ethecofem

I just wanted to link to an interesting post I stumbled across in some of my internet technical wondering:

http://numberedhumanindustries.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/ending-%E2%80%9Cdon%E2%80%99t-ask-don%E2%80%99t-tell%E2%80%9D/

The post itself is worthwhile, its also inspired me to research contemporary and historical GLBT figures outside of the humanities and arts. Any recommendations?

N

So I thought I’d mix it up a little bit and write a post about something that I know a little bit about: computers. One might ask what computers have to do with progressive, feminist discourse?

Well, does universally available and extremely low cost tools to access all the knowledge and resources of the internet sound progressive? Does the idea of titanic institutions who lack any accountability increasing their control of the information presented to the world concern you? What about those same institutions collecting unprecedented amounts of information about those who access that same data?

Look for a series of posts coming soon regarding these issues and more. Each piece will be presented accessibly and jargon free so that you can make more informed technology decisions. Please feel free to indicated any interest or lack of interest in the comments.

Until next,

N

Don’t expect any sophisticated analysis or world changing insights in the next few moments here. I was a party last night at a friend’s apartment. It was quite a wild evening. On a brief tangent my friend’s boyfriend drives me crazy. He was in his full modus operandi. Loudly pontificating on the merits of a people’s violent revolution over the state, and slapping women’s assess as often as he can get away with it. Apparently class concientiousness does not neccesate any progressive thinking about gender relations. Grr. I’m getting very sidetracked here, I digress.

I met K at this party last night. We enjoyed a breadth of wonderful conversation: animal rights, role playing games (think “nerds” not S&M), poetry, environmental activism, and so on. I was very happy to have met a kindred intellect. However, there was a “problem” that could very likely derail our potential friendship. K was a particularly attractive woman. Very often I find that women, particularly those who are sexually attractive by popular definition, are very distrustful of men’s motives who apparently want to be friends with them.

I think this is likely a natural development that many women get from being constantly pursued from every angle, even from “nice guys”. I think it is valid and understandable. But it still makes me sad that people would otherwise be kindred intellects and wonderful friends may not be because of that kind of systemic reality. Thankfully, I think my authenticity comes through pretty well.

Hugs everyone.
N

Hey folks its Danny again.  I was out at Wal-Mart today when I had the oddest thought about the words boyfriend and girlfriend.  What makes it odd is that I was on my way to the bathroom when it crossed my mind out of the blue.  I have neither boyfriend or girlfriend so I don’t know why I thought about it but I did so here goes.

As most people understand boyfriend and girlfriend are labels attached to an intimate partner of that gender.  Well along with those two basic definitions girlfriend seems to have another.  When a woman/girl talks about another woman/girl who is a close personal friend but not an intimate partner she still refers to her as her girlfriend.  (It also seems that in at least tv/movies  girls/women also refer to close person homosexual male friends as girlfriends as well but I’ve never heard it in actual conversation so I’m not sure about that.  Any women want to chime in on that?)

So you have:
Girlfriend: An intimate partner of the female gender.

Girlfriend 2: A close personal friend of the female gender or (possibly) male of homosexual orientation.

Boyfriend: An intimate partner of the male gender.

Boyfriend 2: ???

Odd right?

Being a heterosexual (for the most part) male I can fully understand why this is.  Nearly everyone on the planet understands the main meaning of girl/boyfriend.  Well as guys one of the things that we are taught is that while we can be close to each other in a non-intimate manner it should only be done under certain circumstances (and if it is intimate then it should NEVER be done).  I think that out of fear of it being understood as the definition of Boyfriend (and therefore intimate) 1 we don’t use what I would think Boyfriend 2 (a close friend of the male gender and I suppose women of homosexual orientation) would be.

Yes I have male friends that I’m close with, could tell anything to, and would walk barefoot into hell with them or for them.  But I would never call them my boyfriends.  I’d call them my boys, my fellas, my bros, etc…but never boyfriend because of the thought that someone would interpret it as intimate partner rather than close friend.  It almost feels like avoiding that wording is something like a “no homo” moment.

But I also notice that women also don’t use boyfriend in regards to a close male friend so it seems like there is plenty of fear to go around when it comes to the thought of referring to a close male friend as a boyfriend.

Weird.

What’s your thoughts on the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing?

by N

Technology is awesome. It enables us to do so much more… right now this goofy guy in his late twenties, in fly over country, with no academic credentials is writing to a global audience. What a democratization of information!

I wonder if we consider both sides of the double edge sword… the difficulty of establishing intellectual credibility in “cyberspace”, the ability of institutions of power to “update” published information at will, the ecological considerations all of the electricity and materials that we need to use these modern information systems, and what about skills and technologies that are becoming irrelevant and in danger of being lost.

How long before it becomes prohibitely expensive to develop a roll of film (has anyone else seen young children want to see their picture on the back of a camera after its been taken?), that no one knows how to get around their home town without a GPS, could you feed yourself out of a garden if you had to and can for winter, or we never bother to memorize anything because we can always google it on our iPhone 7gss Mini? Lots of things us modern folks don’t know how to do. My books are made of renewable, sometimes recycled, resources that need no power, maintence, and that don’t break down. There is a lot of value there even when compared to the convenience of a kindle.

Is there any group or organization out there dedicated to preserving skills and knowledge like this? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the world is going to end tomorrow and we’ll be in desperate need of these skills, but I think a centralized resource like that would be at the very least very interesting. If one doesn’t exist… do you see value in it?

Well, enough nonsense, I’m probably just like the guy in this video confused about his new-fangled book:

by April

I’ve been throwing around ideas for posts for a few days, but have had little motivation to complete a thorough post about any of these ideas in their potential entirety with all the holiday business (busyness? Huh?), so I thought I’d throw out some discussion-starters:

I’ve been thinking about the post I wrote about prostitution, and how I was so adamantly anti all sex-for-money actions. I realized that my anti position was contradictory to my pro-legalization position when I considered many women’s opinion of abortion.

Many women say that they could never have an abortion, and therefore they are against it. But every woman’s circumstances are different and women who have had abortions haven’t done it for the same reason. It’s okay to say you’ll never have an abortion, but support other women’s right to legal and safe access to abortion.

So, I realized that, ultimately, even though I don’t see myself entering the sex industry, I support giving other women the legal option of doing so if they want or need to. And that’s really all I needed to know to realize that I was supportive of sex-worker’s rights, and that I didn’t need to preface the argument or add a disclaimer.

I have been seeing many ways in which feminism and environmentalism et al mirror religions, namely the evangelical Christian movement. I allow the “tenants” of feminism and anti-oppression ideology to frame my behavior and filter my actions in many of the ways a person might make decisions within the framework of the teachings of Christ. This creeps me out quite a bit, but I don’t really know what to think about that. Do all passions or schools of thought have the power to become evangelical? Is it inherently bad to be evangelical, or am I just feeling this way because of the associations with evangelicalism and anti-progressive legislation and rhetoric? I don’t appreciate being evangelized at, so I’d hate to be associated with the same behavior. What does this say about claims that all humans naturally seek out an idea of a higher power or purpose? If we don’t follow a mainstream belief system like Christianity or Judaism, do we replace it with something else, like astrology or feminism or yoga? Or is spiritual belief a learned trait?

I’m personally conflicted about the “tone argument.” It’s apparent that tone is important when attempting to educate people and pass legislation, but is one ever required to mind their tone when addressing or engaging with a group of people about the ways in which they suffer oppression? Is it ever appropriate to require “good manners” or the dreaded reasonable, logical approach when having a discussion with someone about (a) ways(s) in which they experience oppression, especially if you can identify with the oppressor in question (i.e. black woman discussing racism with white woman)?