Old Feminist: Recent Comments

Comment on "Weird News" stories trivialize violence against women

VistaBay Drug rehab — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:06:50 GMT

their wives, it's that you can get arrested for squirting your wife with a hose even though you're trying to save her life, the ungrateful bitch.

Comment on Joe Stack, translated

attack_laurel — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:25:36 GMT

Brilliant. This is a perfectly worded breakdown.

shorter: "I was Wronged!"

Comment on Joe Stack, translated

oldfeminist — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:01:40 GMT

Thanks, jenjen.

Yes, it is a shame he didn't hit the ground before he hit the building. In fact, I would much prefer that he had hit the ground out in the countryside where no one was nearby.

But the level of narcissism in his personality wouldn't have allowed for that.

Comment on Joe Stack, translated

jenjen1352 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:05:26 GMT

Brilliant! What a shame he didn't hit the ground before the building.

Comment on Gifting, crafting, gender and the holidays

oldfeminist — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:28:44 GMT

Thanks MrThumbtack! Interesting observation.

I wonder how much of it is simply familiarity, and if the sex-typing is still prevalent when a person doesn't even have experience with a technique.

For example, if someone came in to the program never having done any work with fabric, is that person still more likely to take it up as their medium of expression if they are female?

I'd guess yes simply because the existing pool of role models for fabric artists is going to be largely female. There's something important about seeing someone you can identify doing a task that makes you think, I can do that, too. And, I won't be laughed at for doing it, or at least this other person withstood the laughter and is now successful.

Comment on Gifting, crafting, gender and the holidays

MrThumbtack — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:34:45 GMT

Happened to google my own username. Yeah, I'm male.

Interesting that you noticed the trend in the Skepchick comments. I certainly notice a similar trend in the Sculpture program in which I'm currently studying. Very few women make pieces using steel or wood and very few men make pieces using fabric.

Some mediums are gender neutral, like clay, glass, or foam, but others definitely have connotations. Strangely enough everyone is required to learn the same skills in our Basic Sculpture course, and use the same materials. Once there are no longer material requirements though, women and men tend to use the materials with which they feel comfortable.

Comment on Gifting, crafting, gender and the holidays

Rachel_in_WY — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:30:38 GMT

I know a lady who taught her grandson how to knit, and his parents were sort of worried about how appropriate it was when he decided to knit a scarf for all his cousins for Christmas. As if somehow knitting, or publicly acknowledging that he knits, is going to damage his developing masculinity or something...

Comment on Fixed that for you

oldfeminist — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:07:09 GMT

Jim Bob, your interpretation is distinctly in the minority.

The discussion in the blogosphere seems to indicate that most guys think that, while the girl might not be typing something about the guy, that she's possibly very open to talking with him, but he's self-censored himself from talking to her, thus doing a disservice to both of these lonely people.

Which is in fact nothing like what most women think of the guy who looks like he might want to talk with them when they're using their laptops, reading a book, or just sitting waiting for their stop on public transportation.

Comment on The Supreme Court and nakedness in gym class

Kall — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:57:09 GMT

She was strip searched by the school administrators? I have to problems here: the strip search that steps over her legal rights as a free person and the school administrators that don't have the right authorization to do this search... It's outrageous. Please keep us posted on how the trial is going. If that girl ever wants to file a motion for leave to file cross-complaint I would gladly help.

Comment on Fixed that for you

Jim Bob — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:38:02 GMT

Way to not get the joke! We KNOW that she's probably actually typing something unrelated. That's where this "funny" thing comes from. But no, keep acting superior... and the rest of us will keep thinking you are just a moron.