Friday random blogging

Posted by Deanna Zandt at 6:31 AM on October 7, 2005.

Once again, Gawker neatly sums up some sentiments that I had last night upon hearing that NYC's subways are the target of a bomb plot: "NYC Blown Up for Paying Too Much Attention to Rove, Miers." I had to go to an event uptown last night, and had planned on taking the train until a friend of mine told me about the news. I know, I know, they've won when we stop taking the subway. But really, listen to someone say, "We have a credible threat, they named time and place, but we're not going to tell you -- just keep taking the subways anyway." Riiiiight. At least the feds are saying it's "doubtful credibility." I didn't read that till this morning, and spent $35 on cabs. Grrrrrr. (Oh, look, Evan was twitchy, too.)

Whiskey Bar had a great post yesterday about Miers' secret feminist past that is scaring the bejeezus out of conservatives around the nation. Some hilarious excerpts:

Now every good wing nut knows that 'women's studies' is just a fancy feminist euphemism for 'radical commie lesbian anti-American Satan worshiping' studies, but this is even worse. ...

And who can deny that without the constant guidance and discipline of their more learned masculine mentors, even the most conservative female may wander from the path of divinely inspired submission to patriarchal authority? Was Eve not tempted? Did Lot's daughters not seduce their own father? Did Jezebel not do whatever the hell it was that she did?

Last but not least, Marc alerted me to a lengthy review on Salon of Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy (we also have a good review here on AlterNet, too). It's a book that explains why post-feminism is especially dangerous to women these days, and I'll let you read all the critiques elsewhere... there was one part of the review, though, that struck me:

Yet as Levy points out, being the exception that proves the rule -- the girl who gets raunch, who laughs at Howard Stern -- just means the rules are still intact. As long as 'acting like a man' is valued, acting like a woman will be devalued. And regardless of how you understand gender, being a woman -- having breasts, bleeding once a month -- will be a handicap.

"Bleeding once a month..." I've been noticing those ads for the past year or so (tho they've gotten much more intense in the last 3-6 months) for birth control pills that let you bleed only once every few months, only 3 or 4 times a year. I've been thinking that it's just a twisted convenience factor drug ("Bleed less! Play more!")... but now, putting it in the frame of menstruation as a handicap... well, that's interesting, isn't it? Periods have always been treated as a disease to be cured, and now we're really taking it to the next level. Perhaps if all us girls stop bleeding, we'll be more like men, and more acceptable and successful.

When did we forget that feminism wasn't ever about the privilege to be like men? For me, and for a lot of women I know and work with, it's about choices, fair playing ground, evolving definitions of gender roles and identity.

Oops, sorry... gotta go change that pesky tampon of mine. Happy weekend, everyone!

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet, and manages Start Making Sense.