Tiger Beatdown

Ah, Sexism. It is a continuing force for ill in our society today! Most recently, all the ladies and dudes who care about Sexism were shocked and moved by the story of one James Chartrand, a lady who adopted a man’s name for her writing and was instantly hired more often, paid more money, complimented more frequently, and read by more people. Just imagine! All of that! Because she took a man’s name! James Chartrand is a martyr, an example, a heroine! For surely she was writing just as well, and in the same ways, as she would if she were called, for totally random example, “Sara”…

Oh, wait. What’s that you say? She totally wasn’t? YIIIIKES. Yes, the crack investigation of Amanda Hess reveals that the shocking success of “James Chartrand,” Man Blogger, was based not only on the adoption of a masculine name, but on the creation of a totally false male persona, including (a) lies about being a boy with a gender-deviant knitting habit, (b) lies about Taylor Lindstrom, a female employee who was apparently aware of Chartrand’s gender, being “the team’s rogue woman” in Chartrand’s  much-beloved “good ol’ boys club,” valuable for her talents of cooking, cleaning, and being adorable, (c) a semi-regular practice of objectifying the ladies, including the ladies who are not employee Taylor Lindstrom, and (d) a post in which Chartrand complained about terrible feminist women and discrimination against dudes on the Internet (!!!), containing, of course, some more lies. ABOUT “JAMES CHARTRAND’S” BALLS.

So, to recap: James Chartrand not only broke some of the key rules of being a writer, such as “not flat-out lying to your readers and completely undermining your own credibility” (which raises the question of whether we have good reason to believe any of that ORIGINAL blog post, about adopting the manly name, but whatever), but some of the key rules of being a decent person, such as “not being a total sexist.” Seems like a good time for discussion! Featuring keen investigator Amanda Hess of The Sexist, and me, wowed onlooker Sady Doyle! Herein, we explore the key questions: what are the acceptable boundaries between online persona and private life? Is “feminism” just getting yours, no matter what else you’re doing? And, in order to overcome discrimination against women, is it necessary to, you know… discriminate against women? Also, we are compelled to reveal our own dark, manly secrets! Including those pertaining to our balls!

ILLUSTRATION: Mere artists’ rendering, of course, does not capture their grandeur. You would simply have to see our balls for yourself.

(Continued)

Say! You know what happened to me last night? I got an e-mail! It was from someone named Lily (hi, Lily!) who reads the blog. And she had a very reasonable request, which was: can you, Sady, provide me with a list of books to read? Books that have seriously informed you, or that are otherwise enjoyable for a woman of your persuasions?

Well! Someone is fortunate that I am rearranging my bookshelves this week, is all I am saying. Because I have undertaken the task of compiling such a list, right here. It is kind of long, but I consider it fairly vital. And I ended up excluding a lot from it for space reasons, so. Deal.

I. A YOUNG LADY’S PRIMER: KNOW YOUR ANCESTORS.

So, first, you are going to want to cover The Basics. My knowledge of The Basics, sadly, is confined to the 20th century for the most part. So, read Deirdre Bair’s biography of Simone de Beauvoir, which is FUCKING GRIPPING and illustrative of the ambiguities of pre-second-wave feminist and/or lady life, then read The Mandarins (a novel, probably her best one, which also illustrates a ton of said ambiguities; I also like She Came to Stay, and really most of the novels) and as much of The Second Sex as you can handle – I recommend dipping in and out of that one, as it is a lot to take in and the early chapters are, sadly, boring. Read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, obviously, but also read the novels. Read Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook – even though I find Lessing’s prose kind of flat, for my tastes, The Golden Notebook in particular becomes so interesting at a certain point, and opens up so much, that you can overcome it. Read Mary McCarthy’s The Group, about which I have the same reservations re: prose style but which is also a hugely great read and will blow your mind and educate you ever-so-much. If you want to really, REALLY go back into Ye Olden Times though, you could read Medieval feminist Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies.

Read Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes – it’s a great book, and a relatively early queer book, and the Doctor is one of the first genderqueer/trans characters in literature, I think, and though this is not always handled gracefully or in the manner I might hope, it is still more respectful than 99% of the portrayals of genderqueer folks today. Read Colette’s The Vagabond, in which a lady is rescued from her degrading job of dancing half-naked by a kindly rich man, up until the INCREDIBLE TWIST ENDING I won’t spoil, and also The Pure and the Impure, which is another queer book and touches on her relationship with a butch/genderqueer lady.

Picking up into the second wave: Read Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch. Read Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics. Read Adrienne Rich: I have a copy of Selected Poetry and Prose, which contains most of the major essays and poems, but Rich is a vast field for you to explore. Read bell hooks’ Feminism: From Margin to Center (and all of bell hooks, but this is a vital starting place), and Audre Lorde’s Collected Poems and Sister Outsider. Read, also, Diane di Prima’s poetry – I have Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems – and her memoir, My Life as a Woman, The New York Years. I am realizing that this list is getting kind of poetry-heavy, so why don’t you go on out and be a stereotype and buy yourself a copy of both the Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath and the Collected Poems of Anne Sexton, both of which were hugely important to me although to be honest with Plath you really only want to read the work starting in ’61. Which will make you feel a bit of a douche.

The academically inclined may also go to Julia Kristeva, particularly Powers of Horror, and The Newly Born Woman by Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, which contains an epic piece by Cixous and something by Clement that is, sadly, not as good.

You may – and probably will – find a lot to contest, in some of these early works. That is fine! It is important to contest these things! That is how we move forward! So please, please keep that in mind as we enter our next section, which is:

(Continued)

So! A while back, I was having a conversation with a friend about why I do not actually link to every single thing I write elsewhere on this blog. And I was just like, “it is on Feministe! Or, sometimes, the Guardian! You read both those things, right?” And she was like, “yes, I do, mostly when YOU WRITE FOR THEM. So tell me how to find your business, please.”

Therefore, the lazy amongst you will be punished with occasional link dumps! Here is what I have done for Feministe this week, for example:

• Susannah Breslin thinks contemporary feminists (by which she means, apparently, “one blogger on Jezebel”) are all lazy and should stop complaining about commercials and actually engage in some MEANINGFUL ACTION. For example, complaining about blog posts, a la Susannah Breslin!
• News from SCIENCE: Casual sex will not actually wreck your entire life! Even if you are a lady! Obviously, this means that no-one will ever be able to publish a book and/or article about how casual sex is ruining women’s lives and/or feminine virtue ever again. Except that they will, so.
• And also, I wrote a single paragraph about that Manohla Dargis interview that was so wonderful, but everyone has read that interview and knows how wonderful it was already, so. No link for you!

Nothing from the Guardian! Yet! But hopefully that will change! And here our edition of Linkdumps For The Lazy endeth. See you soon, with more links!

Well, hello there! I am sure you are all still getting over the excitement that was Sady’s Internet Blackout ’09 (what’s that you say? You didn’t notice? Shut your face at once, good sir or madam) and the FORMATTINGSPLOSION that was last week’s Sexist Beatdown. (I have tried to fix it about eight times now. That is just how it looks, apparently. Sorry.) But I have yet more excitement to pile on top of you! In the form of announcements!

First of all: do you see that post? The one right below this one? It is, as you have probably noticed, by delightful Second Awakening blogger C. L. Minou. Who will be joining us, at the Tiger Beatdown, as a regular contributor. Two lady bloggers! Talkin’ bout lady things! No reason ever to be bored again!

Second, I would like to point out that last week’s Internet Blackout nearly caused me to miss THE MOST EXCITING COMMENT EVER POSTED ON THIS SITE. It was on the tiny boy-king gay-rights advocate Will Phillips post! And is by one Laura Phillips! Read on, with me:

as will’s mom, i freaking love you. this waas the best blog (of the many many) about him and his story. really. You nailed him. he told me after the interview with cnn that he was trying to use little words so that john roberts (the interviewer) would understand him. find me on facebook for all things will

Awwwwww. This is just like the time that Asher Roth’s parents commented (in complimentary fashion!) on that one post where I made fun of him. Except, you know. Without all the crushing guilt. Much better!