Thursday, December 28, 2006
Going Bananas Over Apples and Oranges
Not the best McSweeney’s list ever, but there’s a great analogy involving the Misfits and Glenn Danzig’s solo career.
It turns out I’m not demoralized and confounded after finishing Laura Kipnis’ newest work “The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability” as I expected I might be. She’s got a gift for mapping and discussing unwieldy personal and social phenomenon (feminism and gender equality) in such a lucid, yet not totally dispassionate way, that I find myself talking about it to the all-male group of flash developers I sometimes eat lunch with, and actually enjoy the questions and conversation. That’s saying something.
Bookslut speaks wise in the ways of science (and the Kipnis Awesomeness in general) and points out how some reviews are so dead wrong that I’m not sure if they read the same book we did, or what issues they’re bringing to the table. I’m lousy with issues, but manage to read a book without developing medical student’s disease, or projecting generalizations. Kipnis doesn’t make any, she discusses contradiction and points out holes (there’s a vagina joke in there somewhere) in existing postulates, using philosophers, social leaders, humor and statistics to structure her ideas.
I’m not saying she’s the Jesus of feminism, but I’m happy to let her tear down the temple and tell stone-throwers to chill while we figure out how to rebuild it.
The geek in me loves the appendix and bibliography for follow-up research to round out my historical knowledge and highbrow Didion reading. Otherwise, I’ve already found myself dealing with discomfort the way I normally do, with self-deprecating humor and mockellectual ball-busting about doing the dishes in exchange for a bad-ass new cuisinart.
Soooo, how bout that female condition? And how do you solve a problem like Maria?
If you’re not already split and befuddled, read My Life as Man, or at least the Salon review. What happens when you sense that males and females are two entirely different species, and feel that you are neither? Does that make you nonhuman? It apparently makes you loose your mind. This book sounds difficult and beautiful, while this article made me feel warmer towards my guy’s poker night.
Men, women, society, the media, even The Man, it seems, aren’t exactly to blame for our individual pain and dissatisfied longing. It is only us, and I guess that’s the human condition. If you can’t beat the damned humans, join them. And as you seek to join them, write really, really funny personal ads about your desires and foibles like in the London Book Review. My friend Maria married a British guy, maybe that’s how she solved her problem. (and she hates that song, sorry Maria!)
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