Sunday, November 19, 2006
"He's creating whole worlds over there! I bet he grows up to be an architect."
Lately I've been frequenting (lurking, actually) a feminist philosophy forum, and I have to admit, I'm addicted. There are about five or six regular posters, and after reading hundreds of posts, I've started to recognise their writing styles, get to know a bit of their personalities and backgrounds, and understand their particular (and some are rather peculiar) stances.
'A' is a staunch American feminist who paints nude potraits of people, surfs the internet for pornography for research purposes, is married to a sensitive 'non-he-man' and has children. Oh, she also loves harping, over and over and over again, the definition of 'feminist' and tends to be very emotional and reactionary. She also tends to miss the whole point of the argument. A lot.
'B' is a man in a mixed marriage with what can be deemed as very conservative views (anti-porn, anti-make-up, against 'mutton-dressed-as-lamn' behaviour, dislikes 'herd mentality'). I really do like his posts. This guy is intelligent as hell.
'C' is equally if not more so intelligent than 'B', tends to take on what most people would call a liberal position, advocating pornography (provided it is consensual) and I apologise (to him) if I get this wrong, eugenics. He has this habit of quibbling over semantics and thus quickly and easily slides into tangents.
'D' is a New Zealander mountain climber who has happens to have a view that infuriates and angers many (especially 'A', who he went into a 3 page long debate with) - he seeks to understand and de-stigmatise paedophiles. My intial reaction would have been utter, utter repugnance. But he writes with reason and logic and anyone who doesn't let his/her prejudices get in the way can appreciate, if not his position, then his empathy and compassion. 'Paedophiles are people too' - is the gist of his message. He doesn't advocate sexual abuse of children but he once had a mentor who got in trouble because of his (the mentor's) sexual attraction to children and is trying to de-construct and examine the very reactionary attitudes of society towards the notion that children are sexual beings and sometimes actively seek sexual comfort, a society that finds it acceptable to villify paedophiles. Whoa, I have to admit I wouldn't have had the guts to put forward such an argument.
'E' is a woman in her 50s or 60s and is particularly interested in the objectification of women by society, especially by the media. Her primary areas of concern (according to what I have read of her posts thus far) are in the depictions of women as sex objects in pornography and the media, women starving to fit a particular 'image', women spending huge finanacial resources attaining plastic surgery and cosmetics. etc.
Wow. I love all of them. Brilliant minds meeting in a microcosm of the real world. I sometimes feel like I'm a kid with a little ant farm, holding up a magnifying glass to examine the lives of cute little insects as they argue, debate, joke and insult (all without real malice) each other. But then, the joke's on me, surely - for they're the big giants sitting at the groaning table of intellect, while I'm one of the little ants eagerly waiting for any scraps of wisdom to drop, hoping that one day it'll rub off on me and things will start making sense.
'A' is a staunch American feminist who paints nude potraits of people, surfs the internet for pornography for research purposes, is married to a sensitive 'non-he-man' and has children. Oh, she also loves harping, over and over and over again, the definition of 'feminist' and tends to be very emotional and reactionary. She also tends to miss the whole point of the argument. A lot.
'B' is a man in a mixed marriage with what can be deemed as very conservative views (anti-porn, anti-make-up, against 'mutton-dressed-as-lamn' behaviour, dislikes 'herd mentality'). I really do like his posts. This guy is intelligent as hell.
'C' is equally if not more so intelligent than 'B', tends to take on what most people would call a liberal position, advocating pornography (provided it is consensual) and I apologise (to him) if I get this wrong, eugenics. He has this habit of quibbling over semantics and thus quickly and easily slides into tangents.
'D' is a New Zealander mountain climber who has happens to have a view that infuriates and angers many (especially 'A', who he went into a 3 page long debate with) - he seeks to understand and de-stigmatise paedophiles. My intial reaction would have been utter, utter repugnance. But he writes with reason and logic and anyone who doesn't let his/her prejudices get in the way can appreciate, if not his position, then his empathy and compassion. 'Paedophiles are people too' - is the gist of his message. He doesn't advocate sexual abuse of children but he once had a mentor who got in trouble because of his (the mentor's) sexual attraction to children and is trying to de-construct and examine the very reactionary attitudes of society towards the notion that children are sexual beings and sometimes actively seek sexual comfort, a society that finds it acceptable to villify paedophiles. Whoa, I have to admit I wouldn't have had the guts to put forward such an argument.
'E' is a woman in her 50s or 60s and is particularly interested in the objectification of women by society, especially by the media. Her primary areas of concern (according to what I have read of her posts thus far) are in the depictions of women as sex objects in pornography and the media, women starving to fit a particular 'image', women spending huge finanacial resources attaining plastic surgery and cosmetics. etc.
Wow. I love all of them. Brilliant minds meeting in a microcosm of the real world. I sometimes feel like I'm a kid with a little ant farm, holding up a magnifying glass to examine the lives of cute little insects as they argue, debate, joke and insult (all without real malice) each other. But then, the joke's on me, surely - for they're the big giants sitting at the groaning table of intellect, while I'm one of the little ants eagerly waiting for any scraps of wisdom to drop, hoping that one day it'll rub off on me and things will start making sense.
Labels: Feminism, Philosophy
# posted by me lah @ 2:12 pm 
