Psych Readings: Ideology/Myth; Beast in Me
Two articles on gender issues.
"Ideology, Myth, and Magic." Allan Johnson. Excellent takedown of the idea that neutral qualities like heroism, passivity, gentleness, intellect, etc, are masculine or feminine, and how that serves the patriarchy. Detailed and thoughtful.
What we call "unemotional" is actually a controlled emotional flatness that is no less an emotional state than hysteria, rage, or grief. [...] Being masculine is not about being unemotional. It's about acknowledging or expressing only those emotions that enhance men's control - anger and rage - and it's about renaming or explaining away all the rest.
"The Beast in Me." Matt Mahurin. (Featured on This American Life's "Testosterone.") Creepy guy gets illness which suppresses his testosterone, turns into a zombie; gets his testosterone restored, turns into a horndog.
How contempt - for the other, for the self - is a key ingredient in desire, the thing that makes sex "dirty," the way it should be. How at a primal level, men hate women and they hate us back - and how a sustaining current flows from this dark exchange, without which nothing can ever be erotic.
Oh, wait, that was actually a quote from a serial killer of women. Just kidding! It really is from the article.
Classic example of an individual projecting his own fucking creepy inner life onto all of humanity. No, I don't primally hate men, and I try hard not to ever sleep with men who primally hate women. Also, misogyny is not sexy.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/963642.html. Comment here or there.
"Ideology, Myth, and Magic." Allan Johnson. Excellent takedown of the idea that neutral qualities like heroism, passivity, gentleness, intellect, etc, are masculine or feminine, and how that serves the patriarchy. Detailed and thoughtful.
What we call "unemotional" is actually a controlled emotional flatness that is no less an emotional state than hysteria, rage, or grief. [...] Being masculine is not about being unemotional. It's about acknowledging or expressing only those emotions that enhance men's control - anger and rage - and it's about renaming or explaining away all the rest.
"The Beast in Me." Matt Mahurin. (Featured on This American Life's "Testosterone.") Creepy guy gets illness which suppresses his testosterone, turns into a zombie; gets his testosterone restored, turns into a horndog.
How contempt - for the other, for the self - is a key ingredient in desire, the thing that makes sex "dirty," the way it should be. How at a primal level, men hate women and they hate us back - and how a sustaining current flows from this dark exchange, without which nothing can ever be erotic.
Oh, wait, that was actually a quote from a serial killer of women. Just kidding! It really is from the article.
Classic example of an individual projecting his own fucking creepy inner life onto all of humanity. No, I don't primally hate men, and I try hard not to ever sleep with men who primally hate women. Also, misogyny is not sexy.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/963642.html. Comment here or there.