Monday, 30 December 2013
Camille Paglia - still not pulling any punches
I've always had time for Camille Paglia despite disagreeing with her on a number of issues and Bari Weiss' interview with her in the Wall Street Journal confirms my opinion. She may be nuts and occasionally contradictory but in the main her views on men, women and feminism are spot on.
Basically she doesn't say anything that a normal person doesn't know instinctively to be true. Men and women are different. Education is being feminised. Women who dress publicly in a sexually provocative way are not taking care of their own safety. Feminism has impugned the legitimate choice that many women would prefer, i.e. to stay at home with their own kids. Abortion shouldn't be the central issue for feminists.
Camille argues that feminism should go back to basics. Offering equal opportunity to women and the freedom to take those opportunities or not. The fights we should be having are about rapes on Indian buses; honour killings and female genital mutilation.
All absolutely true however these are hard fights to have for they fly in the face of the current view that all cultures are equal. It is difficult to come out and say honour killings are evil, dishonourable and wrong and any culture that condones such a thing is backward and evil. Guess that's why the feminist establishment have been so deafeningly silent on these issues. Much easier to cry "Mysogynist!" when a man wears a blue tie or looks at his watch or has a family or something.
Basically she doesn't say anything that a normal person doesn't know instinctively to be true. Men and women are different. Education is being feminised. Women who dress publicly in a sexually provocative way are not taking care of their own safety. Feminism has impugned the legitimate choice that many women would prefer, i.e. to stay at home with their own kids. Abortion shouldn't be the central issue for feminists.
Camille argues that feminism should go back to basics. Offering equal opportunity to women and the freedom to take those opportunities or not. The fights we should be having are about rapes on Indian buses; honour killings and female genital mutilation.
All absolutely true however these are hard fights to have for they fly in the face of the current view that all cultures are equal. It is difficult to come out and say honour killings are evil, dishonourable and wrong and any culture that condones such a thing is backward and evil. Guess that's why the feminist establishment have been so deafeningly silent on these issues. Much easier to cry "Mysogynist!" when a man wears a blue tie or looks at his watch or has a family or something.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Deep Fried Turkey?
Never heard of deep fried turkey before last week. Sure you'd expect the American's would deep fry bits, KFC style but the whole bird? Wow! Anyhoo last week the redoubtable Prick with a fork was frying up turkeys for Thanksgiving and then there I am reading the Speccie when out jumps Tim Hayward's Food DIY: How to Make your own Everything (Penguin Fig Tree) and the standout dish? A turkey deep-fried in a large tank of oil. Oil is in. Vegan's out.
Update: In other turkey news it's the 10th anniversary of the Bush plastic turkey.
Update: In other turkey news it's the 10th anniversary of the Bush plastic turkey.
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Mourning
We are always romanticising that which was lost. Back when we began to farm after being hunter-gatherers for so long we longed for the life of the nomad. It was longer and healthier and more certain than that of the first farmers. They keenly felt the joy of mere survival. Yet the life of the farmer was so much more productive and our larger populations cannot be fed except through technology and specialization. The price we pay is the removal of that immediacy of life that we often only now feel when close to death or close to birth, (an advantage of being a woman?) There is however no turning back and we must sleep in this bed that we have made.
This seems to mean that we grow ever softer. My son cries when I would have been too embarrassed to cry. A grown man is shattered when a teenager calls him an ape. We have been molly coddled by comfort and are ill-equipped when the hardships arrive, as has been noted in Europe. Although the cultures have clashed, the streets have not run with blood because one side has already surrendered.
This seems to mean that we grow ever softer. My son cries when I would have been too embarrassed to cry. A grown man is shattered when a teenager calls him an ape. We have been molly coddled by comfort and are ill-equipped when the hardships arrive, as has been noted in Europe. Although the cultures have clashed, the streets have not run with blood because one side has already surrendered.
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Winning the Campaign
During the WA election coverage last night several pundits proclaimed that Mark McGowan had won the campaign but had lost the election.
What the?
Isn't the test of winning an election campaign, winning the actual election, or at least the popular vote? So I could grant Kim Beazley the title of winning the campaign in 1998 even though he lost the election. He gained a significant swing and won the popular vote. Then again I could say that John Howard won that campaign also in that he managed to win the election despite losing the popular vote by campaigning effectively in the seats that mattered.
In the case of yesterday's election however, neither of these situations apply. The coalition won the popular vote; the coalition won the majority of seats and the swing was to the coalition. The coalition won the campaign and the election.
All we can really say about the Labor campaign is that the pundits liked it and probably can't understand why the Western Australians voted the way they did. That's not really a surprise either.
What the?
Isn't the test of winning an election campaign, winning the actual election, or at least the popular vote? So I could grant Kim Beazley the title of winning the campaign in 1998 even though he lost the election. He gained a significant swing and won the popular vote. Then again I could say that John Howard won that campaign also in that he managed to win the election despite losing the popular vote by campaigning effectively in the seats that mattered.
In the case of yesterday's election however, neither of these situations apply. The coalition won the popular vote; the coalition won the majority of seats and the swing was to the coalition. The coalition won the campaign and the election.
All we can really say about the Labor campaign is that the pundits liked it and probably can't understand why the Western Australians voted the way they did. That's not really a surprise either.
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