Once upon a time there existed the Ladies Against Women, a satirical group. Now, as I sweat out tonight’s election results (in which I am not rooting for either a Woman or a Lady, unless Barack Obama is indeed a woman), I am creating the Women Against Ladies. This is because there are far too many Ladies in my classes. I have had quite enough.
My neighbor, the Marine (and a Republican, and an Obama supporter, por más señas) says that in the case of his ex-marriage and in the marriages of his friends, women manipulate men into the contractual agreement and then manipulate them within it by whining. I have said BAH! about this for years, but now I know what he means. I know exactly what he means. These women have penetrated my classes.
Woman: I am weak! I am pretty, but I am weak. I cannot understand!
PZ: I am sure you are perfectly intelligent.
Woman: I am weak! I prefer passive agression to learning! I just love this poem but I am too emotional to say anything coherent about it! I demand exemption from this assignment!
PZ: I am sure you are capable of writing this short paper.
Woman: I am not! You are being unfair! As a woman, you should understand that I, another woman, am incapable of intellectual work!
I am not kidding. A student pulled this “As a woman…” sentence on me literally.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
“You know very little yet of what it means to be a woman and to do a woman’s work.” How’s that?
That’s excellent. 🙂
You should reply, “As a woman, I’m going out rapin’ an’ pillagin’ tonight. You coming?”
as a woman, i am appalled. and i can’t believe Hillary beat Obama, I am quite sad…
I wonder who (a) taught her that rhetorical strategy and (b) suggested to her that it could be a successful one?
S – Well, she’s one of these fundamentalist home-schooled types, so it would be her mother and her pastor, but I think Carol Gilligan and the so-called cultural feminists also have a lot to answer for.
Also the schools, particularly the private ones: “I am a visual learner so I do not have to listen in class.” And probably television, although it is off limits to the fundie homeschoolers (or so I thought), it permeates the culture. “I am a girl, so it is cute to be incapable, who will marry me otherwise?”
My mother thought it was UNSAFE not to be like that because you would realistically only get to eat if a man supported you, and the way to get that was to be flaky. Not to be was RISKY BEHAVIOR because you wouldn’t get a man to support you and women will not get jobs no matter what they do.
JustMe – yes. I am actually considering sitting out the general election, or voting Nader again. I know that will in the eyes of Democrats make me, not McCain, responsible for whatever McCain does if he wins.
She will find out what it is like being a woman the second she gains weight or grows older looking and men no longer find her their first fuckable choice including when/if she does things to her body to defy age. Then there will be the initial juggling of resentment with the need to move on because one no longer is preferred. When/if that is overcame the bitterness of not truly utilising that time/opportunity to manipulate simpletons for something far more substantial other than being fuckable (because the rate of her orgasms compared to the menz is so disproportionately disproportionate that it cannot be overlooked if one were to put it in blatant sexual benefits, besides how hard is it to be fuckable for a group who rewards fuckability) will refuel the initial resentment that she thought she had mastered. When/if that is mastered and she moves on she will come to realise that she has a brain in her head and that brain tends to function far more intricately (some may use the word superior) than the ones running around judging fuckability, but that brain is almost useless because no one wants to listen when there are young tits sitting across the way. At this point if she is so/so fuckable but not completely young fuckable she will now have to deal with the young upstart men who are looking for a mama, but not really, more like looking for a gravy train, but one that they can commandeer but without having to give anyone a lunch break or actually provide any comprehensible reports, in other words, have to do anything to earn his daily bread. This will leave her off balance because she will have to constantly try to keep this young thing because he feeds her ego while draining it faster. When/if she moves from this place regardless of what she does or says, including inventing the formula for mortality she will be a jealous hag. Then she will fall into a paralyzed state of wishing she was as smart as she is today but was only nine years old so she could show all those wanting to fuck bastards a thing or two.
LOL! Not saying that I have experienced this or anything or think it or have ever thought it, just saying. LOL!
I wonder who (a) taught her that rhetorical strategy and (b) suggested to her that it could be a successful one?
It has worked before that is why she uses it. I have seen young women (18-22) try and use it on lesbian professors.
My mother thought it was UNSAFE not to be like that because you would realistically only get to eat if a man supported you, and the way to get that was to be flaky. Not to be was RISKY BEHAVIOR because you wouldn’t get a man to support you and women will not get jobs no matter what they do.
But didn’t the resounding falsity of your mother’s notions force you to think — thus leading you down the intellectual path that you have taken today?
I worry about those who seem to grow up naturally like flowers, without the dialectic that forces their growth. My mother is such a one, whereas my father is rife with dialectical tension but it all seems to have collapsed in on itself.
Well I think the intellectual path is inborn …!
New woman-student excuse: because I have children, I am busier than other students, so I do not want to read new material for this class, but write on something I have already read in high school.
I think that intellect lies dormant in some people. I expect that had I remained happy, it would have done so in me.
Yes, but mine was active early on, I mean early-early, it’s likely the deepest me, that’s why Reeducation was so destructive, because it said it was not just bad but that it was not part of my real self, which had to be something else.
I think that the deepest part of me is my independence of spirit. That is really the deepest part — deep, deep. My intellectual growth was directly connected to this, because the more people opposed me, the more I grew and grew.
What kiita said. Or maybe, “As a woman, I think you’re full of–” No, wait. What kiita said.
About her “I’m a mother” strategy: lots of people went through school with little kids. Lots of people are busy for all sorts of reasons–working two jobs, caring for parents, etc. I’m just saying.
“But didn’t the resounding falsity of your mother’s notions force you to think — thus leading you down the intellectual path that you have taken today?”
I’d have taken an intellectual path no matter what.
What I did do as a rebellion, or as a departure, from early on, a decision I made as a small child, was never to be so cold / unresponsive as my parents are.
Undine – yes, I know. That’s why these statements are all so irritating: they’re hostile to the ones who make them, hostile to me, and also hostile to the people who have the same situation and are handling it.