Some fun observations
...that, perhaps, aren't as fun as they should be.
1. I've always thought that manga was biased because every time a boy and girl are set to matriculate (especially from junior high school); the boy is usually pegged as the smarter one. He is also usually the one who gives up a chance at a great high school to remain beside the girl he loves. ( Read more... )
Also, I've never thought there was a western trend of girls being smarter -- I've always thought of it as the girl working harder because primary/secondary educations are biased in favour of the boy which sucks but that eventually evens out with the huge drop-out rate of boys in university XDDDD
And also, I'm totally with you on fic that's going nowhere *eyes files suspiciously* I think I've lost plot around the same time I lost my favourite thumb ring...aieee! XDDD
Also, YAY! for "As I Please" ♥
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For as long as I can remember, neither myself mor anyone else I know never been told that (though I admit to being attracted to people who are either my intellectual equal or better simply because they tend to get my sense of humour more). But this may have more to do with the fact that in the Caribbean, it's everybody sink of swim (we're a bit cynical, it's true) and the fact that most girls are fiercely independent to the point that we actually do have this nasty habit of looking down our noses are women who depend on men for their living, of course, for their happiness and sexual fulfillment, sure XDDD (Or it could just be because marriage is on the decline in Caricom >.>)
And again, the whole biased school system is dependent on which school system you find yourself in. But I think girls do tend to work harder because we've inherited (whether consciously or not) a very feminist towards education and careers here in the west. There are very few girls in this hemisphere whose ambition in life is "to be a bride" (quote, don't know from where XD).
But yeah, enough on feminism because that takes a lot of effort to talk about and I'm lazy XD
I'm going to make that fic go somehwere or at the very least write shower!sex XDDD
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Yeah... -_-
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I never considered it wasn't cultural. I just thought you were looking at the cultural issue a bit too narrowly.
It's not so much as being told; it's the entire social imaginary that we live in (and construct) on a daily basis. (And yes, I am a complete geek for Benedict Anderson, Charles Taylor, and Michel Foucault). It's the fact that people are generally taken aback by a tall woman married to a short man. It's the way romance novels usually involve set-ups about a the cynical rich man falling for the poor girl with a heart of gold. About how a wild girl is finally "tamed" by the right man. (and these examples are just two of many that are troubling in a genre written by and for women). The fact that women's beach volleyball teams at the Olympics were forced into bikinis while their male counterparts wore normal swimming trunks. It's all the unspoken codes of society that make up our everyday interactions.
And yes, it is cultural, but it's cultural in the sense that feminism is cultural: that while it exists, it coincides uneasily with the pre-1968 status quo. It exists in some places and not in others. There are different forms of it: militant, third generation, anti!feminist women who would still balk if they were told they had to stay home and clean, they would tell you that they do it because they want to. It exists in the fact that while I've never been told that girls do more poorly in math than boys, I never went beyond anything more complicated than one-variable calculus. It exists in the fact that men who take time off to be house-husbands are considered 1) to be pedophiles 2) drunkards and 3) bad people to hire when they try to re-enter the work force while woman have no such issue. It exists in the fact that woman are expected to have both careers and be wonderful 1950s mothers. While men are expected to be just as stoic and removed from family life as their 1950s counterparts.
What is said isn't nearly as important as what isn't said. (Phatic communication FTW! And here I thought I learnt nothing in anthro XD)
To single out the Caribbean is to remove it from the larger context and reify it into some sort of bastion of one part of the social imaginary. And that doesn't deal with the larger problem. It's like claiming that glass ceilings only exist in women's minds or that minorities are all fine in the US now because there is AA. Or that there isn't racism or sexism in Europe which is such a lie that it makes me sick when my Dutch friends try and tell me that and then are puzzled when I take them to task for saying nasty things about the Turks but that's a rant for another day XD.
Which is why I have problem with you saying:
And again, the whole biased school system is dependent on which school system you find yourself in. But I think girls do tend to work harder because we've inherited (whether consciously or not) a very feminist towards education and careers here in the west. There are very few girls in this hemisphere whose ambition in life is "to be a bride" (quote, don't know from where XD).
Because that's patently false from the images projected onto the generic Western woman by modern, Western culture. Ask yourself, how are women generally portrayed in popular culture. What popular culture generally focuses on when it looks at famous women. Just look at the recent debate about Brittney Spears. She is condemned for being a horrible mother, she is condemned for not wearing underwear. She is basically branded a whore by the media. And what about her (ex)husband? He is arguably one-half of the reason for her breakdown, but what does the media focus on? Her. (One could argue that this too is sexism: because he was a man married to a far more famous woman, he is considered a non-entity, not a real man because he was not her level. He was a man who married "up" and that's not the cultural norm).
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And I have a real problem with you saying that it's no longer any girl's ambition to be a bride. Just as I would have a problem with anyone telling me that men no longer have ambition to be husbands. There is the idea -- again perpetuated by popular culture (and the European Religious Reformation and then again by the Napoleonic area) that the family is central Western culture. And one might say the same thing about the Tokagawa period. And the late-19th century civil unrest in China (which was, in part, brought on by the fact the family had broken down and there were gangs of wifeless men roaming wild and shut out of proper society).
Some incredibly good books on this subject are: Family Romance of the French Revolution (written by a militant feminist who while praised by her historian colleagues was ostracized by her militant feminist ones, which in itself is worrisome), Idols of Perversity (though that takes the Romantics & later the Victorians to task for continuing Napoleon's family model), & The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law (for the simple fact that it discusses in depth the idea of gays getting married which is perhaps the triumph of dominant family nuclear family model after all).
And school systems are vehicles for this enculturalization. They are ways to disseminate the cultural power, so girls who feel that they have to work harder is actually quite sad and shows the complete non-success of feminism in the West. There should be no reason why a girl must work harder than a boy. There should be no reason that boys are favoured in the classroom (and they are, given the polls conducted on teachers: teachers will admit that they do favour boys more than girls when it comes to grades, attention, and generally considering who is smarter). It's not enough to say "Well, I've inherited a feminist outlook from previous generations so I have to work harder." Because there's such a fallacy in that statement: why should a feminist have to work harder? Why shouldn't she (and any woman, feminist or otherwise) be taken on her own merits?
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Which might just be the most insulting thing that woman has ever said (and I personally can't stand her, so imo she's said quite a lot of other insulting stuff). Does that imply that whites can slack? Or does it imply that it's not enough for blacks to be merely decent at their jobs? And not that I like to spend my time equating race and gender (because there are just as many differences as similarities), but race and gender are both socially constructed roles that people pay lip serve to and yet do not seriously question the social imaginary that they themselves live in and perpetuate. Such as the fact I'm writing about post-modern feminism and yet really, really want to write hot Seto/Anzu pr0n instead of say an Anzu gen piece about her struggles to be a ballet dancer despite the fact she's too short and her boobs are too big. And she's really too old to get signed to a company without a boarding school dance academy background.
But yeah...I think I've used up my serious quota for the year. I blame exam period. XDDDDDD
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I would make a longer reply to this but I'm still taking it. (And yes, I am very easily cowed. Also, see observation #2 of the original post *quibbles*) Can I still ♥ you for taking me seriously?
However, it just struck me that this:
It's the way romance novels usually involve set-ups about a the cynical rich man falling for the poor girl with a heart of gold.
...sounds jarringly familiar. Especially considering what we spend our time writing. Though we really don't write it like that (since she's not usually poor). At least, I hope we don't XDDD
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Also:
..sounds jarringly familiar. Especially considering what we spend our time writing. Though we really don't write it like that (since she's not usually poor). At least, I hope we don't XDDD
Yes, it does -- but (as Foucault said) being aware of the problem is perhaps all we can actually hope for, as we're so embedded in the problem we really can't escape from it. So I think as long as we're aware of what we're writing and how we're writing it, we're all right.
And really? When it comes right down to it, Seto/Anzu is hawt. ♥ ♥ ♥
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