Intermission

Intermission

Happy (belated) International Women’s Day!


Discussion (4)¬

  1. Ilmari says:

    Fair enough, I support this. I have a real problem with ideological (grand theory) feminism, given it’s division of the world according to gender and its bizarre belief in the superority of the female half, but on a practical level it’s a worthy and necessary cause.

    In related new, El Presidente Chavez (self-described Feminist, though that might not mean much…) has attended the woman’s day rally in Caracas this year, and Venezuela’s parliament have been discussing with the issue of legalising abortion, which would be risky (given that the one weak link in Chavez’ support base is the predisposition towards conservative catholicism among many of the poor) but an eminently commendable move.

    looking forward to more comic…

    -Aidan.

  2. Tinet says:

    I don’t know what the hell that “ideological (grand theory) feminism” is supposed to be. Sounds like it has nothing at all to do with Feminism as I know it … ;o)

    It would be wonderful if they legalized abortion in Venezuela. In my lovely home country Germany abortion is still illegal in theory, though in practice it’s possible to get one even outside the conditions lined out in the law.

  3. Ilmari says:

    ‘grand theories’, in political science (guess what I study…) are ideologies that tend to take a division in the human race and hold all (or almost all) of society, politics, history etc to be defined by the interactions between the few groups. In Marxism, for an easy example, the division is socio-economic class. In liberalism, its between freedom and authoritarianism. In Feminism as a grand theory, the division is sex/gender and everything boils down to that difference. Usually, adherents blame an ‘agressive male nature” for dischord in society, war, etc.

    This has never been a widely held political belief and nowadays is all the rarer as grand theories as a whole have lost favour in mainstream political thought (Though I know at least one person who still veers that way). Nevertheless, whenever I hear someone ratting on about negative male tendencies, I grit my teeth and grumble.

    Thankfully, true feminism is – and has generally always been – about achieving equal rights for women in society, and as a progressive socialist man I wholehearedly support that.

    Hope that clears things up.

    -Aidan.

    PS. Thanks for the link to the Finnish internationale from in the other post. My Finnish ancestry is mixed in with a few others, but it’s a heritage that has grown on me recently. At least some of my Finnish ancestors were Reds, so knowing their internationale is a must!

  4. Tinet says:

    Ah, I see. Well, I don’t think “grand theories” are very accurate or useful when trying to understand the world, so I think “grand theory” feminism is a bit irrelevant. Anyway, men are just as much “victims” to traditional gender roles as women are.

    Here is another favourite Finnish song – The March of the Red Guard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNMs762xcX0 (but never mind the slideshow :o)
    The authors are unknown, but it was written some time before the Finnish civil war, and was originally about the October revolution in Russia. Then it became one of the most popular red songs during the civil war, with slight changes to the lyrics (from “The great people of the East are breaking their chains” to “The little people of Finland” or, in a different version, “The poor people of Finland”).