The Big Lie

¡Hola! Everybody...

I am tired and tapped out. The following was posted a couple of years ago...

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-=[ The Beauty Myth ]=-

I remember having to take a class on gender and politics during my undergrad years and I really wasn’t feeling it. Not that I didn’t identify with women’s causes, I did, and always have, but a part of me felt that the class had no real relevance for me.
Jeeez, was I ever wrong!

That course would change my worldview in significant ways and would open the door to other avenues to explore academically. I can’t get into all that without losing my friends who have some form of attention deficit, but I will say that I learned a lot in that initial course. Later, I would take more advanced courses and eventually work with two leading female researchers in the field of developmental psychology.

Three works stand out for me during this time. The first, “The Egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles,” (Martin, 1991) taught me that medical and scientific research reinforces gender stereotypes by presenting “facts” that reflect social biases about gender. In other words, just because a person puts on a lab coat doesn’t mean they leave their cultural mindset behind. This may not sound like a lot, but it was huge in influencing how we think of research and science. I’ve written about the second work, In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan (1982), previously. In a Different Voice stood the scientific world on its head and created a revolution.

The next work, The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf (1990) I will address today briefly. Controversial, critically acclaimed, and wildly popular, The Beauty Myth helped usher in what some call the third wave of feminism. I find that its thesis is even more relevant today than it was when it was first published.

After a lot of jerking off and even more reading, what follows is my synopsis of this work. Please! Because I’ve had to simplify and cut down this work, there’s a lot missing. I would strongly recommend it as reading material.

Simply put, Wolf argues (quite successfully) that our culture judges women (and women judge themselves), against an impossible standard of the “Ideal Woman.” Wolf calls this “beauty pornography.”

Magazines are full of images of impossibly underweight models, for example, that are between fifteen and twenty years old. We rarely see a picture of a woman who is not wearing make-up applied by an artist, hair and clothes professionally styled and designed. A professional artist airbrushes all flaws and wrinkles out.

This is a form of social conditioning that keeps women competing against each other in and out of the workplace. In truth, it has been going on for years, but the recent availability of cosmetic surgery encourages a form of female self-loathing and disgust when achievement that standard look is not possible. If you are not tall, thin, and under twenty you have little chance of success, the message goes.

Now, before I get the pat “Well, not me, Eddie… ” comments, let me point out that this is not about you per se. It’s a social issue and before commenting, you have to think about this issue beyond your individual mindset. Personally, I feel the high incidence of eating disorders among all women, and specifically young women, is a direct consequence of the beauty myth.

References

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Martin, E. (1991). The Egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 16(3 ), 485-501.

Wolf, N. (1990). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. New York: Random House.

The TGIF Sex Blog [Sex & Science]

¡Hola! Everybody...
I got my new phone. I hated the Blackberry Storm, and now have the Blackberry Tour. the IT guy is on vacation, so it won't be connected to my desktop until he gets back, but at least I can receive calls and not answer them, as I usually do... LOL! If, however, you desire to have sex with me, please call (women only need apply LOL!).

It’s Friday, so it’s all about s-e-x...

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-=[ Sex, Science & the Egg & the Sperm ]=-

The theory of the human body is always a part of a world picture. The theory of the human body is always a part of a fantasy.

-- James Hillman

It has fallen on science to sort through language and culture to arrive at an “objective” truth. but I have always been intrigued on how culture and language shape science. Since ancient times the feminine has been depicted as creative and fruitful but needing to be dissected, shaped, and controlled by “male” reason. The 17^th century English philosopher and inventor of inductive reasoning, Francis Bacon, writing against a background of widespread persecution of witches, described a scientific process that included images of nature as female, to be restrained, tortured, and probed by mechanical inventions. “Never ought a man to make a scruple,” he wrote, “of entering and penetrating into these holes and corners, when the inquisition of truth is his whole object... ”

Whew!

Sexual difference became an obsession of science during the Enlightenment of the 18^th century, with an exploration of the differences between the sexes, based on anatomy. In contrast, older, more traditional cultures had used ritual to link the social and natural worlds, so that rituals were the authority, and in a similar way, the rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment claimed nature set down social laws that should be followed. In 1735, for example, the Swedish botanist Linnaeus published his classification of plants, describing them in terms of their sexual parts. The males were the dominant, defining parts; the females were secondary and submissive. Examples such as these were used as a “natural” justification of the subjugation of women. In other words, men and women were not equals.

Sound familiar?

In this way the identification of women with nature and emotion, men with culture and reason was created. This association of women with nature defined as motherly and physical -- so that their ideal role was in the home as nurturers -- but it was also used to link them with superstition, making them an obstacle to progress. Both men and women were defined biologically, but while men were free to engage many different parts of the public sphere, women’s roles were tightly controlled and limited by their “natural” function.

In 1759, Linnaeus came up with the term Mammalia, naming an entire class of animals after a feature lactating mammary glands (or “tits” in the vernacular), that only half ever possess. Linnaeus could have chosen external body hair, for example, as a better defining characteristic. However, he was embroiled in a propaganda war against wet nursing, and was more concerned about emphasizing how “natural” it was for a mother to suckle her own child. According the scientific community of the time, the breast was a symbol of the natural bond between mother and child, and in that way, women were limited in their role in the home at the center of the family. It was therefore seen as biologically normal and morally good and the emphasis on breastfeeding was another way of limiting women to domestic roles and keeping them from the public sphere and away from political power).

Lest you think this is some ancient way of thinking, please note that this bias still exists. Take note that today language and gender roles continue to confound science. Anthropologist Emily Martin wrote a thought-provoking essay on this issue called “the Sperm and the Egg.” In order to shed some light on the gender stereotypes hidden within the scientific language of biology, Emily Martin pointed to major scientific textbooks’ depiction of male and female reproductive organs as systems for the production of eggs and sperm. Therefore, within the female cycle, menstruation is clothed in the language of failure. The sloughing of the uterine lining is termed as “debris,” for example. On the other hand, male reproductive processes are described in positive terms such as the “maturation” or the immense manufacturing of sperm.

She noted that scientific descriptions served to reinforce gender stereotypes and in that way, functions of the egg and the sperm were misunderstood. For example, the egg was seen as passive. It does not move, but “is transported” along fallopian tube. In contrast, sperm are active: they “deliver'' their genes to the egg and, '”activate'” its developmental program. Some researchers likened the egg’s role to that of Sleeping Beauty: a dormant bride waiting for her lover’s magic kiss, which brings her to life! This language is in line with the tradition started by Linnaeus and Bacon. A tradition that has as its roots a form of misogyny.

Recently the researchers at Johns Hopkins University concluded that the sperm and the egg stick together because of adhesive molecules on the surfaces of each. The egg traps the sperm and adheres to it so tightly that the sperm’s head is forced to lie flat against the outer layer of the egg. In other words, the egg isn’t “passive” it is proactive in the reproductive process. The trapped sperm continues to wiggle ineffectively. If the digestive enzymes released by the sperm start to soften the zona just at its tip the fragile sperm can get oriented in the right direction and make it through the zona.

Yet, even this new version of the role of the egg and the sperm helped little in changing the narrative on the cultural level. Researchers who made the discovery themselves continued to write papers using the same stereotypical metaphor of sperm as the “active” party who “penetrates” the egg.

And there you have it, how even science is confounded by language and culture.

Love,

Eddie

Bollocks and Blogs

Class, there are certain words which when I hear them I am immediately cheered up!

Bollocks is such a word!

I was reading a blog called Blue Witch, and in the comments Kitchen Witch wrote the word 'bollocks', and somehow, I instantly felt better! This word does it for me! It makes me smile!

Here's the definition of bollocks from the English to American dictionary:

"bollocks n. How do I put this delicately... bollocks are testicles. The word is in pretty common use in the UK (not in my house, of course!) and works well as a general "surprise" expletive in a similar way to bugger. The phrase "the dog's bollocks" is used to describe something particularly good (yes, good) - something like "see that car - it's the dog's bollocks, so it is". This in turn gives way to homonym phrases like "the pooch's privates" or "the mutt's nuts" which all generally mean the same thing. Oh, and this beer from Wychwood Brewery. The word has also slipped through the the State of Florida's censors in the wonderful form of this registration plate. We also describe a big telling-off as a bollocking, and additionally use the word to mean "rubbish" (as in "well, that's a load of bollocks"). Some additional US/UK confusion is added by the fact that the words "bollix" and "bollixed" are sometimes used in the US to describe something thrown into confusion or destroyed."

Are there trigger words in 'blogs' which do it for you and make you smile?

I don't know how I arrived at the Blue Witch blog, but I'm glad I did because the latest post led me to this site: The Gender Genie

Of course, this site intrigued me, and thus, I began researching the theory by copying and pasting the last posts from my TEN blogs to check and see if I am a girl or boy blogger. If indeed the gender theory postulated using the algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel and Shlomo Argamon is correct in regards to my gender, then I'll know for sure at long last. There's also something about the word Shlomo that makes me smile. Hmmmm.....

After going through this long process, the results from my post reveal that SIX out of my TEN blogs are written by a MALE! This must mean I'm a blog bi-sexual, right?
Well, I admit I was a tomboy as a little girl, but now I look, feel, and act very girly. At least, the blondalicious Blog-Blond blog showed up as a female!

On another note, since so many of my students are smartier (I made this word up just because I can!) and nerdier than me as noted by you in your comments on my last post (except for Carlos but that's just because he's a Spanish gentlemen!), the teacher now offers any one of my BRIGHT nerdy students to do a guest post. So please step up and offer your blog wisdom to the rest of us blogging dummies...err, that would be mostly me!

If you would like to guest post, notify me either through a comment or email, and we'll work it out. The rules are:

Funny, cuss words modified, good information or links (but not of those I detest!), something to say about blogs, bloggers, and blogging. Business bloggers not welcome because you're too boring!

And how about you, Mr."Humor-Blogs.com"?

Bollocks and Blogs

Class, there are certain words which when I hear them I am immediately cheered up!

Bollocks is such a word!

I was reading a blog called Blue Witch, and in the comments Kitchen Witch wrote the word 'bollocks', and somehow, I instantly felt better! This word does it for me! It makes me smile!

Here's the definition of bollocks from the English to American dictionary:

"bollocks n. How do I put this delicately... bollocks are testicles. The word is in pretty common use in the UK (not in my house, of course!) and works well as a general "surprise" expletive in a similar way to bugger. The phrase "the dog's bollocks" is used to describe something particularly good (yes, good) - something like "see that car - it's the dog's bollocks, so it is". This in turn gives way to homonym phrases like "the pooch's privates" or "the mutt's nuts" which all generally mean the same thing. Oh, and this beer from Wychwood Brewery. The word has also slipped through the the State of Florida's censors in the wonderful form of this registration plate. We also describe a big telling-off as a bollocking, and additionally use the word to mean "rubbish" (as in "well, that's a load of bollocks"). Some additional US/UK confusion is added by the fact that the words "bollix" and "bollixed" are sometimes used in the US to describe something thrown into confusion or destroyed."

Are there trigger words in 'blogs' which do it for you and make you smile?

I don't know how I arrived at the Blue Witch blog, but I'm glad I did because the latest post led me to this site: The Gender Genie

Of course, this site intrigued me, and thus, I began researching the theory by copying and pasting the last posts from my TEN blogs to check and see if I am a girl or boy blogger. If indeed the gender theory postulated using the algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel and Shlomo Argamon is correct in regards to my gender, then I'll know for sure at long last. There's also something about the word Shlomo that makes me smile. Hmmmm.....

After going through this long process, the results from my post reveal that SIX out of my TEN blogs are written by a MALE! This must mean I'm a blog bi-sexual, right?
Well, I admit I was a tomboy as a little girl, but now I look, feel, and act very girly. At least, the blondalicious Blog-Blond blog showed up as a female!

On another note, since so many of my students are smartier (I made this word up just because I can!) and nerdier than me as noted by you in your comments on my last post (except for Carlos but that's just because he's a Spanish gentlemen!), the teacher now offers any one of my BRIGHT nerdy students to do a guest post. So please step up and offer your blog wisdom to the rest of us blogging dummies...err, that would be mostly me!

If you would like to guest post, notify me either through a comment or email, and we'll work it out. The rules are:

Funny, cuss words modified, good information or links (but not of those I detest!), something to say about blogs, bloggers, and blogging. Business bloggers not welcome because you're too boring!

And how about you, Mr."Humor-Blogs.com"?