Over at Buzz, Balls, and Hype, M.J. Rose has a deliciously feisty post about empowering women to write. She points out how we are conditioned to see ourselves in service to men:
Women are expected to think of ourselves, and to package ourselves, as those “things”–as consumer objects. There is a narrow range of approved body shapes, hair colors, conversational styles, and even vocational and recreational interests that are considered “attractive” or “acceptable,” and if we don’t fit the mold, we’re expected to change. We’re encouraged to dye our hair, deprive ourseles of food when we’re hungry, paint a more pleasing face over our natural faces, and, if we are seen as structurally deficient, to undergo painful and dangerous surgery. When we age, we’re supposed to fix that, too.
Meanwhile, allow me to say thank you to Matthew R. Williams, director of the Kearney (Neb.) Public Library, who over in the New York Times Book Review has a letter taking Tina Brown to task for a snide aside in her review of “Uncommon Arrangements”:
Tina Brown, in her review… says that today “members of the British aristocracy have to be as bourgeois as small-town librarians.” Brown may know a lot about aristocrats, but she doesn’t know the first thing about librarians.
I still don’t quite know what a “w00t” is, but I’m guessing they both deserve one.
Posted on this day, other years:
- My dogma and my car-ma - 2008
This blog link was excellent. THanks 🙂