I've realized that I could never effectively argue with most anti-choice activists about birth control and abortion because we would be making completely different assumptions about the world -- different and fundamentally incompatible paradigms, in Kuhn's terms (since I've been reading lots of and about him in my philosophy of science class). ( Read more... )

I hate it when people use rape as a metaphor. Why use a symbol of sexualized degradation, violence, and control -- and something so heavily gendered -- to characterize some abstract idea or unrelated action? How do you think rape survivors reading these metaphors feel about having their experiences compared to some abstract ideological issue in ( Read more... )

BTW, I'm going to try again to post more often, yet again. I can't tell you how often I write half of a post, or half-write a post, only to abandon it because I know the ideas aren't as well thought out as they could be if I did nothing but think about them all day, and that y'all are going to tear the post to shreds for it ... but this whole ( Read more... )

Word of the day (inspired by threadwalker), as seen on iGoogle: virago: an ill-tempered, overbearing woman; also, a woman of great strength and courage.
How's that for a juxtaposition! Tells you a lot about our culture, actually ...