The debit/default fiasco: It was a fifty’s sitcom!

(I am wondering whether to apologize for putting this up.)

As I read the newspapers and listened to some of the rants, I had an overwhelming sense that it was all  familiar.  So I went to YouTube and found some shows that prefigured it.  From the 1950’s!

What is particularly discouraging is that the blatant tropes of the 50’s are pretty much still on the surface over 50 years later.  E.g., “If you don’t do what the powers that be want, you’ll get fired,” and “You have to put up with the crappy stuff, which I can go off to have the good stuff.”

Although it is hard to remember, I think that in the fifties, (a lot of the sitcom-watching) people used to laugh at perfectly obvious things.  I suspect a lot of our comedy is better, though HBO may be spoiling my sense here.  Will politics catch up any time soon?

Tell us your positive stories

The following query was submitted to What It’s Like:

I’ve been thinking of attending a graduate program in philosophy, but the experiences of the women I know who attend graduate school, and the stories I have encountered here have made me reconsider. I was wondering if it might be possible to reach out to women who are in philosophy programs they love, who feel supported and respected by their mentors and peers?

The stories over at What it’s Like are a very important part of raising awareness about gender issues in philosophy, and showing just how far we still have to go for true equality in the profession. But they aren’t the whole story.* Many of us have had very positive experiences in philosophy. And even for some of us whose experiences have been very much a mixed bag, we’re still happy that we ended up in philosophy. And it’s important that we emphasize this spectrum of experience, because the last thing we want to do is discourage talented, capable women from going into philosophy.

This thread is an open call for positive stories – whether stories of good experiences in grad school, stories of being taken seriously and respected, or just stories of ultimately being really glad that you wound up a philosopher, gender bullshit notwithstanding.

Help us out!

 

*What it’s Like of course encourages stories of any kind, including positive stories. But as it happens, positive stories are rather thin on the ground over there.

Subjectivity in Question Call for Papers

Duquesne Women in Philosophy 2014 Conference
Duquesne University
February 8, 2014

Subjectivity in Question

Keynote Speaker: Lisa Guenther, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University

Duquesne Women in Philosophy (D-WiP) invite philosophical papers on the question of subjectivity. Given the tensions found within the traditional notions of subjectivity, we aim to facilitate a discussion on the future directions of feminist philosophy and the question of the subject. Papers are welcome from within contemporary philosophical discourse, as well as from perspectives grounded in and engaged with the history of philosophy. We invite full paper submissions to dwipcontact@gmail.com by December 1, 2013.  Allotted presentation time will be approximately 20-30 minutes. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

sexual difference and subjectivity
temporality, spatiality, and perception
corporeality, modes of embodiment
presentation, representation, and misrepresentation
agency, power, and vulnerability
political subjectivity
metaphysics and the political subject
affect and emotion
alterity and ethics
subjectivity in expression: art and language
gender and sexuality
racial subjectivity
vagueness and ambiguity
(dis)ability, crip theory
feminist materialism

The strongest graduate paper will receive a modest cash award from the Duquesne Women in Philosophy. We are an active group of female philosophy graduate students who are striving to improve the status of women in philosophy.