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fjm March 10 2011, 16:17:25 UTC
it's probably fair to say Russ's prickly and often very humourous rants are a little less reflective, directly, of the experience of Western women today

Given that a Mills & Boon extract still reads remarkably like her satires, I'm not convinced. And have you seen the breakdown of the new Irish ministries?

Or the heels on women's shoes?

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peteyoung March 10 2011, 16:45:00 UTC
Well, that's partly my point. I wouldn't ever say the different battles being fought today are across the board smaller or less important to this generation than those experienced by previous generations, and yes it does often feel like nothing changes.

And I would of course always defer to your much greater knowledge of Russ than my own (I've On Joanna Russ on order, hopefully arriving tomorrow).

Can you point me to one of her satires that comes to mind re. Mills & Boon?

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fjm March 10 2011, 16:48:59 UTC
The satires within The Female Man: ie the exchanges between men and women using blue and pink books (as I remember, it's been a while).

I tend to find female students start off skeptical and then get angry as they begin to notice the games they themselves are trapped into playing. I'd love to hear Russ comment on Sex and the City.

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peteyoung March 10 2011, 17:18:29 UTC
Re. satires: damn, I don't have the book here, it's in Thailand. Will dig it out again in a few weeks time.

It's odd, I can look at crap like Space-Thing and Cat-Women of the Moon with an eye to gender roles, yet I can't watch Sex and the City at all.

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