In Favor of Feminism: Share Your Views
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Serenity, it sounds like you experienced violence at the hands of your father, and that your mother did nothing to protect you. Regardkess of what she was able to accomplish in her professional life, it makes her just as much of an abuser as he was.
I'm sorry you had to experience that as a child. You're right to keep your distance.
Sending warm, caring cyber hugs.
Trish
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On female doctors, I met a young woman a few years ago who said her GP referred her to a female specialist for some issue she was having. She said she never trusts female doctors and refuses to see one. I was shocked and horrified that anyone, that too a young woman, thinks like this. I didn't even know people like that still existed! These types are hopeless, so no point in having any kind of discussions with them. I just casually mentioned that I had an all-female oncology team (Surgeon, MO, RO) and they've saved my life so far.
Female misogyny is all too prevalent. I think it comes from lack of self-confidence and the way some girls are brought up to believe they're not as good and they carry that mentality with them through life.
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DivineMM,
Yes, my screen name is pretty fun in hindsight! 2019whatayear- for me personally 2020whatayear for everyone on planet earth!
RE: Steel Mills.
Good-paying union jobs were our middle class, in the 20th century we decided that people who worked in factories should make enjoy the money that they could buy a car, buy a house, send kids to college, take a vacation a year and retire in their 60s; but when those jobs declined (80s /90s) our society decided not to value service sector jobs the same way. I've worked in a factory and I've worked in restaurants and retail. Retail and Restaurants are more demanding. Why the difference? Manufacturing jobs are traditionally viewed as male gender jobs (and white male to boot). Restaurant jobs/Cleaning/ traditionally viewed as female gender jobs (and brown and Black female to boot).
And so here we are major major inequality in America,
Thanks for the story about orchestras. Male bias is strong in so many areas
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SummerAngel - It's terrible that your mom wasn't allowed by her father to become a doctor like him. She must be so proud of you and your sister!
Divine - She was revered by others. They provided opportunities at a cost. I wouldn't say it balanced anything. They certainly raised an ungrateful daughter. It took time for me to accept that I'm ok with that. They're more concerned with what their friends think.
Trish - Thank you. She definitely enabled him, and there was one instance where she placed us in the line of fire. I'm safely many metal detectors away from him. It's been almost 20 years since I've seen him. Most days I no longer think of him.
Growing up I remember hearing a newscaster talk about children's rights. My father scoffed saying "children don't have rights". That may have been when he became less physically abusive. This may be why I value rights beyond women's rights. When you deny the rights of others, you leave them vulnerable to abuse.
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I so appreciate this thread with many points of view respectfully given and received. Learning so much.
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Me, too, magiclight.
Great thread you've started, Divine. It quickly became one of my favorites. 👍
Trish
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In keeping with today's "almost space" news, I'd like to give a shout out to Judith Love Cohen - rocket scientist, ballet dancer, author, and feminist (and also the mother of actor Jack Black). Judith Love Cohen - Wikipedia
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Jack Black was my sister in law, Terry's roommate at UCLA. She said he was a really sweet, funny guy, and was thrilled when he started making it.
Even though I'm not a huge fan of his kind of comedy, we still make a point to go see everything he does, just to support Terry's friend.
Cool to hear about his mom. I wonder if Terry knew that when they were in college? Being a huge feminist herself I think it would made her like him even more.
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Wow typhoon! I love Jack Black! I never knew this. So interesting.
Anyone watch Drunk History? That's where I heard about this under appreciated badass:
Katharine Wright-
Katharine was the younger sister of Orville and Wilbur (the Wright Brothers). All the siblings were especially close - according to Lauren, their hobbies included collecting bones and they had a pact to never get married and just hang out together forever. You know, normal family stuff.
While the Wright brothers didn't even graduate high school, Katharine ran the household and graduated from college. She encouraged her brothers, and honestly, did most of the legwork. Katharine did the research, translated books from German, and completely changed the brothers' plans for their plane.
December 17th 1903, the brothers manage to fly a plane for the first time. We all know about them because of this, but we never hear about Katharine, who they never could have done it without. (from loudgirlsclub.com)
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I had to look up the story above about Judith Love Cohen to verify its validity and find it is partially true. What I learned:
Yes, she was an engineer who did work on the guidance computer for the Abort-Guidance System which brought Apollo 13 astronauts home safely! Judy was there when the astronauts paid a "thank you" to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach.
[Side note: Judith said that she went through both her BS and MS programs at USC without ever meeting another female engineering student. She received both bachelor's and master's degrees from USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in 1957 and 1962.]
Yep, Judith is Jack Black's mom! But according to Wikipedia, he was born August 28, 1969. The Apollo 13 flight was April 11-17, 1970. So the part about “woman gives birth while saving three astronauts" is not true.
Doesn't matter, her accomplishments are impressive!
I love Jack Black. His “School of Rock" is one of my very favorite movies; ds was teenager-ish when the movie came out and we shared many laughs watching it numerous times. I also loved JB in King Kong. And the last movie I saw in theaters was Jumanji 2: The Next Level; JB co-starred. Went to lunch/movie to celebrate dh and ds's birthday in January, 2020.....not knowing pandemic was around the corner. Ds's girlfriend didn't care for Jack Black before the movie but he was sooo good, she came out a fan! Myself, I fell in love with Dwayne “The Rock" Johnson's high cheekbones! Lol. It was a fun movie.
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Thanks so much for checking - I should have checked it myself! You know what's frustrating to me? There was no need at all to embellish Julia Love Cohen's remarkable story with the stuff about giving birth to Jack Black in the middle of the Apollo rescue. Her life story stands strong and proud as it is. I love the fact that she devoted so much energy to her books encouraging young girls to get involved in STEM studies and activities; I gave some of these books to my nieces when they were little, and believe they contributed to the fact that we now have a med school student, a soon-to-be doctor of pharmacy, and a marine biologist in the family.
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Ilove this thread, thanks for starting it.
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Serenity, I'm sorry to learn what you experienced with your father and how your mother did not intervene. You were not able to trust either of them and that has lingering effects. My parents were a combination of being gifted in some ways and also being incredibly dysfunctional. I didn't experience physical abuse but there was emotional and mental abuse, some neglect and lots of codependency issues. Yet I have many good childhood memories. I spent the decade of my 20s living on my own, sifting and sorting through the whole family mess. Some of it will always be tangled, but I was able to clear my head enough to move forward with my own life. Eventually I became friends with my parents. They've both been gone for almost 25 years; I do miss them.
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ARmom, I never knew about Katherine Wright! After reading your post, I looked up more information about her because I've seen a few Drunk History episodes, it can be fun to watch but I know how they embellish facts.
Here's what I learned:
Katherine was the youngest of the 5 Wright siblings and only girl; their mother died when she was about 15. Household duties fell to her. During the years that Wilbur and Orville traveled to Kitty Hawk, Katharine had watched over the bicycle shop. After the Wright Bros. airplane success, journalists began to "speculate on her role in the development of the airplane. Rumors spread that she sewed the wings, loaned her brothers money, even did the complex mathematics they required to design their aircraft. None of it was true". [link to article: https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/J...] I read several other articles to confirm this and I'd say the claim that Katherine "researched, translated books from German, and completely changed the brothers' plans for their plane" is false.
Orville and Wilbur were painfully shy, Katherine was outgoing and charmed the public. The 3 Wrights went to Europe in 1907 to sell their invention abroad, and the responsibilities of Katharine's unofficial position increased. She answered queries for scientific information, corresponded with newspapers and magazines trying to keep their stories straight, screened business offers and politely handled cranks. When Webster's Dictionary asked to publish a photo of the Wright Glider, she obtained her brothers' permission for them. [All this she accomplished while continuing to teach at Steele High School.] When the Wrights left France, the French awarded all three of them – Katharine included – the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor). She remains one of the few American women to have received this award. (info taken from above website link). She was also the 3rd woman to fly in an airplane.
Over the years, Wilbur and the siblings' father died leaving Orville massively dependent on Katherine. In her 50s, she married a man she'd met in college years ago whom she'd always kept in touch with and moved to Kansas. Orville basically disowned her and they did not speak for several years until she was on her deathbed. Her other brother Lorin, who approved of Katherine's marriage, insisted Orville go see her which he did the day before she passed. The year was 1929. Despite the rift between her and Orville, Katherine was happy in her marriage.
Katherine attended Oberlin College in Ohio. After her death, her husband Harry gave a bequest to the college to construct an exact copy of of the Fountain of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, which included a sculpture representing love and wisdom.
Now having heard of Katherine Wright and reading up about her, I think the city of Dayton should have a sculpture made in her honor! People need to know about her contributions to the Birth of Aviation!!!!!!!!!
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Divine - I'm glad you were able to have a relationship with your parents. I was willing when I was younger especially after my kids were born. But my father is a remarkably bottomless pit of new strife. My mother on her own is fine, but we are not friends. I no longer feel the obligation to be the dutiful daughter. The past is over. Instead I focused on being a better parent to my own children to break the cycle. It helps that my husband is an incredible father. I love my little family unit.
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On a lighter note...
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I like that one, Serenity. I have been very impressed by what she's planning to do with her share of their fortune.
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serenity I saw that on Twitter and thought of this threas
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Yes, the philanthropy of MacKenzie, who now goes by the last name of Scott which was her middle name, was trending while her ex was heading to space. She is the third-wealthiest woman in the world, and the 21st-wealthiest individual in the world.
She has a bachelor's degree in English from Princeton University (1992) where she studied under the Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison, who described MacKenzie as "one of the best students I've ever had in my creative writing classes". Mackenzie is an author of 2 books.
To be fair, there's some criticism of Scott's philanthropy methods, certain conflicts of interest, you can look it up if you want specifics. But also to be fair, her divorce from Jeff was only in 2019, so she's basically very new in her charitable giving. She’s remarried to a high school chemistry teacher, Dan Jewett. She and her husband issued a statement saying they looked forward to working together to give to deserving organizations. To date, recipients have been “non-profit organizations with a focus on racial equality, LGBTQ+ equality, democracy, and climate change. Her gifts to HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and other colleges surpass $800 million. She's also donated to organizations with a focus on providing support to people affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing long-term systemic inequities". (info from Wikipedia).
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NPR Article:
MacKenzie Scott Is Giving Away Another $2.7 Billion To 286 Organizations
Laurel Wamsley June 15, 20215:01 PM ET
MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is shown here in 2018. The billionaire philanthropist has so far given away more than $8 billion of her fortune in three rounds of funding.
Saying that she's troubled by the increasing concentration of wealth, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott says she is giving away another $2.7 billion of her fortune to 286 nonprofit organizations.
Scott, who divorced from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, made the announcement in a blog post on the website Medium. She has so far given away more than $8 billion in three rounds of funding revealed in the same manner. Her net worth is estimated to be nearly $60 billion.
In her divorce from Bezos, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon. But shares of the company's stock rose sharply during the pandemic, and despite giving away billions, Scott's wealth keeps growing. Her net worth, estimated at $36.1 billion in October 2019, has increased by some $23 billion since then.
Scott is now married to Seattle teacher Dan Jewett. Jewett joined Scott in signing the Giving Pledge, a commitment by wealthy individuals to give away a majority of their money.
In her blog post, Scott describes systemic societal inequities and her belief that giving money to organizations directly working with communities in need is the way her wealth can be put to use, saying that she, her husband and her staff and advisers "are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change."
"In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others," Scott wrote. "Though we still have a lot to learn about how to act on these beliefs without contradicting and subverting them, we can begin by acknowledging that people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others."
Scott says that she and her organization spent the first quarter of 2021 identifying and researching equity-oriented nonprofit organizations working in neglected and underfunded areas.
The recipients span from institutions of higher education and arts and culture, to organizations fighting poverty, working on interfaith issues and building community engagement.
Like the $4 billion Scott gave to 384 organizations in the last four months of 2020, the donations are unrestricted, so recipients can use the money as they see fit. "Many reported that this trust significantly increased the impact of the gift," Scott wrote.
Calling the donations to individual organizations "relatively large," Scott described the new cash as a means to do more good work with less financial stress.
"These are people who have spent years successfully advancing humanitarian aims, often without knowing whether there will be any money in their bank accounts in two months. What do we think they might do with more cash on hand than they expected? Buy needed supplies. Find new creative ways to help. Hire a few extra team members they know they can pay for the next five years. Buy chairs for them. Stop having to work every weekend. Get some sleep," Scott suggested.
This is an unusual approach to philanthropy
Scott's approach to philanthropy is unusual in a number of ways. She doesn't appear to have a website. There is no evident mechanism by which organizations can apply for donations. Scott prefers simply to announce via blog post the organizations she has chosen for her next multibillion-dollar giveaway.
Scott's post lists all the recipients but doesn't state the amount of money they've been granted. However, some organizations have revealed how much money they'll receive.
The president of the University of Central Florida said his institution will receive $40 million – the largest donation in the university's history. "Their gift enables us to increase our impact for generations of students and inspires others to invest in building the future of America," he wrote.
Florida International University is receiving the same amount.
The University of Texas at San Antonio is also receiving $40 million, which its president called "completely transformational." The university said Scott and Jewett "were drawn to UTSA because of the university's strong commitment to create pathways to success for students from communities with significant educational attainment and income disparities" as well is its commitment to serving Latino students.
Long Beach City College, in California, thanked Scott for $30 million — also the single largest donation in its history.
Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, said at the time of Scott's last round of donations that she was "putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven't [figured] out comparable ways to boldly share."
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Here are a few pages from the book, "The Trouble with Women", described by Amazon as a feminist's brilliant, tongue-in-cheek, 'hysterical' look at women's "issues," "frailties," and "failures" in our not-so-distant history.
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I know rockets need to be a certain shape for the aerodynamics to successfully launch, but Blue Origin looks way more phallic than it probably needed to.
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A friend sent me a fascinating article about gender biases in archeology.
Opinion | Archaeology Has a Problem With Females and Figurines in Israel and the Levant
The gist is that thousands upon thousands of female nude figurines have been assumed in mass to be fertility figures or charms to support childbirth. This is despite:
* almost all figures that actually depict a pregnant or nursing woman are depicted clothed
* nude figures of men are believed simply to celebrate the male figure, and are not thought to be related to male fertility cultism
* erotic art from the era is graphic and bold, not coy
The author posits that women are more than conduits for childbirth. She sees these figurines as proof that ancient women saw themselves as creatures as worthy of glorification as men.
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Miriandra, that is an interesting and insightful article. I only have a casual knowledge about ancient nude female figurines and yet it does seem like they always come with some “fertility" description.
The article also makes this point:
“Basically, as far as these scholars are concerned, and despite a plethora of scholarship over the past 20 years showing otherwise, the female body is something a man has sex with to get a child. The female body is a monolithic object resisting change over the course of millennia, throughout multiple ancient societies, and in spite of a considerable degree of variation in presentation (lions, babies, etc.).
This is not how we approach the naked male body. In Mesopotamia we see that the naked male is probably a cult functionary or a defeated captive, while in Egypt a naked man at work just depicts daily reality; in Greece the "heroic" nude is a manifestation of perfection. The naked male body does not relate to how it might be of use to a woman. Such is not the case for naked women."
It also goes on to mention that, for example, in the case of female nude figures holding drum-like discs, ethnic identity or military victory representation are not even considered.
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would love to hear Camille Paglia chime in..
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This week I watched the Netflix docuseries on 22-year old tennis superstar Naomi Osaka and recommend it if you’re interested. I don’t even keep up with tennis, but liked the 3 part series.
From Wikipedia: “Osaka is one of the world's most marketable athletes, having been ranked eighth among all athletes in endorsement income in 2020. She was also the highest-earning female athlete of all time by annual income that year. Osaka has gained significant recognition as an activist, having showcased support for the Black Lives Matter movement in conjunction with her matches. She was named one of the 2020 Sports Illustrated Sportspersons of the Year for her activism largely as part of her US Open championship run, and was also included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the worldin both 2019 and 2020.“
The documentary doesn’t even mention any of the above. I’m not sure how you’d classify it, but it’s a more intimate, softer look at her life the past two years.
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