I really enjoyed the honors conference this weekend and many of the presenters did a wonderful job of explaining and stirring interest in subjects that I would normally never think of in such depth. Ever since thoughts of the development of linguistic context and changing interpretations of masculine/feminine interrelatedness have been swirling through my mind. I have to agree with Ray. Two of the best presentations were given by Brian Bowman and Chase de Saint-Felix. Something that I would have liked to have heard more on that was mentioned in "The First Sex and the "F" Word: A Male's Response to Feminism" is a new trend in androgyny that has become more and more prevalent in modern times. In today's world, it can be very advantageous to posses skills that are deemed both feminine and masculine. On a biological level, the quintessential male and female are quite different. I am not referring to the obvious differences that we all know of, but some those that originate in the brain. The female mind is generally more equipped to excel in linguistic, creative, and ocular differentiative skills (hence the never ending shopping) while the male mind is often better at mathematical, scientific, and reproduction of already existing art. As honor students we don't fall into these constructs so easily because we are exceptionally qualified on an intellectual level and in order to be such we have adapted skills that would not necessarily be related to our biological sex. I would have liked to hear some of Chase de Saint-Felix's thoughts on this though they did not quite fall into his subject of choice.
Katherine was great too! I think I'm gonna buy The Scarlett Letter and S.
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I like your insight into the blending of male and female traits. One other thing he mentioned that I wanted to know more about is the change in feminist thought concerning motherhood. The idea that women would like to claim that all gender roles are social constructs but maintain that motherhood is a strictly feminine role seems a bit hypocritical. I am not talking about motherhood as in giving birth but instead about raising children. If the roles of men and women are just social constructs then why are our custody laws so skewed towards the mother and why do women eagerly accept this idea when in other circumstances they would argue against such stereotyping.
ReplyDeleteIt is very easy to accept a injustice that benefits you, and I think you are right. I watched a documentary about a man whose Brazilian wife took their two year old son with her to Brazil, and when she died, he still had a very difficult time getting his son back from her female family members. I can't remember how old he was supposed to be when the child was returned, but from the looks of it the boy was at least 10 years old. The whole ordeal was far from fair for the father or the child as far as I'm concerned, and the idea of amending laws like these are hardly even considered as far as I have seen. On the other hand, it would also be nice to see stronger enforcement of child support payments.
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