I don't wanna!

I don't want to study! I don't want to write any papers! I don't want to answer study questions! I don't even want to read my textbooks! Despite my dislike, I've been doing just that all day. I've written a short paper, read another 100 pages in a book, read some articles for another class, and I still have lots to do still. I have some journal articles I have to write for my political theory class. I need to find another Iran article for my crossing boundaries class. I need to write out answers to my study guide for that class. I have three chapters to read for my international economics class. I also have another chapter to read for my child development class. Ick!

I've got to admit though, one of the articles I read really got me thinking. My Crossing Boundaries class is about feminism and modernization. I read an article by Ursula LeGuin about language. She explains that there is a father tongue that is used by men and by official society. It is a language designed to show superiority and to argue and to state the facts. She says that society puts too much weight on this and not enough on the mother tongue. This is the language of experience, of sharing, of friendship. She says that guys don't do this. It was quite interesting really. I have a few quotes and my opinions on them to share as well.

Keeping house is not considered work by the American culture. "Do you work? - and she, having stopped mopping the kitchen and picked up the baby to come answer the door, says, No, I don't work." Argh! How can that not be considered work? If she did not stay home and do that, then someone else would have to be paid. This whole industry of child caring, home keeping, and cooking is invisible labor. It has no value in today's society. But today's society is designed on past societies. This means it is a man's world. "Most men are prevented form housework by intense cultural bias; many women actually hire another woman to do it for them because they're scared of getting trapped in it, ending up like the women they hire." Whenever I read things like that, I'm happier and happier that I have David and not some American guy. Granted I think this was written quite awhile ago, but you can still see it today.

"Freud famously said, "What we shall never know is what a woman wants," Having paused thoughtfully over the syntax of that sentence, in which WE are plural but "a woman" apparently has no plural, no individuality - as we might read that a cow must be milked twice a day or a gerbil is a nine pet - WE might go on then to consider whether WE know anything about, whether WE have ever noticed, whether WE have ever asked a woman what she does - what women do." I can't say much about that quote, but that it made me think.

"The failed woman - the old maid, the barren woman, the castrating bitch, the frigid wife, the lezzie, the libber, the Unfeminine." This puts into words in a way that women fear this. If they aren't a happy family, does that make them a failure? I sometimes think society does think this way.

I see in this course though an image of feminism as man hating. The article stressed how men should not be trusted. I wonder if there is feminism out there that doesn't involve women acting like men. Women can still be women and get equal pay and equal rights. But that does not excuse anyone, man or woman, of slamming doors in other people's faces. It does not excuse being kind to others. Any woman who takes it as an insult if a man helps her open a door, change a tired, or collect dropped items should be dropped on her head!