Oh hey, by the way: Carol Hanisch showed up at the blog, thrilled to death that we're still thinking about her and other women's work! woohoo! (Aside, I was reading a marxist feminist a couple of months ago, Lisa? Something? Can't recall her last name, but I think you're attributed "in a jar daddio" to her? She was on m-fem I think. Anyway, it was a good early article on developing a marxist theory of patriarchy -- which has largely been abandoned anyway. Still interesting to read.)
When I host the feminist carnival later this month, I'm going to ask feminists to write about and speak to the questions Hanisch asked. http://blog.pulpculture.org/2006/05/29/this-rocks-ii/
Here's one of the first more formal pieces on a related topic, "The prostitute as paradigmatic woman": http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/prostitute/
"The stereotype of the sexually promiscuous woman, the prostitute, makes it easy for patriarchal societies to keep us in our "place." The terror of being called "a slut" or "an easy lay" is used to bludgeon us into submission, into accepting marriage as a "wife" or "mother" as a more tolerable, less despicable form of slavery."
(Oooooo No! She said it! The same thing Gracie said and Dawson got his manties in a wad over it: marriage as a form of slavery!)
The best part is the appendix where she reproduced the rejection letters she received when she tried to get the paper published:
Dear Ms. Stanley,
Thank you for sending your paper, 'Paradigmatic woman: The prostitute.' The paper has interesting points, but I am sorry to say that it is not what we are seeking in this area. Setting aside the questionable thesis that the prostitute is a paradigm for the place of women (what about the cultural myth of the whore with a heart of gold? or the complexity of William Carlos Williams' treatment of the theme of virgin and whore in Paterson?) the problem for our ethnographic perspective is twofold. We would want to know about validation of the semantic attributes used to classify the termspreferably in contexts of useand we could not imagine that there is anywhere a single speaker or group for whom all the terms are pertinent. In addition, many questions arise about the terms. For instance, my wife, who had an English grandmother, recalls being called 'biddy' as a girl, and recently the term was suggested on television (CBS NEWS in morning) by someone as an alternative to 'senior citizen' insofar as women are concerned.
There seems to be missing any notice of ways, and terms, in which women exploit men as objects via sex. E.g., 'sugardaddy', 'john'. It is not unknown for women to define sex themselves as 'not free', and to control its disbursement as a means of maintaining power. Then again there have been some apparent exceptions in both sexes to the 'not free' = 'price' attitude. Though an alternative way of regarding the matter, would be to insist that intimacy entails obligation, rights entail responsibilities. It is not really clear how the analysis relates the demeaning economic interpretation of 'free'cheap' etc., to the interpretation in terms of personal responsibility.
I am sorry to be negative about a paper which has obviously involved much work and dedication. Right now we are deluged with papers which take up one or another facet of this general problem, but have not received anything which has the specific ethnographic focus that would be most pertinent to the particular role of the journal.
Sincerely yours, Dell Hymes, Editor Language in Society
May 13, 1975 Dear Julia,
I regret that the editorial committee did not find your article "What's in a label . . . ." suitable for publication in ETC. We recommend some man's magazine as an outlet.
All good wishes.
Sincerely,
Thomas M. Weiss, Editor ETC., A Review of General Semantics
February 20; 1974 Dear Miss Stanley,
Thank you very much indeed for the article "Paradigmatic woman: The prostitute" which you submitted for publication in LINGUISTICS a few weeks ago. Interesting and important as the subject treated undoubtedly is, I do not think your study resulted in a piece of work for which LINGUISTICS should be considered the proper outlet. I hereby want to inform you that the paper has been returned to you by separate airmail.
Thanking you for having considered Mouton, I remain, with my feelings of respect,
Sincerely yours,
Paul M. Waszink, Editor Linguistics
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