Comments on: My life. http://threeriversblog.com/2009/02/my-life.html Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:12:21 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Spilt Milk http://threeriversblog.com/2009/02/my-life.html#comment-2307 Spilt Milk Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:42:36 +0000 http://threeriversblog.com/?p=377#comment-2307 I stumbled here from Zero at the Bone. I just wanted to say - I like Michelle Obama for the same reasons! I also think it's important to acknowledge that women's increased participation in the workforce hasn't just been a goal of feminism in recent times: it serves capitalism well also (just as it served the War effort well in the 1940s). So when we expect work to be everything for women we are unintentionally swallowing the notion that work is everything for everyone and that this is a good thing. I know this does men no good either. The old 'I can do anything a man can do' only takes us so far... I prefer 'Both men and women can do much more than we are allowed to by prescribed roles' myself! Spilt Milks last blog post..<a href="http://mymilkspilt.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/bringing-up-baby/" rel="nofollow">Bringing up Baby</a> I stumbled here from Zero at the Bone. I just wanted to say – I like Michelle Obama for the same reasons! I also think it’s important to acknowledge that women’s increased participation in the workforce hasn’t just been a goal of feminism in recent times: it serves capitalism well also (just as it served the War effort well in the 1940s). So when we expect work to be everything for women we are unintentionally swallowing the notion that work is everything for everyone and that this is a good thing. I know this does men no good either. The old ‘I can do anything a man can do’ only takes us so far… I prefer ‘Both men and women can do much more than we are allowed to by prescribed roles’ myself!

Spilt Milks last blog post..Bringing up Baby

]]> By: February feminism round-up « Zero at the Bone http://threeriversblog.com/2009/02/my-life.html#comment-2303 February feminism round-up « Zero at the Bone Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:42:07 +0000 http://threeriversblog.com/?p=377#comment-2303 [...] wrote My life. at Three Rivers Fog on Feb 16. It’s about the high place paid work has long held in feminism [...] [...] wrote My life. at Three Rivers Fog on Feb 16. It’s about the high place paid work has long held in feminism [...]

]]> By: Rivikah http://threeriversblog.com/2009/02/my-life.html#comment-2010 Rivikah Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:24:57 +0000 http://threeriversblog.com/?p=377#comment-2010 eek.  Sorry about the run-on paragraph... eek.  Sorry about the run-on paragraph…

]]> By: Rivikah http://threeriversblog.com/2009/02/my-life.html#comment-2009 Rivikah Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:19:22 +0000 http://threeriversblog.com/?p=377#comment-2009 I identify myself primarily as a mathematician.  My occupation is at least part of who I am.  I suppose I'm lucky to have the kind of occupation that gives me self definition.  Sometimes I'll say that I'm a student.Here's something:  I find that sitting around and thinking "Who am I? No, who am I /really/?" is possibly interesting, but in the end, not a productive use of my head space.  The kind of self definitions that are more useful are introductions and those are context dependant.  It doesn't matter who I think I really am, the person standing beside me wanting to know who I am doesn't care about all that.So I'll introduce myself as a mathematician, or as a grad student, or as Someone's wife, or as my mother's daughter, as the occasion warrants.  Giving up any of those things would suck.  But it doesn't really matter what I think is the most important.  You've got 30 seconds to tell someone something about yourself, there's no time to go into the details, so pare it down to the stuff that's easy to say.It's about giving people the information they're looking for.Liss's beef the other day feels like something else.  I don't think what's bothering her is that these women are being defined using things other than their jobs.I think it's that these women are being defined only as they relate to the person doing the defining.  The problem isn't that Liss hasn't been told what these women do for a living, it's that she hasn't been told anything about them at all.I suspect that if these men had said "Oh my wife loves cats and hockey" it would pass completely unremarked.  If they had said "Oh my wife is great with kids and she really likes to cook."  Liss may have gone "ew. kids" but the complaint would have been a different one.All this said, I certainly recognise that certain groups of people don't respect certain kinds of lives.  Though my feeling that the feminist blogosphere is wearing blindres tends to come from different directions.Hmm...This got long.  Maybe I should write my own post... I identify myself primarily as a mathematician.  My occupation is at least part of who I am.  I suppose I’m lucky to have the kind of occupation that gives me self definition.  Sometimes I’ll say that I’m a student.Here’s something:  I find that sitting around and thinking “Who am I? No, who am I /really/?” is possibly interesting, but in the end, not a productive use of my head space.  The kind of self definitions that are more useful are introductions and those are context dependant.  It doesn’t matter who I think I really am, the person standing beside me wanting to know who I am doesn’t care about all that.So I’ll introduce myself as a mathematician, or as a grad student, or as Someone’s wife, or as my mother’s daughter, as the occasion warrants.  Giving up any of those things would suck.  But it doesn’t really matter what I think is the most important.  You’ve got 30 seconds to tell someone something about yourself, there’s no time to go into the details, so pare it down to the stuff that’s easy to say.It’s about giving people the information they’re looking for.Liss’s beef the other day feels like something else.  I don’t think what’s bothering her is that these women are being defined using things other than their jobs.I think it’s that these women are being defined only as they relate to the person doing the defining.  The problem isn’t that Liss hasn’t been told what these women do for a living, it’s that she hasn’t been told anything about them at all.I suspect that if these men had said “Oh my wife loves cats and hockey” it would pass completely unremarked.  If they had said “Oh my wife is great with kids and she really likes to cook.”  Liss may have gone “ew. kids” but the complaint would have been a different one.All this said, I certainly recognise that certain groups of people don’t respect certain kinds of lives.  Though my feeling that the feminist blogosphere is wearing blindres tends to come from different directions.Hmm…This got long.  Maybe I should write my own post…

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