I want to rescind my voter registration so as to escape jury duty. I do not like it because the jurors are also treated like prisoners – summoned, searched, questioned, and sequestered. In the past year I have begged off once, been dismissed once, and forgotten once. Now I have been subpoenaed for it. This is probably in revenge for my having forgotten, although I did call in to apologize for forgetting, as the threatening letter I received directed me to do. Police woke me up early in the morning, knocking on my door, to deliver this subpoena.
In this instance I did not feel I was exercising rights and duties as man and citizen — I felt enslaved to the state. Now a scholar I am reading on sixteenth century Spain writes, “[W]hether enslaved or free, every citizen was in fact subject to a degree of enslavement to the very same bureaucratic system that legitimized him.”
*
Yes, I am a man. When I learned English, “man” was the term for “human” or “person”, and “he” was the universal pronoun. I therefore adopted these, without rescinding female identity. I was not being transgressive, but following accepted conventions and claiming legitimate rights. If “man” was the term for “person,” then I was one. It is still not clear that women are full persons, so I am still a man. In these circumstances there is no contradiction between being a man and being female. Merci de votre compréhension.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Zero, you are a feminist after my own heart, and I think you are absolutely right. The problem begins already with the wording in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all *men* are created equal.”
One of my students:
“Yes, but it would sound weird if it were “people” and not “men.”
Without any legal/linguistic changes in the foundations of the system, the system is corrupted.
But how creepy. Police coming to your door to deliver a subpeona? Couldn’t they mail it? Jesus. I would feel very intimidated by that.
Yes, but what can I say … it’s Louisiana, so it’s
French, so it’s authoriarian … or I’m white, so at least the police are polite … ??? … or, I’d rather the law than a band of homeless or the Klan … ???
In reality it just reminds me of my ancestor who came to the U.S. At least the police came in daylight here and did not come in.
I’ve only learned recently how different Louisiana is in terms of inheritance law even now from the rest of the United States. The father of a friend of mine died in 1975, and untangling the complexities of her inheritance is something that persisted for decades.
Vive l’ancien regime? Peut-etre non!
Historiann – yes, it’s the Napoleonic Code!
http://www.la-legal.com/modules/article/view.article.php?c8/29
http://www.slate.com/id/2126126/
This is the most detailed piece on estate planning I can find right now:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Louisiana-Estate-Planning-Under-Napoleonic-Code-Is-A-Bit-Different&id=690682
Natasha – yes, and/but I don’t like the artificial workarounds with the language – fake gender neutral pronouns and so on. I’ll go for those, maybe, once we get full equality. Until then I am occupying the male pronouns!!!