[lit-ideas] Re: The Fully Feminine?
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:31:49 +0000
Saturday, March 19, 2005, 7:58:17 PM, Eric Yost wrote:
EY> I don't understand the impulse to idealize women as nurturing
EY> benevolence incarnate. It feels as if one loopy pedestal is being
EY> exchanged for another.
The "why" is interesting, yes. When it's a political claim (when it's
employed by a suffrage movement or by a campaign for women police
officers -- e.g., but I chose them because I know about them!) then
it's an option used against opponents who argue women shouldn't get
the vote (be police officers) because they (we) are not men's equals,
i.e. are different from men. Anne Phillips has said this tactical use of
difference, by women and others, comes into play because the moral
argument from equality has, time after time, failed. (I think I have
the reference for that fairly near the computer; but it's either
bedtime or TV-time, so, I won't look for it now!). Jean Elshtain's
early piece on the suffrage argument from difference showed how the
argument was turned back on women, turned against them (not by
invoking the other side you mention), John ?'s work on the campaign
for women police officers shows one possible effect of such a campaign
even when it succeeds.
But the writers I've mentioned aren't using it that way. And Mirembe's
beliefs have -- I think I'm right -- to do with motherhood, rather
than with "women". And much as I hate to admit it, there is clear
evidence that (as things are now) a greater percentage of women than men
stand for peace. The Bush victory is only an apparent blip in the history of
the US's gender gap (obvious since 1960, and, I would argue, existent
then too) and it appears that concern about terrorism swayed certain
groups of women to Bush.
I can get even more boring than this, Eric -- so watch out!
Does this answer your question? No -- I don't think it does. But
perhaps it goes some little way towards a partial answer
Judy
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mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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