/ Scholarship /
I started a post on The Ascent of Woman, Dr. Amanda Foreman. Almost instantly it was a shambles: so many things clamoring for inclusion, correction, expansion: bravos for Foreman, and boos: for her and for all of us. I went through more than three drafts before I’d properly done one draft just of opening remarks! That’s what I get for writing while in my first reading. Now I’ve seen the four episodes of the Ascent show: next assay I may be writing on a more stable pony.
I start again but expand to related materials.
I like Foreman’s doc, I expect to watch it several times. In particular I’m grateful for the dozen or several significant women she mentions.
The Missing Women of History
I’ll gather a list, profile the members later.
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Olympe de Gouges Alexandra Kollontai Margaret Sanger |
Confession
I’ll also include at least one confession: I was prepared to soft-pedal Sanger’s contribution to the creation of the birth control pill. No, no: male stupidity, prejudice: it’s her baby, she conceived it, birthed it: the rest of us didn’t even realize we were dragging our feet. Typical.
But initially I’d wanted to ride one of my usual hobbyhorses: the role the ever-changing “Bible” plays in revising Christianity back to ancient misogyny. Churches present the Bible as an authority, Christians present themselves as enlighted, inspired, and good: good morally. No, no, all false. I’ll explain, in some detail, but first I write over the earlier post, then correct, add, adit.
Trivia
Even I, living in the dark. had heard of Pussy Riot. The name struck me wrong, not least because I pride myself on my liberal use of vulgar terms. James Bond and his Pussy Galore should be booed, I with my ubiquitous pussy and quim etc. should be applauded, and funded, these Moscow girls … ? Shrug. No. Now I’ve seen them performing: ugh, and talking: ooo, beaustiful. I love these girls. I’d send them a dollar: if I have two dollars.
And I’ll spill some stories while here.
Bryant Park Pimp
Hilary and I were at Herman’s sporting goods stores on 42nd Street, drooling over the skis. I would have been 1970 or so. I would have founded FLEX. Before going home we visited Bryant Park, over toward the library at 5th Avenue: womens’ libbers were supposed to speak. I was impatient with all that since FLEX wanted everyone, not just women, to be free, not just blacks, and offered the mechanism to make freedom possible: cybernetic data bases for public use, no supervision. Anyway, sure enough, the speeches were commencing: and one guy, young black, already lit on wine or something, was rudely pretending that he was a pimp and that all the speakers were his girls. They didn’t want to be property; he was pretending they were his property!
Around that some time I attended a party for Hilary’s boss at the Barnard Library. All those women were ignoring FLEX, ignoring me, while they marched around in fashionable boots, to their knees. Jackie K shopped on 5th Avenue dressed like Che’! None of them qualified for consciousness.
