Monday, November 28, 2011

why i disagree with (polish) feminists

while i admire the suffragists of the break of XIX and XX centuries, who so courageously and with such unity fought for women's right to vote and run for office - and, in effect, won the right for all of us to speak up about issues that matter to us, i can't help being turned off by the contemporary feminist movement. here are a few of the many reasons why. most of these, of necessity, refer specifically to poland, but i think the underlying principles can be translated into many other milieus.


you say that polish schools educate young people for a patriarchal society where male domination is natural. yet, at the same time, you point out that teaching is considered a "feminine" profession and that boys (mysteriously) don't do as well academically as girls do.
allow me to shed some light on this seeming paradox. the school system, as you rightly note, is dominated by women. if you have ever seen a male teacher (and i've had a few), even in an administrative position, you might have noticed that those poor guys are for the most part completely dominated by the female community of teachers. what's worse, most women who teach in public schools seem to never have heard of the diversity of needs between boys and girls, as far as discipline and teaching methods go and naturally tend to tolerate or even reward, the girls' misbehavior, which they understand naturally. as a result, girls come across as better behaved (!) and more interested in academics than boys. also, this time from my teaching experience - it is extremely difficult to find any teaching materials suitable for boys. most literature (other than the classics, which have been gradually withdrawn from the curriculum) is feminine, uninteresting for boys. gadgets and toys that address boyish interests are much harder to find and offered in much poorer variety (notice in toy stores or paper stores, the proportion of pink, princessy-flowery items to non-violent boyish style items, like structures, vehicles, insects, dinosaurs, etc.) i'm more inclined to say that the school system teaches boys to be insecure and effeminate than dominating. on the other hand, it teaches girls that they are better and smarter than boys and therefore should dominate.


you want more women in "the public sphere" - preferably 50% of top positions in politics, business, and the academic world.
well. i have a few questions for you.
first off, legally and in all other ways, they have the right to be there. there are also legal ways of making sure that the law is kept. if you think those are inefficient, why not first go that way?
secondly, perhaps the reason there aren't as many women as you'd like to see in the "public sphere" is that women have other priorities and are not interested in entering "the public sphere"? you did answer to that and said research (what research - please quote?) showed that many women would like to participate in their local politics, but are discouraged by their male relatives. okay, so what are you doing to encourage them? are there any local women's groups set up where you discuss issues with women and help them build their confidence? (a shrug and silence for an answer)
thirdly, if you do manage to fill 50% of the highest positions in every sphere of public life with females, who do you suggest will fulfill their "traditional role"? there are two options: either they do both - and how do you imagine them doing either thing efficiently and not lose it? or they drop their "traditional role". in the second case, who will pick it up? the frustrated men who have been pushed out of their own game? (then, i guess, you would also have men bear children, right?)

you demand an unconditional right for women to have an abortion if they "find themselves" pregnant.
my question is - is pregnancy a virus you involuntarily catch? or perhaps a woman who "finds herself" pregnant has already made a choice? and - if you are so concerned with the well being of women in this area, what are you doing towards improving sex education among the polish youth? (no answer) and what are you doing towards reforming the dysfunctional polish adoption law? (silence)

just a couple of main issues, but it seems to me that your program has nothing to do with women's rights, but everything to do with your personal ambitions. it seems to me that you despise your womanhood and the role that comes with it, and in which women are irreplaceable (please note that child-raising and nurturing a family is more than changing diapers, cooking and cleaning) and envy men their apparent power. apparent, because a wise woman knows that she can make a man do anything without dominating him. if you put as much energy in building up women's self-esteem, awareness, and confidence, as you put into humiliating men, we'd all be in a much better shape. i mean, how many of the modern inventions that make our life easier have been invented by women...?

there's much more, but it'll have to wait till next time.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

this time of year

it is the time of year, when on a beautiful day the world is sunny and foggy at the same time, grass sparkles with crunchy white frost, and cold air pinches your nose. all the other days are dark and sad, squished under thick leaden clouds, and people, hunched over to keep from the penetrating cold, rush to their cozy homes, where they will try to dispel seasonal depression with a warm bowl of soup. at such times, bear-style hibernation sounds like a really good idea.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

november

the first real november day, in all its dreariness and empty, silent fields.


no sun - no moon
no morn - no noon
no dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day
no sky - no earthly view
no distance looking blue
(...)
no warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease
no comfortable feel in any member
no shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees
no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds...
november
(by thomas hood)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

on a slightly different note

none of us like to think that our time is limited, but it is. these thoughts came with someone else's experience, who's looking the end in the face. this guy, let's call him bill, lives far away from his family, but among friends. he knows nothing of the eternal life of his soul, though his days on earth are numbered. his mother would like to take him home, but he won't go - in his mind going home equals dying. staying where he is won't extend his days, but it doesn't FEEL like dying, because his whole life is still around him... i tried to think of what that must be like. to know the end of all that you know, is near, but you have no idea when it will engulf you.

not a single normal human being wants to die, including those who think dying is just disappearing. what about dying being a passage into eternity? an unknown eternity to most? it's a hard thing and we don't like to think about hard things. like mondays, or hard homework assignments, or difficult decisions, or debt. we'd rather think about pleasant things, like friday afternoons, vacations in tropical countries (but block out the insects, disease, and social issues rampant in the places you visit), romance, chestnuts roasting on an open fire... except those nasty things we don't like won't disappear. they actually get worse, the longer we ignore them. eternity is coming, we just don't know when. how's yours looking? if there are lungs, there's air, and if there's fear of dying, there's a reason. and hey, how about turning the fear into a happy expectation? what would it do for bill to know he could choose his destination?

"

Thursday, November 10, 2011

theory of time necessarily wasted

i'm sure other thinkers have thought of this, but i like to think of it as "my grandfather's theory of time necessarily wasted." what it comes down to is that there'll always be that traffic jam, those street riots, that teacher who's teaching me nothing, chain that falls off as i bike to work, neighbor, colleague or - worse yet - boss or relative, who talks too much and too long... all kinds of unwanted things to waste my time. the only thing i can predict about them is that one way or another, something will waste my time.
add to that all the time that is unnecessarily wasted and how can i get anything done?
"redeem the time for the days are evil..." with some liberty of application, the days are evil, because they are full of time-wasters, but time, apparently, is something i can get back... i can think whatever i choose to think. put that in your pipe and smoke it, time-wasters!