Fearless Friday: News round-up

[wordsrmylife]

(Icon via garwlban)

It's been a week to mark progress on the march toward gender and sexual equality.

1.
Vermont's alternative newspaper, Seven Days, noted victories scored under the radar. The smaller of the two is one the public will perhaps notice most, but it's one that makes so so much sense: All single-stall bathrooms in state buildings must

Comments

[wordsrmylife]

I'm with you on that. The only time "lifestyle" works for me is if it's a fairly narrow category--"urban hipster," "aging hippie," "punk."

There isn't even a typical teenage way of life.

In fact, the whole reason I've been interested in gender for as long as I have, namely, since college, is that I questioned the essentialism of second wave feminism from the moment I noticed it.

[wordsrmylife]

"Essentialism" is the idea that "women are x", where x stands for characteristics such as nurturing, caring, supportive, pacifist, etc., while "men are y" where y stands aggressive, violent, strong, individualistic. It's the attribution of characteristics by gender. It's a concept that was around during the first wave of feminism, too, which helped women start such organizations as the Women's League for Peace and Freedom, which, as Martha Stuart would say, is a good thing.

However, what essentialism fails to do is take into account all the factors that shape an individual, of which gender is only one. The idea that women were always dependent, for example, never flew with me, because I had too many widowed great-grandmothers, all of whom managed well enough on their own or in a household of women.

[wordsrmylife]

I'm wander the "femininity/masculinity" borders. The only shopping I like is for books. I don't mind spiders or flies, but snakes spook me because of an encounter I had as a child. I started wearing make-up last year and enjoy it. I like building things and loved geometry, but not algebra. I have always liked digging in the dirt.

But the bottom line is, I'm human and humanity comes in infinite, interesting variety.

We, as a society, seem to be very hung up on labels.