Despite being an Obama supporter, I criticised him for the sexist dogwhistles he used against Clinton, as he talked about her “periodically… feeling down”. Now he’s talking about McCain being “confused” and “angry”, which arguably are ageist dogwhistles. What do you think about these? I find myself wanting to say that when McCain gets facts wrong there’s nothing problematic in calling him “confused”, or that when he acts angry it’s fine to call him “angry”. But I worry that partisan loyalties may be muddying my thinking on this.
Aging and “Sexiness” July 22, 2008
This article by India Knight celebrates the fact that women are no longer considered wholly asexual upon reaching the age of 40, or upon becoming mothers. Hurray! Right? Uh… maybe not so much, as we learn that we can still be sexual in our sixties *if* we have a body like Helen Mirren, and that we should be very grateful that surgery is now available to help us in that pursuit– a feminist victory, according to Knight. She tries to spin her idolisation of Mirren as really about her natural appearance, but it doesn’t last long:
There are no comedy plastic bosoms, or an eerily smooth face, or grotesquely inflated absurdi-lips, no weirdly sinewy body that suggests she lives in the gym. She just looks great.
She has perhaps had a reasonable bit of “work”, but nothing that is outside most people’s league, now that so-called minor surgical procedures are deregulated and your chiropodist can technically give you Botox: we are hardly talking three facelifts and intensive body work.
Knight devotes quite a lot of effort to spin all of this as feminism. Silly me, getting the feminism all wrong, thinking that one could be a sexual being without getting work done so as to have a body like Helen Mirren’s. Ah well, live and learn. (Thanks, Jender-Parents!)
“Postfeminism and Other Fairy Tales” March 16, 2008
This interesting article in the New York Times is well worth the read. The author, Kate Zernike, tries to put together the impact of both the mysogynistic attacks on Hillary and the travesty of Spitzler on generational divides among feminists. She suggests many young women have thought that the US was beyond gender discrimination. And it is true that some women seem to have gotten the message that the power and responsibiity is theirs, a belief less for their convenience, surely, than for that of a discriminatory culture that does not want the blame. (I remember uphappily a meeting at which a local young female chamber of commerce administrator insisted that women professors themselves were responsible for the fact that women hold almost no academic leadership positions in our university. “You need to work on yourselves,” she asserted. Ouch!)
Is that changing?
Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia and director of its sexuality and gender law clinic, called the current climate “a perfect storm.”
…
“I’m not such a Mars-Venus person but this is one of those moments where gender is at least a partial explanation, it affects how people hear campaign rhetoric, how people see political downfalls,” Ms. Goldberg said. “Even people who were unwilling to see it before are more likely to acknowledge the pervasiveness of sex stereotypes.”
…
Younger women, for their part, are starting to have what Ms. Goldberg calls “the aha moment” — even if it doesn’t put them in Mrs. Clinton’s column, as some of the welter of commentary last week found.
Why don’t younger women see what Kath Pollitt is described as articulating? That is,
“The hysterical insults flung at Hillary Clinton are just a franker, crazier version of the everyday insults — shrill, strident, angry, ranting, unattractive — that are flung at any vaguely liberal mildly feminist woman who shows a bit of spirit and independence,” she [Pollitt] wrote, “who puts herself out in the public realm, who doesn’t fumble and look up coyly from underneath her hair and give her declarative sentences the cadence of a question.”
…
“Every woman I know who calls herself a feminist, or is even just doing well, especially in a field in which men also contend,” Ms. Pollitt wrote, “deals with some version of this.”
We’re offered a dismal explanation:
Noreen Malone on The XX Factor, the Slate magazine blog written by women wrote] “The most powerful people in the world are old white men and pretty young women.”
“During my supposedly post-feminist lifetime, the women who’ve created the biggest stir are the young women who’ve ruined the careers of powerful old men,” she wrote.
Some power.
“The Sex of Your Surgeon May Matter” January 30, 2008
The NY Times reports on a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by researchers at Columbia University. The question they address concerned why the treatment of women similarly affected by breast cancer varied. In particular, they looked after radiation treatment after lumpectomy, which is documented to be the better course of treatment.
The researchers analyzed data on nearly 30,000 women aged 65 and older who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 2002 and who received lumpectomy. They also analyzed data on the 4,453 surgeons who operated on the women.
About 25% of women do not get the preferred treatment. There were two sets of facts that made a difference:
1. As earlier studies indicated, demographic factors mattered: Older women, black women, unmarried women and those living outside urban areas were less likely to receive radiation.
But the new report looks at doctors behind the treatment, and it found:
2. Women who received radiation were more likely to have a female surgeon. Women who were treated by more experienced surgeons were also more likely to receive radiation treatment, as were women treated by doctors trained in the United States. (Note: the study was of women treated in the US; it is not a comparison among countries.)
The article states,
Dr. Dawn L. Hershman, co-director of the breast program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University, said … “There are many fantastic male surgeons….It shouldn’t be taken that every woman should be seen by a woman, but there are some contributing factors to this difference that we need to investigate further.’’
It seems important to know also whether the influence was evenly distributed over those with the unfortunate demographics.
And finally the article reveals a small tension between the author and the person doing the titles; while the title has the term ’sex,’ the article uses ‘gender.’
Belated Birthday January 11, 2008
Simone de Beauvoir’s 100th birthday was 9 January. Julie Ward has posted a list of events commemorating the events on SWIP-L, and I thought I’d pass it on.
Colloque Simone de Beauvoir. Under the direction of Julia Kristeva, this colloquium is to be held in Paris from 9-11 January, and will coincide with Beauvoir’s actual birthday. A range of international speakers will address Beauvoir’s contributions to feminism, philosophy, and literature. For more information contact: agnescousinderavelATyahoo.fr
The Legacies of Simone de Beauvoir. Organised by the International Simone de Beauvoir Society, this conference will be held in the North of England, in Newcastle, in June. For more information contact: Susan.BainbriggeATed.ac.uk
International Association for Philosophy and Literature. A special session will be devoted to the work of Beauvoir at the association’s meeting in Melbourne, Australia, in July. For more information contact: Gail Weiss at gweissATgwu.edu
Association for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC). A session on Beauvoir will be held in Vancouver, Canada, in June, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. For more information contact: Christine.DaigleATBrocku.CA
North American Sartre Society. A session on Beauvoir will be held at the society’s biennial meeting Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA in April. For more information contact: Christine.DaigleATBrocku.CA
Age/Aging. On Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Coming of Age”. International Expert Meeting at the University of Vienna, February 22-23, 2008. Organized by Silvia Stoller. Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophical study on “The Coming of Age” (originally published in French as “La vieillesse” 1970), will be the subject of this meeting. Contact: silvia.stollerATunivie.ac.at.
American Philosophical Association. “The Philosophical Feminism of Simone de Beauvoir, Invited Symposium,” at the APA Central Division Meeting, April 17-20, 2008, Chicago IL. Speakers: Nancy Bauer, Sara Heinamaa, Karen Vintges; Session Chair: Margaret Simons. Organized by Julie K. Ward, email: jwardATluc.edu.
Or you could read a discussion of the way (naked, from the rear) she’s been depicted in the French mag Nouvel Observateur, in their birthday commemoration.
Exercise and Mental Function December 29, 2007
Feminist philosophers who feel their careers were slowed down - or at least not accelerated - in comparison to similarly talented men, might want to take steps to prolonged their productive years. The evidence is mounting that exercise can play a big role in preserving mental function.
So if you are tempted to do a New Year’s reassessment of the ways you allocate time to your health, think about including more exercise.
There are several things we now understand about starting and sustaining a successful exercise program. One big one is that including friends and family can be a huge help.
However, do make sure you all have some prior understanding of direction and goals:
And most of all: Enjoy!
On Dec. 25, a completely silly video of cats singing December 25, 2007
about sleigh bells in the snow would have been great, but I gave up on finding a really good one. In part because I discovered a video that has left me very puzzled, a state that philosophers can love. What I’m puzzled about is: What happened? The background scenes seen in the video below seem to have vanished. And of course that war is basically over, but the current crisis in the States is sadly too similar.
Women and Minorities in Philosophy December 14, 2007
There’s currently a huge amount of momentum around the issue of improving numbers of women and minorities in philosophy. A major catalyst for this has been Sally Haslanger’s incredibly important paper on the topic. I know that many women just starting out in philosophy found that paper a very depressing read. But the extremely good news is that it’s serving as a real catalyst for discussion and action, and there’s actually a lot of optimism and energy. There’s a nice example in this post from Evelyn Brister:
In the last decade, at least half of U.S. college graduates have been women. But less than a third of philosophy majors have been women. Women have not reached workplace equity at the beginning of the 21st century, but there are only a few places and ways in which they are not reaching educational parity. Philosophy—the discipline that takes as its subjects ethics, justice, consistency, and self-reflection—is one of those places.What does this gender inequality indicate about our discipline? Some have taken it to indicate that the material itself is gender-biased, that the methods of argumentation reflect masculine psychology, or that philosophy is a bastion of cultural traditionalism that incubates sexist practices.That assessment is too negative, in my opinion. As an optimist, a meliorist, and a pragmatist, I think that it indicates first and foremost that philosophers, unlike other analytic disciplines, have not made gender parity a priority.
Brister argues for greater attention to undergraduate recruitment and retention. If you have thoughts on this, head over to her post and share them! Sharon Crasnow suggests that those of us from under-represented groups who have persevered or even thrived in philosophy should reflect on what helped us to do this and to talk about this. If you have stories on this to share, go tell Sharon. There are also some very important data collection efforts getting underway– more on those in a later post.
One thing that’s struck me is that there actually are a lot of genuinely well-meaning people in philosophy who would like to improve recruitment and retention of women and minorities in philosophy, at all levels, but who need some guidance about how to do so. I’m going to be working on providing a document with such guidance, and would appreciate any suggestions you may have. One thing I’d particularly like to hear about is what sorts of techniques actually help one to correct against the very unconscious biases that Haslanger and Valian have drawn our attention to. But I’m really interested in hearing about any ideas you may have– or reports of efforts, even those that haven’t worked. Please put them in the comments!
Note: Categories have been updated as a result of comments.
“aging white men” November 6, 2007
We are all aging; this is a cautionary tale about how bright and sensitive people can maintain a startling degree of ignorance. It’s also about a small but disgraceful nationally (USA) aired episode in racism and sexism.
Don Imus described Rutgers women’s basketball team in terms that were both highly racist and sexist and put in a way such that the racism and sexism compounded each other. He was fired when the sponsors got the message that his program would deter people from paying for the products advertised on it. Now he is getting back on the US airwaves and Dick Cavett, for one, is glad.
There is really no getting away from the injustice that’s been done. A program enjoyed (and missed) by millions was trashed for the sake of the few. No one who contributed to the denouement of the Imus show and the mindless abuse heaped on him has anything to be proud of.
Cavett’s most egregious comments, in my opinion, concern why Imus’ remarks shouldn’t have been taken ‘personally’:
There’s no getting around what he said, of course, but it’s worth asking under what circumstances would a man ever be justified in calling a bunch of women — of any color — by the volatile term “hos”? The first requirement, really, would be that he would have to know them. How can an insult be personal if the person delivering it and the person(s) receiving it don’t know each other?
Isn’t that just how prejudice works? If you are prejudging, then of course you don’t have to know them to do it.
One very interesting feature of Cavett’s stand on the NY Time are the responses to it. Of course there are the “yeah for free speech” and “down with political correctness” advocates, but a very, very solid set of comments say “aging white men” just don’t get how bad it all was. At least one indeed fron a self-identified aging white man.So what is the lesson to be learned? Racism and sexism reveal your age? How about: Every once in a while there’s some sign that some part of the human race is growing in its grasp of the requirements on living a decent life.
Jane Jacobs revisited November 1, 2007
The NY Times summarizes a symposium on Jane Jacobs, activist and writer, whose The Death and Life of Great American Cities is considered by many to be a masterpiece (sic).
Those who are not very familiar with her thought and impact might find Julia Vitullo-Martin’s characterization helpful:
In practice, she disapproved equally of self-isolating large development, like public housing for low-income people, and luxurious towers for high-income people,” she said, adding later, “She admired a certain kind of active integration, of people of different races, incomes, educational levels. She admired the presence of work in neighborhoods. She had a romantic attachment to manufacturing work and certain small enterprises — retail, commercial — on the street. She liked everything mixed up together.”
A friend of hers, Roberta Brandes Gratz, is quoted as remarking
Jane’s ideas are not frozen in time. She never expected change not to occur. The process of change – the process of change – is what concerned her most, how it was managed and how intimately involved in shaping that change were the citizens affected by that change. Furthermore her ideas were never static. She loathed ideology and bristled at any suggestion that her ideas added up to a theory.
Most people will find her legacy mixed, since her thought has been used by different sides of the political spectrum. Her convervative stance on some public spending, of which I have just become aware, hardly sounds something I could support. What captivated me, however, was the characterization by historian Christopher Klemek, who is curating an exhibit on her. The use of quotation marks and personal pronouns seems garbled a bit, but I’ll give it to you as it is in the Times:
Jacobs “was sort of strange looking,” having come into prominence well into her middle age. “She’s a late bloomer in some ways,” she said. “She had a very strange voice. It was almost a whiny voice.” But she was also “hard as nails,” and “willing to go head to head in the old trenches of New York City politics,” and “managed to play this tension between insider and outsider to quite powerful effect.”
The tension between insider and outsider is one many of us could also play to powerful effect.
Awareness November 1, 2007
Cara has an excellent post on Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month, both October. Yet somehow the breasts get all the attention. And, as Cara points out, it’s not necessarily the right kind of attention.
When was the last time you saw awareness of prostate or testicular cancer accompanied by photos of bulging pant fronts or hot guys in their underwear? Hopefully never. How screwed up are we that we will objectify women’s body parts even when those parts are harboring a grave illness?
She also points out that black women and older women, who are most likely to die from the disease, are not much noticed in these campaigns.
How far gone are we that we will ignore the bulk of victims — black women and women over 50 — to create a marketable story? Do we really only care about women’s health when we get to look at thin young white women while talking about it? How do “ideal” perceptions of sexiness and womanhood permeate even this?
Really useful and interesting reflections on what is reported, which fit nicely into discussions of how knowledge is created.
Men and Hair Dye October 16, 2007
Apparently, hair dye companies are now targeting men with gray hair. But they’re finding it very important to insist that their products are different from women’s hair dye, because they’re designed to be natural-looking and discreet, while women’s are designed to get them noticed. My impression is that that this is how women’s hair dying started out. One thing I wonder about is generational and class differences. Plenty of male students (at least around here) dye their hair (not in subtle ways), and that seems acceptable. But when Mr Jender was in a working-class, non-university part of town he was called a “fucking poof” for his dyed hair. 
And no, that is not a photo of Mr Jender. (Thanks, S, for the link.)
The Gay Elderly October 10, 2007
Intersectionality– roughly, the way that multiple oppressions may interact, and may even not be clearly separable– is rightly a major topic that receives a lot of attention in academia (though arguably still not as much as it should). But some intersections get more attention than others, and one that doesn’t really get a lot of attention is the intersection of ageism and homophobia. But it should, as this New York Times article makes clear. There always has been a large gay elderly population (as a few seconds’ reflection would make clear to anyone but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), but now things are a bit different: many of these people have eventually managed to live openly as gay in a world that is more tolerant than the one that they grew up in, partly by choosing the communities in which they live. But when they need long-term residential care things turn ugly– they’re forced to live in close quarters in homophobic communities (both residents and staff). Most of them return to their closets, and at a time when life is getting enormously difficult anyway this is a huge burden. Some commit suicide, and many suffer depression. The good news is that there are some– though surely not enough– retirement centers that cater to gay people; and that gay rights organizations are working very hard to educate those running and working retirement centers, in order to improve things. One of those working to do this, by the way, is Amber Hollibaugh, known to me for her writings on sexuality. (Although the article is primarily focused on homophobia, the work being done includes work against transphobia as well.)
