Originally written in the late 1990’s for a “Popular Culture” Anthropology class. In her book Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Janice A. Radway explores the apparent fascination of romantic fiction to many women, and examines the needs this literary genre fulfills for its readers. Our required reading was the Introduction and the…
Continuing from yesterday… Kakou Korakos I certainly agree with you that women are often societally trained to be too passive. Myself, I believe the answer is to quit training them to do that, rather than just nudging “nice guys” to be more assertive. I also agree that being the major decision-maker in a relationship is…
Continuing from yesterday… Replies Erin (Brace yourself, Erin: I’m going to gush a little. *coughcough* Ahem. ;) ) Thank goodness for folks like you, who don’t just think things through before acting — but try their best to pass that on to friends and children! Heh. All gushing aside, I’ve really enjoyed reading your calmly…
Continuing from yesterday… “Whatcha gonna do / When they come for you?” So why exactly does a bad boy seem to “get” more women? Leaving aside the repugnant assumptions inherent in that query (which would be an article in itself), the simple answer seems to be they’re self-centered and arrogant enough to simply keep propositioning…
I was going to simply reply to the comments I received concerning the Firestarter titled Why Do We Ask Why Women Seem to Prefer Bad Boys to Nice Guys? However, I realized I had no way of notifying these kind individuals that I immensely appreciated their feedback, and had replied to them. Further, I wanted…
Read part I and part II of this article So no, I don’t think women like assholes better. I think it’s more they believe they don’t deserve any better, or they’re buying into societal myths about who they must be. They don’t feel they can even ask the right guy without scaring him off… and…
Read parts I and III of this article Our hypothetical young female will probably deeply internalize just how much she sucks. No one could possibly ever like someone who is so worthless as she. She’ll be lucky if anyone ever shows any interest in her at all. In fact, she’d probably better latch onto the…
Originally posted November 2003 Thanks for article inspiration to Jonathan, who pointed me to an LJ which made me initially start thinking about this. Thanks for suggestions on this article go to George, Ian, and Dave, who made it a better read. You all rock! ;-) I’ve heard the plaintive question ‘why do women want…
Originally written in the early 1990’s for an absolutely amazing class on the bible as history and literature. My later notes, to clarify the paper, are in blockquotes. The story of Genesis in the bible has been used throughout history as an excuse for, and explanation of, why women should be subjugated by men. This…
Just got back from the opening weekend of the newest exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The museum’s in the old SGI building, for locals, and it’s a lovely little place. The exhibit is a working Babbage Difference Engine! The following is based on my memory of what transpired, so if…