Comments | wwidsith: Blind, feeble gropings

wwidsith

Blind, feeble gropings

Jun 19, 2010 16:53

One of Paris's many summer festivals is on this weekend, a literary festival organised by the legendary left-bank bookshop Shakespeare & Co. Hannah and I cycled over this morning to see if we could get a seat to hear Martin Amis in conversation with Will Self. It was a bit chaotic - there's no tickets, it's first come, first served and consequently ( Read more... )

wearing the old coat, we'll always have, girls who are boys who like boys to be, inshayne, writers, b

Comments 6

herself_nyc June 19 2010, 15:09:30 UTC

Cheers to you both!!!

cdaae June 19 2010, 15:23:48 UTC

he went on to espouse a strange kind of female empowerment which was based on the idea that women should stop trying to be like men to get ahead, but rather get into positions of power using more ‘feminine qualities’. ‘Because we all know,’ he concluded, ‘that women are kinder, gentler, less close to violence than men are.’

Aaaaargh. That is exactly the argument people use when they claim that men just can't help being violent, or being rapists. You'd think this would be deeply offensive to men, as well as to women, but... oh, I can't be bothered to rant about it, I'm already in a bad mood today.

wwidsith June 19 2010, 15:33:46 UTC

Yes, there's something particularly infuriating about articulate idiocy.

norabird June 19 2010, 16:31:33 UTC

That is a lovely adieu. Happy for you both, and encouraged too, to know that this sort of thing exists.

ruakh June 19 2010, 20:08:39 UTC

Ugh. That brand of feminism pisses me off enough when it comes from women, but from men it always seems to add a touch of condescension that really puts me over the edge. It's exactly as you say.

Oddly, I actually did know somehow what vermiculated means - and I just looked it up to be sure - but I still have no idea what Self was saying. Was he comparing it to a worm-infested apple?

Congratulations on six months!

ruakh June 19 2010, 20:48:43 UTC

And in this case it sounds like he's not just being condescending, but also actively criticizing women who are doing what they have to to get ahead. Even if he genuinely believes that every single one of those women could get ahead just as well "femininely", isn't it their prerogative to do it "masculinely" instead?

(And how come Firefox spell-check is fine with "femininely", but not with "masculinely"? Is it taking Amis's side? ;-)