sundries

[rm]

It was cranky day on the trains this morning. It's raining and everyone is angry. And in fairness, it's easy to get annoyed. People don't understand to keep to the right. People who don't sit down make the train cars more crowded and block the seats for others. We're all wet, the trains are delayed, people's bags are in the way, etc. But man, there is only so much I can take of the fucked up reasons people think they are more special than others on the New York City subway system.

It's another piece about how boys are behind girls in school and so civilization will crumble.

Articles like this make me seethe, for starts because not only is our educational system shit, I have watched it go from bad to worse and watch kids on Craigslist hire people to write their essays -- for college admissions, for their film school class, for their fucking med school unit! So many of my friends teach university here, at _good_ schools, and the student who can express themselves cogently (not elegantly, just with basic subject/verb and an understanding of how if/then works) is absolutely, positively the except to the rule. And it galls me. So for starts, wow, our education system needs fixing in about eight hundred different places in about eight hundred different ways.

Next: if boys are so behind in school, why are men still so ahead in the workplace? Oh right, because it doesn't count when women do things (and well get back to that later, I'm going somewhere broader with this). An academically successful woman doesn't count for anything. She can't be seen as a leader, after all. And women are good with the school thing, it's not special. Dime a dozen. Ignore her. Ignore them. Women - interchangeable parts, all the same, you know how it goes. Now let's say we can even stomach the reality of the above and are okay with it (and apparently large swathes, even a majority of our society, is). Now we do have a serious problem: the people we're letting get ahead are skills-poor.

This business of "women don't count" (insert snarky "math is hard" joke here) is hardly anything new. In fact eumelia wrote this morning about the pink triangle and how in the Holocaust women never wore it. You see, the crime of lesbianism was an "anti-social" crime, one the Nazi's assigned the black triangle. The issue was not sex (probably unacknowledged because of lack of PiV), the issue was their not marrying and breeding for the Reich.

I am dead, and I did not exist.

It comes up too in arenas that many of you would consider not to matter. If you're aware of the OTW you know that part of their mission statement says "we value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary."

I'm a member of the OTW, and I think the statement is essentially true, and I still hate it. Because what it says is that there are activities people do and activities women do. It's self-othering, it's not particularly reflective of the fandom I spend the most time in (Torchwood -- whose dominant culture, I would argue is queer, gender aside) these days, and it -- in its attempt to do anything but -- plays into the "see, some boys write fanfiction" speech a whole lot of women do to somehow legitimize fannish creation.

95% of new students in general aviation are men. Hardly any women. But airplanes are real and not sin.

I am sick of a world in which the presence of women devalues activities, educations, television shows (even though women make more purchases than men in almost every category, a male demographic is preferred by advertisers) and desires merely by their turning their eyes towards something.

But it's nothing new. And I don't, tragically, believe it will ever be anything old and quaint and once was either. And it's one of the small reasons I can never be quite happy: because nearly everything I have ever been taught -- by my parents, by my schools, by my fandom, by more than a few lovers, and by my persecutors -- tells me one simple thing. Because I have a cunt, when I love something, I make it less. It's a strange power, being the null, and it's not one I want or like or enjoy and I would like to give it back now.

North Koreans use cellphones to tell the rest of the world about life there.

True fact most people think is just an urban legend: More than three unrelated people living together is illegal in NYC.

Comments

[delchi.livejournal.com]

It hurts to hear what you are saying, because I know you are right, and because that in the grand scheme of things there is little that I personally can do to change it. One thing I do object to is the idea that - as you said - "it will ever be anything old and quaint and once was ". I believe that someday, after a considerable amount of blood, sacrifice, and change it will be something quaint and old - something the future will look back on and laugh about and say " wow were we really like that ? " the same way we look back at the 19th amendment.

As for the rest, it may mean little or nothing - and in all likelihood it will make you more angry - but I will state that I have never seen you as a "cunt" or a "penis" or something "less". Once I got over being afraid of you , I found you to be the kind of advanced intelligent person that I could learn things from. I count you amongst my friends, some who have cunts, some who have penises, and some who have exchanged one for the other. In that respect to me personally gender in meaningless - either a person is a friend or not - and regardless of gender I spend time with, assist , or do favors for my friends. I learned from you a long time ago that gender should not be an issue when it comes to business - either you can do the job or you can not. Between the ears, not between the legs. Because of the things you taught me , when the rest of my office was freaking out over the MtF sales rep I was more upset at the reactions of my peers than the fact that we had one of "those" working for us. Because of the people I have met through you I have found ideas for my own fanfic that I would have never thought of. Despite out disagreements, our head-butting, and lack of insight into each others worlds, I continue to label you as a friend.

The situation you describe is very accurate , but it is also fluid. I believe there is a place and a path for change - and that if it is not here in this country/culture then it will be born in another one. you may never live to see the day that corrects the wrongs you see around you, but your words will inspire people (and already have) to stand up for themselves and for what is right. Each person as they grow and learn meets people that inspire them to make change , and that change manifests itself over time.

What you are describing in some ways can be seen as a social & economic slavery in which women are bound into at birth. History has shown that slavery can be beaten.