Yes, they (we) tend to be just as Doug describes, though I'm sure other folks have quietly expressed shock and horror. Alas, I'm with Doug and others on honest obits. It disgusted the hell outta me, personally, when the feminist blogosphere did nothing but rabbit on about Friedan, as if she were some goddess to feminism -- as if feminism were a monolith, as if the Womens' Liberation Movement (as opposed to Women's rights movement), and as if Friedan weren't a heterosexist, elitist feminist mostly interested in ensuring that her kinda women got their's (at least when The Feminist Mystique came out) and the rest of us could go fuck ourselves.
It has nothing to do with their being men because I'm a woman and I admire Ellen Willis, but I'm not the least bit worried about derogatory comments around the time of her death. Down with pedastals; up with clay feet!
Christallfuckinmighty on a broken pogo stick. If I have to read one more comment about how it's about their maleness, I'm going to have a little Bitch Rage right here and damn Doug's posting limit.
As an aside, Doug, Michale Berube was watching the feminist wars in BlogLandia recently, and noted that it was like we were fighting the wars of the 80s and 90s all over again. Some of this nonsense from what is more accurately called "cultural feminism" is just freakin' all the rage out there. And it shocked him a bit to think that any of it still existed.
It's what is called 'cultural essentialism' where feminists will insist that it isn't innate or natural, just so embedded in the male psyche from the power of gendered oppression that it might as well be natural/innate.
Note of course that radical feminists don't like the apellation 'cultural feminists', which was largely promulgated by Alice Echols' in Daring to Be Bad. Echols wrote a classic, criticizing the 'cultural turn' in radical feminism. And the radical feminists followed up with the vile, big read book that tore a hole through my wall, Radically Speaking. They have an axe to grind with Echols and anyone else who dared criticize. Echols, however, is right on in my book.
She has a piece in there too about sex-negative feminism that's worthy of scanning and posting someday. *sigh* When I get time. I already have a feeling that I won't be able to keep up with LBO and will have to go no-mail again. Can't deal with the distraction.
At 05:32 PM 11/9/2006, Jesse Lemisch wrote:
>This seems fairly straightforward: a case of males expressing rage that
>somebody should criticize the rapid negative response to the death of a
>leading feminist. It is, quite simply, rage by males on a gender issue. We
>all believe in telling the truth, but I assure you I wouldn't impose my
>disagreements with Todd Gitlin, for instance, on the day of his death. And I
>assume that most people on this list wouldn't either. And I would certainly
>not express over-the-top rage if somebody else thought such expressions a
>little improper. I know that the enraged will interpret this, say, 24 hour
>hiatus as a surrender of critical faculties, but try it with whatever other
>litmus you choose. The response here has been positively shameful.
>
>Jesse Lemisch
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Michael J. Smith" <mjs at smithbowen.net>
>To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 4:23 PM
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Ellen Willis dies
>
>
> > On Thursday 09 November 2006 15:42, Jesse Lemisch wrote:
> >
> > > More male rage.
> >
> > This is a phrase I've heard used before, and I've always found
> > it a little puzzling. Is the implication that rage is an exclusively
> > male vice or prerogative -- that women don't rage? I have seen
> > a counterexample or two, in my time. Or does it mean that
> > male and female rage are different in kind, somehow? If
> > so, how?
> >
> > --
> >
> > Michael J. Smith
> > mjs at smithbowen.net
> >
> > http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
"You know how it is, come for the animal porn, stay for the cultural analysis." -- Michael Berube
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