Elizabeth’s confidence that “independent” young men with “indepen-dent” fortunes always act freely is undercut at several points by the sly Austenian voice, who lauds “the fire and independence of [Mr. Collins’s] character”
This is also interesting for a modern reader in the discussion of what makes a young man act "manly" or not, bringing up, again, a discrepancy in modernity, but now this difference is between Austen and her contemporary reader.
MELINA MOE
She works in the fields of both 18th Century Literature, as well as Women's, Gender, and Sexuality studies at Yale University
Good article.
I write the myths in me, the myths I am, the myths I want to become
This seems a lot like Woolf. Women have to kill mythologies of women (like the Angel of the House) by writing their myths.
FTLN 2380Counterfeit, I assure you. OLIVER FTLN 2381Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to FTLN 2382 be a man. ROSALIND , as Ganymede FTLN 2383185So I do; but, i’ faith, I should FTLN 2384 have been a woman by right.
gender issues of identity
FTLN 1545Can you remember any of the principal evils FTLN 1546 that he laid to the charge of women? ROSALIND , as Ganymede FTLN 1547There were none principal. FTLN 1548360 They were all like one another as halfpence are, FTLN 1549 every one fault seeming monstrous till his fellow FTLN 1550 fault came to match it. ORLANDO FTLN 1551I prithee recount some of them. ROSALIND , as Ganymede FTLN 1552No, I will not cast away my FTLN 1553365 physic but on those that are sick. There is a man FTLN 1554 haunts the forest that abuses our young plants with FTLN 1555 carving “Rosalind” on their barks, hangs odes upon FTLN 1556 hawthorns and elegies on brambles, all, forsooth, FTLN 1557 deifying the name of Rosalind. If I could meet FTLN 1558370 that fancy-monger, I would give him some good FTLN 1559 counsel, for he seems to have the quotidian of love FTLN 1560 upon him. ORLANDO FTLN 1561I am he that is so love-shaked. I pray you tell FTLN 1562 me your remedy. ROSALIND , as Ganymede FTLN 1563375There is none of my uncle’s FTLN 1564 marks upon you. He taught me how to know a man FTLN 1565 in love, in which cage of rushes I am sure you are FTLN 1566 not prisoner. ORLANDO FTLN 1567What were his marks? ROSALIND , as Ganymede FTLN 1568380A lean cheek, which you 115 As You Like It ACT 3. SC. 2 FTLN 1569 have not; a blue eye and sunken, which you have FTLN 1570 not; an unquestionable spirit, which you have not; a FTLN 1571 beard neglected, which you have not—but I pardon FTLN 1572 you for that, for simply your having in beard is a FTLN 1573385 younger brother’s revenue. Then your hose should FTLN 1574 be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve FTLN 1575 unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and everything FTLN 1576 about you demonstrating a careless desolation. But FTLN 1577 you are no such man. You are rather point-device in FTLN 1578390 your accouterments, as loving yourself than seeming FTLN 1579 the lover of any other
gender issues of identity
Let one of these crusted distinctions return to its source, and in this alchemic center it may be re-made, again becoming molten liquid, and may enter into new combinations, whereat it may be again thrown forth as a new crust, a different dis-tinction. So that A may become non-A. But not merely by a leap from one state to the other. Rather, we must take A back into the ground of its existence, the logical substance that is its causal ancestor, and on to a point where it is con-substantial with non-A; then we may return, this time emerging with non-A instead.
Looking ahead to Cixous, there will be some interesting overlaps here. In "The Laugh of the Medusa" she attempts to break down the gender binary of "man=A" and "woman=non-A" (castration, mutilation, MEDUSA), to be annotated there...
I had never realized it until now, but she even uses the same earthly metaphors:
This doesn't mean that she's an undifferentiated magma, but that she doesn't lord it over her body or her desire (1533).
"the once and future queen of the i~ a. human sciences"
Gendered formulation.
neuter language
This week is offering new ways of thinking about the interconnection of language and gender, with this idea of a neuter language which is unbiased and has no passion and the idea of ambiguous language which is what Woolf argues is the best. In terms of gender, language and terminology are not just masculine or feminine.
If it is a weakness to harbor feel-ings, and if furthermore it is a weakness to be caught up in historical situations, then rhetoric is construable as a dealer in weaknesses
This sounds like the reasoning behind the frequent characterization of rhetoric as feminine.
telling the truth about my own experiences as a body
Woolf is so difficult because of her contradictions.She often seems to advocate that there is some essence in women which they haven't been able to discover; but here she seems to suggest a lower-case "truth," in which truth is confined to individual experience. I wonder if the contradictions of her text are part of her mission for "elasticity."
But almost without exception they are shown in their rela-tion to men.
The Bechdel Test. Note the nod to Woolf.
will now be discharged by women also
New rhetorical work to undertake.
reason
This is quite a departure from the praise of reason we've encountered from many of the Enlightenment writers. For Woolf, reason stifles imagination, especially women's imagination. Is reason stifling because it has often been defined/used by men, including in their defense of the "phantom" of gender roles?
how clothing defines masculinity and femininity — and how it scrambles these notions
Discussion Question:
What are the major differences of and consequences for:
Interpretations of masculinity and femininity, defining masculinity and femininity vs. blurring the notions of gender and dissecting the system of a gender binary.
SUSAN CHIRA
Susan Chira - Editor of News for the New York Times since 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Chira
Most of Chira's pieces are opinion pieces concerning gender, feminism, and women's rights.
places of worship, in the age of the Apostles, were not built a.o; they are with us, but that the Wl''llen had a cor-ner of their own, railed off by a close fence reach-ing above their heads. It was thus made difficult for them lo hear, and in their eager, untutored slate, wholly unaccustomed to public audiences, they "chattered" and asked questions
This an is interesting example of how spaces shape rhetoric and knowledge. The way in which religious spaces where arranged and people were situated reflects and reinforces women's inferior position in religious discourse.
Men reason in the abstract, women in the con-crete. A syllogism symbolizes one. a rule of life the other.
Philosophy : male :: rhetoric : female
She gives much attention to gauging the audience and avoiding any appearance of superior knowl-edge, along with canny advice on how to deal with obtuse or hostile questioners
Sound like specific issues that women would have to deal with as speakers: they can't intimidate their audience by seeming too smart, and I imagine that they received harsh opposition from some audiences (though it's interesting that this opposition isn't discussed as much in here as it was in introductions for Grimke and Douglass last week).
She
Nietzsche mentions later that we arbitrarily separate things according to gender, but we see him doing that very practice here as he assigns masculine pronouns to individual people and feminine pronouns to nature--which is also something we've seen in a lot of other readings for this class.
What arbitrary as-~ ( signments!6
Pretty rad that Nietzsche was already dismissing the concept of gender as a construct as early as 1873.
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman
Think about the formal significance here: private letters as public texts. Recalls Foucault but also works within gendered genre conventions.
Why should she not be an embodiment of every thing pure, lovely, and of good rcport?
The Church as a body, a female body=.
They arc instruments through which divine instruction is communicated to the people.
One cannot but help of the objectification of women here.
At the same time, Palmer deplored "emotive, subjective pietism"12 and empha-sized rationality in guiding the seeker to conviction.
Beyond her conviction, which we have no reason to doubt, that one should avoid these, what other reasons might a female speaker have for positioning herself this way?
Yes, the women could speak-but only if it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was providing their words.
This is the most fascinating aspect here, which is not unprecedented. Think of the phrase handmaiden to truth that we earlier ran across. That seems to be at work here.
This is, then, a really interesting end around the prohibition of women speaking.
they arc her handmaids •
Note the gendered term here.
He also urges greater use of pathetic appeals and of histrionic gestur
A rare urge from an Enlightenment thinker. Note that histrionic is gendered as well.
"Either I am mistaken, or this is going to be the most famous adventure that has ever been seen, for those black bodies we see there must be, and doubtless are, magicians who are carrying off some stolen princess in that coach, and with all my might I must undo this wrong."
In this passage and the passages that follow we see Don Quixote assume the helplessness of the "princess" and that he as a knight errant is obligated in his masculinity to save her. This demonstrates DQ's belief in the traditional roles of the woman as helpless and gentle and the man as the strong actor.
Eloquence, like the fair sex, has too prevailing beauties in it to suffer itself ever to be spoken ~~-•k..l, against. And it is in vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived.
The continuation of the move to gender rhetoric/eloquence as feminine.
Emotional appeals are something of an embarrassmcnt in the classical system.
Hmm. I don't know what to make of this comment, but I would like to highlight that the Greeks, Plato especially, heavily gendered logos and pathos. "Logos" was what all men should strive for, and was considered male. It made one's argument stronger according to the Greeks (as outlined a few lines down). "Pathos" was less respected and, in some cases, avoided in order to make a "stronger" argument. It was gendered female. I think this gendering of logic and emotion can help us understand why it was avoided in the Greek culture. I do like that the author acknowledges the importance of both when it comes to constructing a sound argument.
The advancement of feminism requires awareness from both genders. It isn’t isolated to how men treat women, but extends to how women treat each other.
Tiresias
as previously mentioned, Tiresias lived life both as a man initially, but he was transformed into a women for several years. He makes appearances in many Greek legends and stories, but the one that stands out to many is his role in Oedipus the King. He speaks truths that people often don't want to know (like when Oedipus asks who killed Laius). His prophesies always come true through the actions of others (even as they try to prevent it). Even in the afterlife, he advises Odysseus, which is what is alluded to in the following line: "bring the sailor home from sea." Tiresias experiences a doubleness which allows him to see more.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.
This line is taken from Hamlet. Ophelia speaks it to Gertrude and Claudius while she grieves (and sings) for the death of her father. This line is interesting to think about in that context, especially when you consider the tragic/unfair fate Shakespeare writes for Ophelia and the larger issue of gender in Hamlet. Does this relate to Lil?
The Big Bang Theory. While Bernadette remains inept in her job, she enjoys a somewhat more successful relationship with Howard
Female that cant be both good at her job and relationship.
Since Amy becomes a mirror to Sheldon, she must be intelligent, but her showings of this intelligence can be awkward. F
For both Amy and Bernadette the gender role expectations occur outside work and within the domestic spaces of the various characters on the show
Amy is expected to take care of Sheldon,
Why is the female expected to do this?
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee LGBT Resource Centre card: declines non-binary gender pronouns
"It maximises the student's ability to control their identity," says Keith Williams, the university's registrar, who helped to launch the updated student information system in 2009
PGP allows students to control their identity
For example, when new students attended orientation sessions at American University in Washington DC a few months ago, they were asked to introduce themselves with their name, hometown, and preferred gender pronoun (sometimes abbreviated to PGP).
Example of introducing by Preferred Gender Pronoun
“international pariah” in personal email exchanges that were leaked online
blah blah
It’s another example of “male as default”—the idea that men are a ”neutral” category, with women in a separate, non-default, and markedly different one.
One major example of gender differences in VR is that women are far more susceptible to VR-induced nausea.
“Starting from a place of 'I don’t have biases' is never helpful.” It’s not necessarily the gender of an engineer that matters, it’s that engineer’s ability to consider perspectives outside their own.
Because I am interested in complicating your definition of maleness and of boyhood. I was born into that shitty town, maleness, full of broken ideals and misplaced machismo and repression and there are some good people stuck living there. They are not in charge. They did not build it.
(Let me stress “gender” there. I can’t but notice that this list, much like the list of those on the education speaking circuit today, is full of men.)
The thing is, I don’t really present as myself. I mean that in a way that goes beyond my clothing. Presentation is the way I talk, the way I walk, the way I act, the things I admit to liking, the people I surround myself with, the way I won’t hold hands with a guy in public. I present as a negotiation between myself and the space around me, a compromise between vibrancy and violence. It’s a compromise queer people around the world make every day. Flamboyancy means drawing attention to yourself. Being openly queer draws attention to yourself. Attention means they see you, and when they see you, they can hurt you.
I walk into the dressing room. I try it on. I love it. It’s not the me I’d dreamt of in rural Oklahoma — the me I could have been if I had been allowed to grow up uninterrupted — but it’s a baby step in the right direction.
adget design is a pretty well-known boys’ club, a field where male engineers design products with other men in mind, rarely considering the way the needs, anatomy, or lived experience of women might change the way a product should work. It’s not uncommon to hear stories of how male engineers forgot to factor in the smaller size of women’s hands and wrists, or the way female fashion doesn’t always include a pocket.
This experience of male internet commenters infiltrating what is meant to be female or neutral online space isn’t unique.
change stereotypes
Here again, the notion isn’t to go beyond stereotypes but to replace one stereotype with another. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/19/-sp-barbie-can-be-a-computer-engineer-but-only-with-help-of-a-man
"It was Woman, with her sudden fears, her irrational whims, her instinctive fears, her unprovoked bravado, her daring and her delicious delicacy of feeling" Who is speaking in this way? Is it the story's hero, concerned to ignore the castrato concealed beneath the woman? Is it the man Balzac, endowed by his personal experience with a philosophy of Woman?
Interesting that the prompt is gender fluidity.
value. The final model was significant, F(l, 349) = 52.80, p < .001 (R2 = .51). There was a significant gender main effect, ? = 08, ?(349) = 1.98, p < .05, indicating that females' intrinsic value was higher at Time 2 than males' intrinsic value, controlling for intrinsic value at Time 1. T
Women have stronger intrinsic motivation, even after grading, than males do.
It was of interest that all attribute categories of un- creative characteristic~ and almost all attribute catego- ries of creative traits (39 of 42) were suggested by both male and female teachers
Relatively little gender difference in perceptions of what makes for creativity (!)
I find this surprising, to be honest.
Marsh, H. W., Bornmann, L., Mutz, R., Daniel, H. D., & O’Mara, A. (2009). Gender effects in the peerreviews of grant proposals: A comprehensive meta-analysis comparing traditional and multilevelapproaches.Review of Educational Research, 79, 1290–1326
I know a large number of people in that category, in my own experience, who ...opted out because they didn’t want to play. They didn’t want to play the kind ofgames that have to be played to be successful, and in bringing in money and gettingthe papers out. There’s so much more than just doing good science that comes intoit. There’s so much communication and there’s salesmanship that has to go on
On the negative impact competition has on career choice
Audre Lorde wasn’t denouncing math when she referred to “the master’s tools.”
Great quote.
Today, she encourages the women she works with to NEVER say they know nothing about technology.
Gender differences in self-assessments of technological skills are a well-known phenomenon, but it remains tricky. Brenda’s approach works really well, in no small part because of her own skills and personality.
As long as we consciously or unconsciously subscribe to the idea that gender is a binary system of oppositions, we cannot be open to the full range of human experience, expression, or emotion.
The only way to preserve my mental well–being was to abandon that box and to give up the idea of gender as binary, to give up the idea of gender as a system of dominance, to give up even the idea of gender as a spectrum, and to see gender as a complex system of people in motion, exploring a vast untraveled common ground together.
The woman has called into question the masculinity of the man’s interests simply by showing an interest in it. The gender binary is composed largely of arbitrary oppositions and exclusions; the extreme logical extension of this is that men and women should never share interests. Aside from being a terrible guideline for partnerships, this makes any approach into a perceived male space by a woman yet another threat to the masculinity of the man or men in question.
so sad.
Ultimately, though, the Box is, as with every other Man Box, under siege from other anxious men and from the binary–policing society at large. This need for constant vigilance is stressful, and masculinity is a stress–related anxiety disorder.
women and housewives have totake on many of the tasks traditionally assigned to men like paying bills,attending to bank business, dealing with car mechanics, daily shopping,taking children from school, or going to government offices.
I think this is a good thing. It puts women closer to holding equal ground with men within the household and outside it.
she is merely an artifact used by men to display their prowess.
Women should not be objectified regardless of what the "built environment" is. We have the ability to influence our "built environment" so let's do it in a way that helps to evolve it.
The girls unanimously agree that this is a constant problem in their work and they feel helpless to combat it.
But they're okay with it...... ??? They seem to just accept the fact that these are the working conditions and it's "a part of the job"..
The girls hesitate to use such tactics against some men and fall back on feminine displays of weakness and helplessness to get them to move.
Ladies... this is exactly the opposite of "tactics" we want to use to help society understand we deserve gender inequality.. Fight the urge to give in the easy way out
the customer won't leave her alone and she must do her best to ignore him....
This is interesting because it counteracts the original problem presented about the waitress being ignored. It seems because of the way the social structure influences the atmosphere of the bar, the waitress is essentially in a losing position each time..
Having descended from a long line of mothers who nursed, fed, cleaned, carried, comforted, and defended their young, we should not be surprised by gender differences in human empathy, such as those proposed to explain the disproportionate rate of boys affected by autism, which is marked by a lack of social communication skills.
The result? Students’ sense of vulnerability is skyrocketing.
I had similar thoughts around the immensely popular video about street harassment made by hollaback! after a former partner compared an unwelcome invitation I had extended to see a concert together to street harassment. It got me wondering what disciplines have good dialectic for separating useful from harmful exposure. So far I have only an inkling that trauma therapy offers some hope, and it connects the conversation to concepts like triggers.
without qualitatively changing enough to warrant a new name
This limit fascinates me; I think about how much it is possible to change masculinity (e.g.) before it changes enough to warrant a new name...
a feminine speaking style
The idea of "feminine style" here fascinates me. Femininity stands in for sensory/sensuous speech & for intimacy. Here's a challenge: "what if we stopped using the words 'masculinity' and 'femininity' and only said the specific things they're supposed to be shorthand for" (Imogen Binnie).
Perhaps a belief endures in these women that sidling up to men with power, rather than organising for it collectively, will yield individual gains.
The recognition of feminism is that women exist at a social disadvantage to a history that privileges and resources men at their expense.
...and yet they really do believe that by pandering to the blokes, they'll be treated with respect and equality!
The researchers linguistically coded job descriptions found in a U.S. Department of Labor database that were predominately populated for masculine-themed words such as active, ambitious, analytical, competitive, dominate, challenging, confident, decisive, determined, independent, leader, objective, etc., as well as feminine-themed words such as committed, connected, cooperative, dependable, interpersonal, loyal, responsible, supportive, trust, etc. The results confirmed that job descriptions for male-dominated jobs contained more masculine-themed words associated with male stereotypes than job descriptions from female-dominated jobs and vice versa.
I wish society would spend more time dismantling the gender coding of these words than wringing its hands over the repercussions of using them with their present connotations. We clearly can't ignore how the words we choose make people feel, but I can't help feeling like we do so sometimes at the cost of addressing deeper structural issues.
It seems sexist to me that these researchers begin from the assumption that these words are gendered.
Of course, the radical feminist position that masculinity is natural and healthy, and femininity artificial and harmful, is also inherently sexist
Of course. That's an important theme. It's as though it's being suggested here that radical feminists chose this view, when I think it's more correct to say that they are reacting to it.