MetaChat - So it's International Women's Day,

They can also go without brasseires.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 10:22

*sticks little foot in Capn's butt*

just kidding, Capn - I wouldn't do that! These are new shoes.

posted by taz 08 March | 10:22

Go Team Penis!

posted by mike9322 08 March | 10:25

I don't watch much TV, but it seems like everytime I turn it on lately the L Word is on. I think I've seen all the episodes this season so far. I think the L stands for ladies.

posted by mullacc 08 March | 10:26

Actually, it stands for 'labor.' Apparently, they're all pregnant, poor things.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 10:29

International Womens' Day rocks! It's the socialist womens' rights holiday so I've celebrated it in lots of goofy ways - with videos, costume parties, weird sloganey meetings with bad coffee, and more. The wikipedia article goes into its labour history origins pretty well.

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 10:31

socialist womens'

socialist chicks? They're the ones who give to all according to need right?

(yes, we're all very bad boys, and we're headed straight for socialist hell, but we just can't help ourselves)

posted by jonmc 08 March | 10:33

"have your girl call my girl"
/kidding, kidding

It is a good holiday--we totally need more visible reminders of fighting around anyway, esp with this crowd in power.

posted by amberglow 08 March | 10:38

Woo hoo! I'm not sure how to celebrate. I think I'm going to glitter up my cooter.

posted by jrossi4r 08 March | 10:39

Heh. cooter.

posted by sciurus 08 March | 10:41

I think I'm going to glitter up my cooter.

That is a really, really funny sentence.

posted by richat 08 March | 10:46

COOTER COOTER COOTER

posted by deborah 08 March | 10:52

hehehe jonmc... it's always the righty boys that were chasing us, it's pretty amusing to get into a political argument with some fresh-faced preppy guy at university while leafletting for something and then have him try to pick you up.

I will celebrate I.W.D. by hearing a boring speech about it at the regular Boring Meeting, and then having a few pints!

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 10:52

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Capn 08 March | 10:58

hehehe jonmc... it's always the righty boys that were chasing us

well, opposites attracting and all that, and I do remember this cartoon where a woman says goodnight to man on a date - "Ralph, it was nice to meet someone so sensitive, so vulnerable, so aware. Too bad you're such a wimp."

But another reason we men are drawn to lefty girls is as Dennis Miller (in his pre-Bush toady days) put it "It is every man's dream to take the most beautiful, intelligent, independent women and reduce them to drooling monosyllabic sex-beastesses. We want Madame Curie to look up at us and say 'wear the purple rubber, lover.'

(no law that being pro-feminist and being a total cooter-hound can't mix, or at least it's my mission in life to prove it so)

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:00

Indeed, it certainly can mix, jonmc. I've had plenty of, hm.... liberated fun!

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 11:07

Nothing makes me happier than a woman who refers to it as her 'cooter'.

posted by mike9322 08 March | 11:10

yes it can, but can stupid (yet harmless) guy stuff like football, cock rock, and movies where shit blows up a lot, and strippers mix with feminism? I think so. and I think we'd have more pro-feminist men if the rest of the world knew that being pro-female dosen't mean you have to completely forsake mookishness.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:11

Wouldn't Madame Curie like glow-in-the-dark ones better?

posted by nonane 08 March | 11:14

oh yeah. scientist chicks, man. they know all the tricks.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:15

I, for one, love cock rock.

being pro-female dosen't mean you have to completely forsake mookishness.

True. And some of that stuff is endearing. Or at least it comes with the territory, and when it's territory you want to be in, it's OK.

posted by Miko 08 March | 11:16

cool.

*swills beer in boxer shorts, scratches ass, cranks up Grand Funk Railroad, farts*

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:18

As I make people do all the time on Metafilter:

Write this on the chalkboard: Identity politics is the enemy of all true progressives.

I like explodey movies, and football (not the American type tho) as well. Although my other half supports very Politically Incorrect sides.

Feminism is about the rights of women, not about irrelevant cultural bullshit.

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 11:24

Good point, btggog.

The other point I like to make about feminism is that it's about total freedom of choice. Feminists advocate for the least limitations on available choices for both genders.

I don't mind using the word "Feminism," at all, but I've started to notice a few people replacing "feminist" with the term "anti-sexist." That's something I kind of like and may adopt. For me, the ideals of feminism should be applied to both genders. I'd like to see an emphasis on common humanity, human rights, and maxiumum freedom for both genders. I feel more strongly about this the more I discover the ways in which our culture is limiting/inhibiting for men as well as women. Why throw over just half of our stupid gender-role system? The whole thing could use a revamp.

posted by Miko 08 March | 11:29

Feminism is about the rights of women, not about irrelevant cultural bullshit.

A-fucking-men. Same goes for all of progressive politics quite frankly. It always makes me angry when some self-proclaimed 'progressive' starts prattling on about NASCAR, or Creed, or Twinkies* or some other BS as if it were symbolic of something. It makes me believe that their politics are skin-deep and that their issues are more aesthetic than political.

* all three of which I enjoy on occasion. Also, the type of people usually derided by 'progressives' (rednecks, urban meatheads, etc) are the exact people we need on our side, since once they've decided they like you, those people are the fiercest, most loyal fuckers on the planet. and quite frankly their more fun to hang with than the average diFranco listening granola muncher

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:31

This is the sound of me agreeing with you, jonmc:

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Although there is a fine line between not getting caught up in aesthetic identity politics and pandering to people in a stupid populist 'workerist' manner. Progressive politics in that context is, at best, a patient and very communicative attempt to debunk these stupid caste-based notions such as racism and sexism as Not Being In Your Own Interest.

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 11:34

Excuse me... this was supposed to me a *joke* thread about IWD, take it to Metafilter you three.

Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: That's not funny!

posted by Capn 08 March | 11:37

Although there is a fine line between not getting caught up in aesthetic identity politics and pandering to people in a stupid populist 'workerist' manner.

Oh agreed. One, they tend to do it wrong (as Tom Wolfe hilariously illustrates in 'Radical Chic.') and two, it's just condescending. I just think it's a bad idea to give people a hard time about aesthetic issues, and that (I proposed this to a guy I know who is so lefty he makes most of us look like republican bankers) that lefty musicians should stop with the bad pseudo-folky and hardcore stuff and start writing pop-country and hard rock if they want to reach their intenmded audience.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:41

Ok Capn, here's one:

A professor told dirty jokes in class and the women wanted to protest it. So they decided that in the next time that the professor will start with these kind of jokes they all will leave the class as a protest.

Somehow the professor heard about the plan.

In the next lecture, in the beginning of the lecture he said: "In Sweden a prostitute makes $2000 per night."

All the women stood up and started to leave the class. So he shouted after them: "Where are you going? The plane to Sweden doesn't take off until the day after tomorrow."

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 11:42

and jonmc, there's lots of rap and hiphop with progressive themes (and i don't mean the college type stuff) that gets to its intended audience.

On a related note, did you see the Palestinian earworm I posted the other day?

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 11:46

and jonmc, there's lots of rap and hiphop with progressive themes (and i don't mean the college type stuff) that gets to its intended audience.

This is true. Primarily because the rap artists realize, as Chuck D put it, "This is music, too. and if I'm gonna reach people, I better come up with some smackin' jams." and they realize the value of comic relief and the occasional just plain fun song.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 11:48

Thanks, miko: I'm adopting "anti-sexist." I've never been very comfortable with the term "feminist" for the reasons you describe. "Anti-sexist" feels just right.

posted by taz 08 March | 12:32

yeh, it goes with anti-racist! aaah, lexical symmetry...

posted by By the Grace of God 08 March | 13:04

I'm anti-everything myself.

I use this as my theme song:

Well I'm against it I'm against it
I'm against it I'm against it

I don't like politics I don't like communists
I don't like games and fun I don't like anyone
Well I'm against it I'm against it

I don't like Jesus freaks I don't like circus geeks
I don't like summer and spring I don't like anything
I don't like sex and drugs I don't like waterbugs
I don't care about poverty All I care about is me
I'm against it I'm against it
I'm against it I'm against it

I don't like playing ping pong I don't like the Viet Cong
I don't like Burger King I don't like anything
AnI'm against it I'm against it
Well I'm against it I'm against it

(thanks to Joey & the bros)

posted by jonmc 08 March | 13:15

that lefty musicians should stop with the bad pseudo-folky and hardcore stuff and start writing pop-country and hard rock if they want to reach their intenmded audience.

All artists everywhere should stop thinking that preachy one-dimensional work can possibly have any kind of effect on anything or anyone (it can apparently win you an Oscar)

posted by drjimmy11 08 March | 13:40

"(although it can apparently win you an Oscar)"

posted by drjimmy11 08 March | 13:41

This was (is?) my wedding anniversary. We were very aware of it—in fact, right after we were wed (by a JP) we went to a big IWD fair at the university.

posted by kmellis 08 March | 13:45

Does anyone else keep misreading IWD as IUD?

posted by mudpuppie 08 March | 14:42

I'm still proud to call myself a feminist, for what it's worth. "Anti-sexist" just doesn't cover it all for me, and neither do definitions of feminism that are kind of reductive to individual libertarianism.

On the other hand, just to give my son a metachat cameo, when we were watching the Oscars, his girlfriend said rhetorically "How come all the men are clothed and the women half-naked?" and he said, "Now we see the sexism inherent in the system."

My kid rocks.

posted by jokeefe 08 March | 16:03

jokeefe, you've inspired me. I'll be happy to go half-naked ofr the duration.

*pumps fist in air for equality*

posted by jonmc 08 March | 16:16

Actually, it stands for 'labor.' Apparently, they're all pregnant, poor things.
And barefoot, I hope?

At work I reside in what is known as the "Boys' Pod" because it is the only one that is both fully occupied and single-sex. We took a vote and decided to formally refuse to recognise International Womens' Day on the grounds that we believe every day is Womens' Day. When I communicated this to my (female) boss, she accepted our decision, because her husband has the same approach, being "if the Queen of the house is happy, I'm happy".

So there.

posted by dg 08 March | 23:19

08 March 2006