At one point in the distant past, I was a graduate student struggling to understand the concept of postmodernism. Apparently, one of the features of postmodernism is a repudiation of nostalgia. When I was in school, I totally didn’t get this. What was wrong with nostalgia? I thought. I feel nostalgic on a fairly frequent basis.
Then I understood nostalgia on a political scale–a longing for a past (which probably never existed) that got to exclude, well, anyone that you can comfortably imagine.
Folks, if you, too, ever sat in a class and thought, “Nostalgia? What’s the big deal?” let me share with you a little piece of excrement that was sent in by one of our eagle-eyed readers (h/t to Female Talk for the link). It’s a piece by one Peter Thiel, a man who is wholly unremarkable to me except for the fact that he is the founder of PayPal. In his article, he bemoans the current state of the world, and says that things really started to go to hell in a handbasket in the 1920s, ’cause that’s when women started to get the vote, and there was a “vast increase in welfare beneficiaries.” Ugh.
But probably the most interesting part of the post is where he starts fantasizing about cyberspace, outer space and something called “seasteading” (yeah, we’re talking oceans instead of prairies) as zones where libertarians (read: people who look and think like Peter Thiel) can roam around, lasso some virtual cattle and experience real freedom. Or democracy. Or whatever. He intones:
A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. The future will be much better or much worse, but the question of the future remains very open indeed. We do not know exactly how close this race is, but I suspect that it may be very close, even down to the wire. Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.
Did I just wake up inside a copy of Atlas Shrugged?
This is precisely the kind of nostalgia that is so very dangerous. It’s a colonialist longing for spaces and zones where the concerns of pioneers and money come first (rather than, say, the original, first inhabitants, like fish or moonscapes). It’s inherently anti-democratic. And it’s really repulsive.
Tagged as:
colonialism,
sexism
Huh. More bad news from the academic front. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a report from the Modern Language Association indicates that
women at doctoral institutions take two and a half years longer than men to reach full professor. The gap shrinks to one and a half years at master’s institutions, and the smallest gap—a year is at baccalaureate colleges. A closer look at private independent colleges by the association revealed that women there take three and a half years longer than their male counterparts to advance to associate professor.
Over all, the average time to promotion for female associate professors is 8.2 years, compared with 6.6 years for men.
And although many studies show that female academics spend more time caring for children than do their male peers, the association’s report found that such family obligations aren’t the tipping point when it comes to advancement. Women are promoted more slowly than men, no matter what their marital or parental status is, according to the report, for which 400 professors were surveyed.
Oh, man. For more details and report synopsis, go get depressed here.
And, hey, if you’re an academic and interested in discussion around career issues, come over to my newly launched blog, Leaving Academia.
Tagged as:
academia,
discrimination,
women,
work
A lot of people love Easter because Easter means chocolate, ham and deeply satisfying existential angst.
I love Easter, though, because Easter means getting to listen to David Sedaris’ incredibly funny “Jesus Shaves” story. You can read it, but it’s even better to listen to him reading it. It’s less than 10 minutes and worth every moment–technically it might be NSFW if your co-workers frown upon your mirthful laughter. As Sedaris explains, if you can stop chortling for long enough, France has a totally different way of observing its springtime/ fertility ritual (which is nowhere near as interesting as the springtime fertility ritual that takes place in Japan.)
But it’s also nowhere near as, um, interesting as the Easter ritual I got to personally experience in a small town in the Czech Republic a few years back (which I wrote about in an anthology called Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms
). Like in Japan, this fertility ritual is also pretty phallo-centric: the boys and men fashion whips out of branches that they braid together (see the photo of the young boy with his soon-to-be-sauced father).
They then go around in the morning, knocking on doors of their women friends (and in some cases acosting women in the street). They use the whips to spank the girls and women while chanting a little rhyme (which is something to the effect of “give me your hen’s eggs so you’ll have fertility all year”). The women are supposed to put on a show of shrieking and running around. Afterwards, the men are offered a shot of alcohol and the boys get chocolate. The women also tie a ribbon on the end of the whip (I’m sure I don’t need to spell out the conquest symbolism here), and then the menfolk are of to the next home.
One question I have about these fertility rituals was how they became–or were they always?–so focussed on the penis, when it is, after all, the womb and vagina that does the real work of fertility. Then again, when you think about how dissociated chocolate eggs and Peeps have become from the actual process of birth, maybe it’s not that unusual at all. What are your thoughts about Easter? Do you know of any other interesting cultural traditions that help mark the change of season?
Tagged as:
holidays,
menfolk
- There is lots of Canadian and international reaction to yesterday’s news out of Afghanistan regarding a new law permitting marital rape and other human rights abuses against women. A full post will be up this morning discussing the matter.
- A slightly nauseating story over at the Globe and Mail on “Twitterstalking” kinda seems like necessary reading for 21st century gals.
- More fear-mongering for women (but only those who want to become moms): “Risk of birth defects linked to month of conception.” Contrary anecdotal evidence: my kid was conceived in the summer and turned out a-okay.
- Hey, here’s some better news, moms: Erika over at Blacktating is seeking submissions for the April Carnival of Breastfeeding.
- Aw! Tucking your cellphone in your bra seems kind of cute to me, like they’re practicing for when they’ll start going to bars and have to tuck their cash and condoms in there.
- Honesty, money and relationships: a tricky combo.
- Though if money is driving you and your man apart, trying spanking him.
- And in good news, I couldn’t find a single article this morning decrying Michelle Obama parading her ripped, bare arms around London. YAHOO! PROGRESS!
- Oops. Almost.
Tagged as:
roundup
Stirring up controversy is this painting of Rihanna, post-assault, currently on display at the World of Wonder Gallery in Hollywood, CA. The artist, Sham Ibrahim, seems trivialize the associated issue, in an interview with E!Online:
“I thought the bruises in the police photo were interesting shapes to draw,” he says. “And it was cool to color them pink and blue. Those are two of my favorite colors.”
“There is no message to any of my art,” he says. “It’s meant to look cool hanging on your wall and that’s it! I’m not into deep meanings.”
Commenter Valkyrie 23 over at the Globe and Mail responds:
Glad he thinks that abuse and violence are something wonderful to hang on your wall. Maybe the peice [sic] would actually have merit if there were some social comment or intent behind it. This guys [sic] isn’t an artist, he’s an effing idiot.
Maybe it’s not all bad argues commenter Misty Blue, in her response to Valkyrie 23:
Actually, by default, or intentionally, this piece has a LOT of social comment. Just maybe not the ones you think appropriate or want to hear.
This artwork allowed you a vehicle to see how detached a lot of society is from the reality and horror of abuse [...] He may not have meant these to be the comment of the piece, but by default, he has definitely made that comment just by doing the piece the way he did in the first place.
Elsewhere, bloggers and commenters have come down on various sides of the issue: questioning Ibrahim’s talent, and labelling the painting a publicity stunt, weird, and distasteful.
As unintentional social commentary, the painting may have value, as Misty Blue suggests. It certainly is provocative. Concurrently, however, it just seems tacky and insensitive, a re-victimization of Rihanna and, by association, other victims of domestic violence, especially given the artist’s own related superficial commentary. But should his comments be taken at face value or can they be viewed as part of a larger artistic and cultural performance, one in which we all may be partially complicit?
Tagged as:
art
The Art Gallery of York University has just released a study called Waging Culture: The Socio-economic status of Canadian Visual Artists. Apparently this is the first national survey of Canadian visual artists since 1993. The report paints (oooh, the puns start coming out now!) a “dismal” picture: findings indicate the average artist lost $556 dollars in 2007 on their art practice.
Here’s the really interesting stuff:
“Compared to the national total labour force, artists are more likely to be female, anglophone, in a relationship, and born Canadian, and less likely to be members of a visible minority. They are overwhelmingly more likely to be highly educated, with an average of more than six years post-secondary education.”
Okay. Interesting. Still mulling that over. But this is the bit that really surprised me:
The wage gap between male and female artists is significantly lower than in the labour force as a whole, a mere 10% for artists versus 36% for the total labour force. The difference in sales, however, is a full 48%.
So, let me get this straight. Compared to the average Canadian worker, artists tend to look like Margaret Atwood (if Maggie were a visual artist). And compared to the average Canadian workforce, the wage gap among artists isn’t as wide. But male artists tend to make double the sales female artists do? I realize I have an advanced degree and all, but I’m having a hard time reconciling all this data. And there’s more crazy stuff to put into the mix:
• Immigrant artists have higher total incomes than Canadian-born artists, if only nominally so.
• Caucasian artists have slightly higher total income than visible minority artists.
Who wants to jump in and try to get a sense of what this means? I don’t even know if I should be happy or sad about all this.
Tagged as:
art,
money,
women
- The Telegraph reports today that “Men really can laugh women into bed, because a sense of humour makes them seem more intelligent, psychologists have found.” Oh! Well, that finally explains my weird attraction Carlo Rota.
- In a teeny study of 25 people, psychologists found that “Patients who received Botox treatment were found to be significantly less depressed, anxious and irritable than those who did not.” Clearly that explains why Madonna and Lisa Rinna are so giddy all the time.
- Speaking of giddy, who isn’t peeing their pants over this pairing?
- Back to Madonna: you’re going to be sick of this by the end of the day, but Madonna’s superfast adoption of Mercy James seems to have gone through.
- Moms on Twitter should find out about Mom It Forward (or maybe they do already and I’m the only tweeting mom who’s like, “What the hell is #GNO?”)
- The lowest point in a day that has only just begun: the news that Hamid Karzi, the Western-backed leader of Afghanistan, “has signed a law the UN says legalises rape in marriage and prevents women from leaving the house without permission.”
Tagged as:
roundup
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