokes through the feminist memoir of Jessica Valenti:
The question raised by Sex Object, if read with a critical eye, is whether Jessica Valenti has ever been a victim of anything except her own bad judgment… What kind of fool would major in Women’s Studies? The kind of fool who loses her virginity at 14, goes off to Tulane, sleeps with her ex-boyfriend’s roommate, flunks out and then transfers to SUNY-Albany, that’s who. The only career possible for a Women’s Studies major is as a professional feminist, and there are only so many full-time gigs at non-profit “pro-choice” organisations to go around. However, the Feminist-Industrial Complex — the departments of Women’s Studies on some 700 college and university campuses across the United States — has a rent-seeking interest in promoting the metastatic growth of feminism, so the fact that many of their alumnae are quite nearly unemployable isn’t mentioned in the course catalogue.
See also this sorry but instructive tale. And Ms Valenti’s mental contortions have been noted here previously.
Michael J Totten on the joys of feminist Shakespeare:
The Globe Theatre’s new director, Emma Rice, detests the original Shakespeare. The Bard’s plays, she says, are “tedious” and “inaccessible.” Perhaps, with such a dim view of the source material and its creator, she should have taken a different job, but instead she chose to make Shakespeare more “relevant.” For instance, [in A Midsummer Night’s Dream] “Away, you Ethiope,” was changed to, “Get away from me, you ugly bitch.” Rice knew that plenty of Shakespeare purists would find her coarse edits appalling, so she had an actor walk on stage in a spacesuit and say, “Why this obsession with text?” She also placed identity politics front and centre. She mandated, for instance, that 50 percent of the cast be female regardless of the gender of the characters. “It’s the next step for feminism,” she said, “and it’s the next stage for society to smash down the last pillars that are against us.”
And David Kukoff on an alternative educational model of the 1970s that wasn’t altogether successful:
Following a meeting with progressive-minded parents, [educator and drug counsellor Caldwell Williams] teamed up with English teacher Fred Holtby to create a curriculum that would channel the pop-psych teachings of the time. They wanted students to guide their own learning, focus on their feelings, and engage in raw dialogue about sex, drugs, and all the other topics that animated their lives. The teachings incorporated principles of the popular self-help movement known as est, then shifted to those of Scientology.
Shockingly, it turns out that hugging lessons, watching porn and choosing your own grades has its limitations.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
She mandated, for instance, that 50 percent of the cast be female regardless of the gender of the characters.
Well, in fairness, back in the day 100 per cent of the cast were male, regardless of the gender of the characters.
Not saying she didn’t deserve to get the boot, just that this particular peccadillo isn’t such a big deal.
One for the family photo album.
Another parallel with Penny: the deliberate oh-so-rebellious vulgarity. No need to link to her sister swearing at the security guard again, David.
No need to link to her sister swearing at the security guard again, David.
Snort. 🙂
While I’m at it, re Stuck-Record’s comment at 11.10:
Everything that was potentially too difficult was removed. Things were always dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.
Since I’m reading a blog hosted by one of the few remaining people who know what the term to beg the question actually means, I feel that I can express my own somewhat stickler-ish side without leaving everyone wondering what in God’s name I’m rabbiting on about. So here goes: Am I the only person who gets a bit peeved by the figurative use of lowest common denominator to express an idea for which a better analogy would surely be highest common factor?
But on the upside, Ms Sherman does have a nose ring…
Real or hypothetical, I imagine her boyfriend does too, and for much the same reason livestock have them.
The new usage makes such terms as “law partner” or “business partner” sound vaguely ridiculous.
OTOH, you can cause mass confusion – “Glad to meet you, I’m Bubba, this is my squeeze Betty Rae, my partner Joe Don, and his wife Nurleen”. Someone like the poor Miss Sherman would thing she stumbled across some bizarre ménage à quatre.
No need to link to her sister swearing at the security guard again, David.
And I’m sharing this link to your own latest, as you’re obviously too shy.
“a psychological type…”
That’s been weaponized.
Of course, Totten finds it necessary to hand-wring over a looming specter of purported right identitarianism, without wondering how the global thinks-it’s-liberal establishment could be to blame for what is clearly the fault of left identitarians only (clearly), but the observations on Phillistinism are well made.
Plus, there is no mention that the real outrage is taxpayers are being forced to pay for this garbage. That’s why the likes of a Trump are doing well, it’s not just identity politics, the working classes are fed up being forced to pay for people who despise them to tell them they’re all thick and racist.
And I’m sharing this link to your own latest,
Now I know you’re a regular reader at my place, I don’t need to engage in quite so much shameless self-promotion. 🙂
as you’re obviously too shy.
I’m the silent hero type.
Guh! Blew the italics!
SINNER!
What white lefties think of black voters.
I love how the whites are quick to say something is racist, but the black folk say “No, it’s not racism, it’s just stupidity.”
There’s hope yet.
Inasmuch as the surname of the disturbed lass with the relationship nomenclature issues keeps reappearing in this thread, let me reiterate she’s not one of my relatives.
Carry on.
Plus, there is no mention that the real outrage is taxpayers are being forced to pay for this garbage.
Quite. It rings ever-so-slightly false that any of the fart-sniffing elite don’t really approve of left-wing identitarianism if they keep, y’know, funding it. With someone else’s money.
George – Since I’m reading a blog hosted by one of the few remaining people who know what the term to beg the question actually means, I feel that I can express my own somewhat stickler-ish side without leaving everyone wondering what in God’s name I’m rabbiting on about. So here goes: Am I the only person who gets a bit peeved by the figurative use of lowest common denominator to express an idea for which a better analogy would surely be highest common factor?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsPheErBj8
Btw what’s this about Laurie Penny’s sister?
“Well, in fairness, back in the day 100 per cent of the cast were male, regardless of the gender of the characters.”
But you failed to mention that some of them were missing a couple of “parts”
Never mind, found it
https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/07/feel-the-racial-healing.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e201bb085b6d19970d#comment-6a00d83451675669e201bb085b6d19970d
Btw, wrt the article atop the linked comment… crikey! What a fucking moron
Only white people outside London, to be sure
And wrt to Eleanor Penny: he said “ladies” – lady = female but female ≠ lady, not necessarily
That’s a bit old-fashioned, of course, but then so probably was the security guard
Fight the power! (of low-paid old men)
describing her “default mood” as “low-level annoyance” alternating with “full-blown rage at the smallest thing,” like a dirty cup left on a kitchen counter
That sounds like me, actually.
But the rage is directed inwardly, at myself, not at Teh Patriarchy or other people, and besides, I take pills to NOT be in a continuous state of PMS.
Not that it works, but if I’m pissy for more than a day at a time I check the calendar and then vow to interact with as few people as possible and to make no decisions.
It’s women (those women, that woman…with an eye to who my Italian grannie was speaking of when she said words like that, all the while giving the side eye, and nod of the chin) that have ruined my beloved English department (that used to actually study Shakespeare and books and even women who wrote something far better than some of the required feminist books, let alone the even more required feminist criticism).
They profane everything they touch…
PS. everyone has known all along (if they had some sense and a healthy amount of skepticism) that the “Studies” departments/classes were basically a racket: the college got to fleece lazy/substandard students with ridiculous classes that got them less than underwater basketweaving and kept lazy/substandard profs and department heads well subsidized in their academic welfare.
Along the way those profs got the idea that they could get more bennies by promoting their fluffy bunny classes (which students, who like to party and don’t like to study, found easy to get sucked into…plus it got you in with the cool, lefty set…and they get their freak on!) Pretty soon these became required classes and voila~no more Humanities departments, and now even the STEM departments are getting in on the act.
I love teaching…but it really has become a fool’s errand (masochistic one at that); most of the students are actively encouraged to “be positive!” “explore!” and “have a good time!”…this is a far cry from “work hard and apply yourself” that I got — and they hate you if you bring it up; most of my colleagues (including my boss) range from condescending to actively hostile, to even belligerent (I’ve had my face gotten into; my socio-ethnic background has been disparaged; I’ve been called an idiot in front of students for my views on the world and education). I’m not alone; others have had it worse.
Eventually I know that something is going to give, and personally I don’t want to be anywhere near the hallowed halls of academia when it finally starts to crack up…because I refuse to personally pay for what these people did to education (for their own kicks); not after the what they’ve done…average people are eventually going to turn on them, I’m pretty sure. And I’m going to refuse to feel sorry for them — their hubris was far too much for pity.
That is what any teacher who isn’t one of “these women” or their supporters is up against — even the left leaning ones that still have some sort of ethical/professional/moral compass (there are a few, they are getting fewer).
Education…ist tot. Learn to teach your own kids; teach them to teach themselves…that’s the only advice I have at the moment.
I actually knew a transexual lesbian. Formerly a man — resembling Penn Gillette — s/he surgically became a woman, and lived in a lesbian relationship. I am fortunate enough to be born a man who is able to have sex with women without surgery.
As for “professional feminists,” or “professional lesbians” for that matter, they can only find jobs in academia or as Episcopal priests.
Eventually I know that something is going to give, and personally I don’t want to be anywhere near the hallowed halls of academia when it finally starts to crack up…
In the SF Bay Area, the realization has sunk in that while tech buses have rather major issues, they’re also an issue of people getting to work.
Quite in parallel, coding boot camps have also been a solution to the matter of getting enough programmers into existence—and at this point, that model has turned out to be so successful that the flood crest was reached about three years ago and has has continued to get worse: A current common entry level requirement for a coding job is to already have at least two years of on the job coding experience.
Soooo, in parallel, what will develop is the emphatic difference between noted diploma mills printing expensive wallpapaer vs genuinely getting an education.
I actually knew a transexual lesbian.
I know two. At least.
—Granted, A) I have a hobby of Being Event Support Staff, B) I live in the SF Bay Area, and therefore C) I thus hang out with fellow administrators and managers.
In fact, one of those two is a rather well known counselor. . .
Dawnne and I met when helping with the same event, where at one point we were standing around holding event things in place while waiting for the rest of the event to get their butts in gear.
I told her of a friend’s explanation that the primary problem with telling a transvestite from a transsexual is remembering which one grows up from the floor and which one grows down from the ceiling.
Dawnne then announced that No, no, no, there is an easier way to tell the difference. One runs home from work at the end of the day to put a bra on, and the other runs home at the end of the day to Take One Off.
I love how the whites are quick to say something is racist, but the black folk say “No, it’s not racism, it’s just stupidity.”
What’s striking is the white students’ confidence that theirs are the noises one should make in order to appear virtuous, and thereby conform. Specifically, the assumption that “these type of people” [sic] – i.e., black people – are functionally retarded, devoid of initiative and incapable of completing simple tasks, including finding the nearest DMV office. “They don’t have the knowledge of how [the internet] works,” says one pious young lady. “Most of the [black] community are not aware… They’re not informed.”
And the students of Berkeley, or their parents, have spent a small fortune on being made this foolish.
From Ms Valenti’s Twitter feed, a slow burner:
https://mobile.twitter.com/jessicavalenti/status/539565649874255872
From Ms Valenti’s Twitter feed, a slow burner
At some point – say, when you’ve decided that facts and logic should be met with dismissal and hostility – that even testing a dubious assumption is wrong – it stops being a political disagreement and becomes something closer to role-play, theatre, or a mental health issue.
There’s one lonely soul still battling the trend. He’ll be un-tenured in short order if he doesn’t conform though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canadian-professor-criticised-gender-neutral-pronouns-a7402901.html
I’m missing out on this feminist victimhood lark. In desperately trying to think of something that makes me marginalised, the best I could come up with is:
– half-Welsh (with, horror!, a given name that’s a feminised version of my father’s)
– guided to a useful education (at my father’s behest: the wicked patriarchy at work!)
– thwarted artist (the patriarch wanted me to have ‘marketable’ skills: blatant capitalism!)
– widowed (see, even statistics are biased against women!)
How do I connect with the clique of nominally-disgendered, half-Welsh, widowed, frustrated artists?
How do I connect with the clique of nominally-disgendered, half-Welsh, widowed, frustrated artists?
You’d think there’d be an app. Failing that, a sleazy bar.
trying to thing of something that makes me marginalized…
Here, hope this helps:
Don’t mean to brag, don’t mean to boast but I like hot butter on my breakfast toast AND I scored a 180.
Failing that, a sleazy bar.
That’s why we come here.
That’s why we come here.
[ Checks lock on liquor cabinet. ]
WTP – that is quite the chart, I especially like the countries bit where a Mexican, or for that matter anyone from Central or South America seeing as how they kind of got left off, is equally privileged as someone from the US, or some headhunter in New Guinea is equally privileged as an Australian. I think, though, that the Poles might not like being ranked well below Norwargians.
Fortunately, I lost no points as instead of Saterday night I did this Toosdae. However, Sammy Davis Jr. would score about -125 (I am only giving him -100 for being blind in one eye instead of the full -750), and I would imagine he would be amazed that he was very disprivileged, so I am guessing whoever came up with this, if it is not a parody, has a baseline of -200.
trying to think of something that makes me marginalized
Thank you for that chart. How could I have omitted the ‘disabled’ category??! Firstly, I have a facial birthmark (albeit barely visible). Secondly, my nose vaguely mirrors my father’s (although I didn’t have to crash a motor bike to get it).
I am now well on the way to justifiable victimhood! All that remains is to identify my peer group….
Thank you for the chart. I score 135 … .. … can’t live with myself now. Where can I change the score for actual cash?
I don’t like hot butter on toast. I work in the City. Can I qualify as an investment banker (I’ve been Chief Accountant to 2), please? That would take me to 180!
I’m 145 on the privilege chart. The only negative points I scored were from being as ugly as a bus. Thank heavens for small mercies.
135. I *feel* like that is an inappropriate score, so to correct this injustice I’m adding:
Conservative in SF Bay Area: -30
Too old to be employable in my original profession -30
Live very near a nice coffee shop I can use as a consulting office +30
Have more than 4 very liberal relatives locally -20
Have no mortgage +30
Got seriously screwed by taxes when I moved -50
Have a lovely supportive wife +50
Can’t convince one child to get the hell out Cambridge MA for her health -30
Expecting another tomato harvest this week +10
Have a son living at home -10
Have a son living at home who has a better job than I do +10
Can still put 50 miles on the bike without suffering the next day +20
Total: 115. Hmm. Not so different after all.
I scored under 100.
I am distraught- I was hoping to join the ranks of Patriarchal Shitlords
“Secondly, my nose vaguely mirrors my father’s (although I didn’t have to crash a motor bike to get it).”
So, Lysenko was correct.
That review by McCain us a work of art.
165, though the “attractive face” hasn’t attracted much female attention, so I may be over-estimating its appeal.
Guh! Blew the italics!
As the song says, “just fix the damn thing and leave [your] private life out of it!”:-)
So, Lysenko was correct.
That would actually be an interesting basis for a light science fiction or fantasy piece a la Borges: An inherited set of tendencies of reality and not just genetics. The sins of the father not only visited, but repeated inerrantly to the third and fourth generation, and all that.
I mean, there are processes of picking up bad habits and so on, but an uncanny inherited reality – that’d be strong stuff.
I wonder how much privilege noticing that they misspelled “Saturday” is worth.
Also, I take issue with the idea that being a doctor or engineer is privileged, given that one has to go manically into debt and work one’s proverbial ass off to get through the education in the first place.
Why does being a Scientist give you a -15? Oh, I get it, too empirical, too exact, too white, too patriarchal…
Oh, I get it, too empirical, too exact, too white, too patriarchal…
You were right the first time, that should have given positive privilege points. It makes no sense that an engineer or doc would be +10 and a scientist -10, unless it means social scientist, in which case it should be -eleventy.
“leave [your] private life out of it”
Tim didn’t even mention his dog named Chunks.
Tim didn’t even mention his dog named Chunks
Ok, I have to admit, that reference is flying straight over my head.
I denounce myself:-(
Oh, “blew Chunks”…NOW I get it!:-D
What if my dog is more privileged than I? I really don’t want to be the one who gets tutored.
@Hopp Sing: I think your dog may not be so happy to get tutored in a little while…