Not sure what to make of this. Has anybody else noticed anything like this?
Micah
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Liza Featherstone wrote:
> as for the hair-shirt thread, I completely agree that the left has a big problem
> with fun -- food, buying stuff, sex, movies, parties, clothes, making things look
> nice, whatever. I liked the BE piece. I also think, happily, this whole
> puritanical ethos is dying out and that the left is gradually (very gradually)
> loosening up a bit and developing more helpful analyses of pleasure and um,
> having a little more fun. I attribute this to a couple of things: changes in
> feminism (the "pro-sex" folks basically won the very bitter sex wars over
> pornography and other stuff, and in general feminism has become a lot more
> culturally diverse which has helped it to shed much or mostof its anti-sex and
> mandatory bad dressing baggage); cultural studies in academia -- much
> theorizing about the pleasures of pop culture, etc; more perpsectives from cultures
> which unlike Anglo-Americans, don't necessarily equate deprivation and
> sacrifice with virtue. tho of course the hair-shirt thing still exists -- just look at
> all the hardcore vegetarians and vegans that still populate campus progressive
> circles ( which has often seemed to me like middle-class girl food anxiety
> masquerading as politics).
>
> one thing I thought was odd about the BE piece was the notion that the right is
> better on fun. doesn't everyone think the party's elsewhere? I think one of the
> things the right hate even about right-wing liberals like Clinton is that they
> seem to have too much fun. I mean, sure the Christian right can throw a good
> revival meeting, but in terms of what they actually believe about fun (sex for
> instance), you couldn't ask for a colder shower. the anti-fun sentiment on the left
> is at least contested, ambiguous, and a matter usually more of innuendo and
> implication than Biblical text.
>
> Liza
>