January 30, 2007 @ 10:03 am | Category: body, technology
It finally happened. Doctors are close to attempting a womb transplant. See this story in the New York Times. It seems that there are women who will resort to extreme measures in order to bear a child. There is so much wrong with this that one doesn’t know where to start so I ended up writing a whole book about women’s bodies. Let’s just start by saying that womb transplants and related technologies see women as breeder, their bodies as manufacturing plants and children as products for consumption. When woman is reduced to mother all women including mothers are diminished. If you are interested in this topic I recommend the book by Janice Raymond, Women as Wombs. I also discuss reproductive technologies in my book Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body.
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January 29, 2007 @ 2:54 pm | Category: body, media
The beauty standard aggressively marketed by American media has gone global and it’s changing the beauty standard in Brazil. A place long known for its rubenesque women is increasingly seeking a different model of beauty. Anorexia, liposuction, and diet pills know no limit in this land of sun and samba. See this story from the New York Times.
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January 26, 2007 @ 7:47 am | Category: body, art
We have the Whopper, the Venti and Big Gulp. We also have large screen tvs, huge SUVs, and looming McMansions. Everything is bigger including women but not models or the sizing of women’s clothing. Mall window displays feature child-size mannequins making it hard to take the clothes seriously since I gave up playing with dolls a while back. On store racks hangs size 8 which is the former size 10. Or a 2 which is the old 4. I am flattered that I can now wear a smaller size in virtually every store. Women may feel better about themselves but there is an underside to undersizing. How many size 0 women (not girls) are there? Banana Republic even has a double 0. Is this sizing number really necessary? If you think about it zero equals nothing,zip, nada and its significance is in enhancing the value of another number. 1 becomes a 10 when partnered with a 0. Are we really to strive to be a zero? The social plagues of creative sizing has become so pervasive that the government of Spain has decided to intervene and promote a healthier image. Here is the story.
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January 21, 2007 @ 11:42 am | Category: politics, theology/church
Yesterday I started the day by laughing at the idea of a Christian Taliban like in this blog posting by Bible Girl. It’s the sort of accusation that comes up when Christian parents are trying to control what their own children are being taught or exposed to. It’s usually voiced by westerners who have no clue what it is to live under the Taliban. In Christianity the idea of compulsion in belief goes smack against the voluntary nature of the faith. By the afternoon, I had gained sobriety with this story. It reports that the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has dismissed Sheri Klouda, professor of Hebrew, for being a woman. Some at the institution believe that it’s unseemly that a woman teach men biblical Hebrew. If they are to remain consistent to their view that a woman should not exercise “authority” over a man, any man, I don’t think they will care for the possibility of a woman being president of the US either. If this mentality was to have any cultural traction women ( and the whole society) would be in a whole lot of trouble. Women occupy too many positions where they exercise authority over men and are indispensable like the police and judges. Fortunately, this idea and those who hold it will remain in the dusty nooks of their own private institutions. Can we say irrelevant?
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January 18, 2007 @ 8:48 am | Category: Pop Culture
With all the new male interest magazines like Maxim around good old fashion Playboy is appearing to be more civilized than we ever thought possible. A new batch of books are currently taking a look at what Playboy magazine gave us. Read this review in the Jan/Feb issue of Atlantic by Jon Zobenica about the virtues of Playboy. According to Zobenica, in comparison to new male interest magazines at least the gold-chain playboys liked women for more than ornamentation and sexual trophies. They actually enjoyed conversation as they discussed intelligent essays and sipped fine wine with women. These were real men not threaten by women. Today’s “gentleman’s” magazine is describe by Zobenica as encouraging “a lot of boyish grab-assing” and “lite lesbianism”. You have come a long way dude! I don’t buy it but it makes for an interesting conversation while sipping a glass of Pinot Noir.
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January 17, 2007 @ 10:17 am | Category: family/relationships
According to this New York Times article marriage has taken some serious hits as women’s lives have changed. More women than ever find marriage unattractive. It was radical feminist of the 60’s and 70’s that made a case that marriage was a prison for women and would have to be either throughly reinvented or abolished all together. They may have been more prophetic than they intended. In the last forty years, while women have changed much, men have changed little. Men expect a woman to have a career but have rather conventional ideas about marriage itself. Even women who claim more conventional aspirations may find themselves at odds with the reality of what that means in the day-to-day of jobs and children. With sex, children and economic security no longer the driving force it will take not only a renewal but a recreation of what marriage is to be.
How do we begin to describe a marriage one rarely sees and has never been the norm? Shows like The Bachelor continue to erode our desire for the reality of what marriage is - a life-long commitment instead of a life-long honeymoon. Marriage as a mutuality of interest whose end purpose is the reworking of the world and bringing God’s reign to earth is virtually non-existent. Only when the couple is not the end purpose does marriage have the depth and meaning that will make it an institution worth our time. I think that women intuitively know that a man can’t make her happy and only when marriage has a more enduring purpose than what is being offered will women find it worth their time.
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January 15, 2007 @ 8:48 pm | Category: community, spirituality/religion
Listen to Diane Rehm’s interview of the three authors of Faith Club. They discuss how they learned to understand each others Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith and created lasting friendships. Also note the comments of the men who called into the show.
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January 14, 2007 @ 9:24 am | Category: art
See this story from NPR Weekend Edition Sunday about who really designed the famous Tiffany lamps. This is the kind of story that always gets a rise out of me and another example why uncovering women’s history is so important for us. See New York Historical Society for information about new exhibition of Driscoll’s work. Very interesting history.
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January 11, 2007 @ 1:17 pm | Category: family/relationships
I don’t know about you but with child friendly policies and liberal parental leave, I thought Sweden was suppose to be a woman’s paradise. Its fluid family and sexual arrangements and social welfare policies have been herald as signs of its progressive culture leaving puritanical and work-driven America lagging behind. Try this out from women’s e-news:
According to two Swedish studies, thousands of pregnant women are beaten by their husbands or their boyfriends in Sweden every year, reported the Local newspaper Dec. 27. The studies show that between 1,300 and 9,500 pregnant women are assaulted each year. Of 100,000 births a year, 10 percent of the mothers suffer from violence, said the Swedish Association for Obstetrics and Gynecology.
When you hear “peace and equality” for women be sure you read between the lines.
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January 7, 2007 @ 11:57 am | Category: politics
I am starting to work on a research project in which I am looking at women and power. Our relationship to power, how we use it and how it has been used against us. With all the negative historical association of women and power we now have this image of Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker of the US House of Representatives, to haunt us. It has been coming up in more than a few places on the web. I would love to hear from any of my readers on how you respond to this image. Do you think it’s a positive or a negative image of female power?
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