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Feminism vs Femininity-Book Review "The Female Thing:Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability" by Laura Kipnis
Salon.com ^ | Oct. 18, 2006 | Laura Miller

Posted on 10/23/2006 12:34:03 PM PDT by klossg

Feminism has collided with "an unanticipated opponent: the inner woman." The book centers on the most stubborn aspects of the inner woman, the impulses and irrational passions that rise up and swamp us despite our efforts to stick to the designated feminist path.

Kipnis wrestles with Dworkin's writings. "Dworkin didn't read the culture wrong: it's true that all the idioms for penetration: 'getting f__ked', 'screwed over' are about humiliation and exploitation. Which does make it hard to see how anyone can avoid a certain duality about it, even when it's pleasurable

Kipnis reads a passage from Pearson's "I Don't Know How She Does It," in which the heroine, an account executive, cleans the kitchen at 2AM after returning from a business trip. Kipnis wonders why many women pursue a standard of cleanliness that no one else considers essential. "How is it that women have managed to over throw the shackles of chastity, more easily than bondage to the vacuum cleaner?" She suspects that at the root of this preoccupation lies the buried, primitive association of women's bodies and menstruation, with dirt. "If women didn't have vaginas," Kipnis asks, "would we take fewer bubble baths and simply not do more than 50% of the housework?"

Kipnis defines femininity as "a way of securing resources and positioning women as advantageously as possible on an uneven playing field, given the historical inequalities and anatomical disparities of the female condition" -- seeks to ameliorate all these disadvantages by "doing what it took to form alliances with men." But that means that femininity "hinges on sustaining an underlying sense of female inadequacy," which puts it in opposition to the goals of feminism. No wonder we feel a little uneasy when the possessor of a boob job proclaims, "I did it for myself."

(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: femininity; feminism; gender; sexuality
Save us all! Men and women don't need more books to separate us. Magazines do that already ... Cosmopolatin, Maxim, Glamour and Playboy.

When will feminism stand beside and try to build up marriage? Never? I thought so. It should at least try to build up the individual woman, not turn her in a knotted mess. Or has that been the whole point all along. One woman gets tied up in knots and wants to share her misery. Destructive? Is she paid by men to do this? Is the idea to make a woman feel inadequet in her own skin?

1 posted on 10/23/2006 12:34:04 PM PDT by klossg
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To: klossg
"If women didn't have vaginas," Kipnis asks, "would we take fewer bubble baths and simply not do more than 50% of the housework?"

Quite possibly the most idiotic sentence I've ever read.

2 posted on 10/23/2006 12:58:21 PM PDT by Millee (Tagline free since 10/20/06)
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To: Millee
The problem with Male Chauvinist Pigs is that they objectify women and see them only as body parts. Body parts they like.

The problem with Feminists is that they objectify women and see them only as body parts. Body parts they don't like.

3 posted on 10/23/2006 1:09:18 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: sauropod

review


4 posted on 10/23/2006 1:09:53 PM PDT by sauropod ("Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow." - Ben Franklin)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Excellent analysis!


5 posted on 10/23/2006 1:32:33 PM PDT by Pyro7480 ("Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world." - Pope Blessed Pius IX)
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To: Millee

LOL! I think you have to spend a lot of years in college to get this dumb.

Women have vastly more sensitive noses than men, and more detail-oriented vision. I think we clean more because we *notice* that things are messy, dirty, and smelly!


6 posted on 10/23/2006 1:47:23 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("If we have no fear, Pentecost comes again." ~ Bishop William Curlin)
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To: klossg

I hate to say it, but if that small a percent of women have orgasms, then from my understanding, they aren't letting go, trusting and loving enough to have one with their partner (assuming he is at all caring and helpful in the encounter).

Cheapening sex by having it with all sorts of people doesn't help women. How can you let yourself fully go to experience the fullness of your love for your man (to have the climax/orgasm) if you don't know if he loves you, will be with you long, or has had more fun with other women than you?

Feminism has helped destroy most aspects of women's ability to have the orgasms they now lament not being able to achieve.


7 posted on 10/23/2006 1:57:13 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: ConservativeMind
Better to read Female Chauvenist Pigs by Ariel Levy, a most brilliant and interesting author!
8 posted on 10/23/2006 2:05:04 PM PDT by desertlily
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To: Tax-chick

Hey! I "notice" that things are dirty, messy, and smelly. I just have a better denial mechanism than most women.


9 posted on 10/23/2006 2:21:54 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Face it, every empire comes to an end, and ours is on the down hill slope.)
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To: Millee

I don't do 50% of the housework.....
never have.....

Just leave that 50% alone and it never goes away.....

see, no brainer.


10 posted on 10/23/2006 2:24:37 PM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: Tax-chick

Speak for yourself.....

Some of us,
erm.....
Don't ah....see dirt the same way (much less smell, but that's another story).

we just can....

OK, so I can plant petunias in the living room.


11 posted on 10/23/2006 2:26:03 PM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: ConservativeMind

Good post.


12 posted on 10/23/2006 2:28:24 PM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: ichabod1; najida

Okay, so much for generalizations!

However, the sense perception differences (in general, of course) are verified.


13 posted on 10/23/2006 2:40:52 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("If we have no fear, Pentecost comes again." ~ Bishop William Curlin)
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To: Millee

I agree with feminists every thing has to do with their vaginas. Kinda like they accuse men of thinking with their little head. Feminists think with their major hole. They just have a horrible time deciding what to fill it with or to fill it at all.


14 posted on 10/23/2006 8:40:03 PM PDT by therut
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To: ClearCase_guy

Ultimately with both sets it's an unwinnable situation.TO heck with 'em both.


15 posted on 11/28/2006 10:34:09 PM PST by Niuhuru
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