Academic

?The latest false woman-dividing dichotomy?

By Ann Bartow

Thought provoking essay by this title here, at Screaming Into the Void. Below is a short excerpt:

… Women who succeed in sticking to the good girl definitions of the earlier parts of the 1900s by repressing their sinful sexual desires, waiting till marriage, never straying, never saying naughty things, being appropriately shocked when hearing naughty things said, keeping a spotlessly clean house, not getting a job and devoting their lives to their children in the end were mocked for being frigid, ignorant, fearful, intolerant, religiously fundamentalist, obsessive compulsive to the point of having given their children ?complexes?, cold-hearted, domineering, and are used as the symbol of repressiveness that must be overthrown to enable the young (men) to properly express themselves. ?Blue haired old ladies? and ?Church ladies? are somehow reframed as the primary agents of anti-free speech oppression and the creators of all onerous and ridiculous laws, despite their lack of political or religious representation - old dried up bitches who never had an orgasm and do nothing but complain and ruin everything for everyone else. When competing under men?s terms, women always lose. Even when you win, you lose. …

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on December 24, 2008 (boomark / email).