Know ye not that it's the day to send yer normal talk to Davy Jones locker and talk like a pirate? Drink up, me hearties! Grab some grog or a Salty Dog and a saucy wench (or be ye a saucy wench, grab yerself a Jolly Roger) and celebrate in true pirate fashion. Arrrrrrrrrrr!
I've been bored at work lately. This is a rather new phenomenon. So I have been reading blogs, surfing, etc. Here is a collection of stuff I've found, been thinking about, want to blog further about, etc. But mostly I'm using this as a dumping ground so I can come back to stuff later. (see extended)
NLP: I read an article in the Metro about NLP. It talked a bit about how practitioners are using it to pick people up in bars. And describes a bit about how they do it. But it intrigued me, and I wanted to learn more than what I was able to find in a quick search. Sounds fascinating in a way, like how people con people (i.e. palm readers or "psychics" who cold-read people). But I'm not sure I should learn more - might give me delusions of grandeur about how to use those manipulations strategies.
Race: must re-read and refer back to Meta's hapa post. The phrase that struck me that I must remember to come back to is "My point is, my ethnicity is not entirely up to me.".
Then last night, I saw about 1/2 of a show on PBS interviewing folks about what it's like to be mixed. They mentioned a couple of websites that I want to look into further: Swirl . Can't find the link now, but there was a site that had a t-shirt that says "what are you?". I think I need that shirt.
Gender: I can't think of my experience of the world (and therefore how I relate to race issues) without also thinking of what it means to be a woman. This Metro article got me thinking: maybe I should give voice to some of the stuff that has been brewing in my head.
Meta's post led me to BitchPhD, which led me to this post about misogyny in real life. There's a WHOLE minefield of stuff there to think/talk about. Mostly that I think that I'm moderately immune to misogynist behavior, as I'm so inured in a male world at work that I've forgotten to identify with my own sex until it's thrown in my face.
Here are a couple of questions I thought of while/after reading the whole misogyny thread (it's VERY long):
Am I a feminist?
If so, why? If not, is it the negative stereotyping (or perhaps that the term isn't as inclusive as I'd like) that would make me NOT identify myself that way?
What's the difference between misogyny and prejudice against women? (Is there a difference? To be fair - that was a question raised in the comments thread.)
Am I a part of the "problem" if I "condone" anti-women jokes? (There was a thing about someone getting the "psycho ex-girlfriend" site taken down - am I contributing to anti-women sentiment when I talk about other women [or sometimes myself] being a psycho-bitch?)
Or am I contributing to the "problem" by not pointing out sexism when it happens to me at work? I know why I don't do it (feeling like I won't be able to explain myself well enough to get them to realize it WAS a sexist comment/action), but is that reason enough not to bring it to light?
How is men's sense of entitlement different than women's (from the part about a man walking behind a woman at night near a train station - are we entitled to a feeling of safety in the world, simply by virtue of our gender?) What about entitlement in regards to money or property (expectations about who pays for things, who asks who out on dates, etc.)?
Safety - how would I be a different person if I didn't have to worry about my physical/mental/emotional safety when I travel? (talk about how j. pissed me off by having no COMPREHENSION that my experience would differ in any way from his, and being mad that I have a different experience than his)
Why do people feel the need to put others in "boxes" (by race, by sex, by socio-economic status, religion, etc.)? I find that I do it too, but why? What about putting someone in their "category" makes us feel better? Is it because they now fit into your pre-conceived category and you can now relate to them in some manner? Why do we make things "us vs. them"?
Here's some questions from the Metro article:
Why do "mommies" feel marginalized by "feminists", and why do I, as someone who has chosen not to have children, feel marginalized by those who do? Is it because we don't feel heard by the other side (as the other side, like us, is so invested in "proving" the worth of their position)? Is it because we feel the need to justify our position against another opinion that seems to feel that our position is invalid? Is it because we've bought into (or not) gender stereotypes?
Why is talk about sex by women such a loaded issue in the blogosphere?
Must remember to visit "blogher".