University papers

A History for Women and a Feminism for Everyone

Posted onTuesday 14 January 2014Saturday 11 January 2014

…and now back to my comps essay book reviews! :) A more sweeping view of women throughout history, including both their loss of power and their struggle to both resist and reclaim it within the kyriarchy, is brilliantly demonstrated by English journalist, broadcaster, and social critic Rosalind Miles’ book Who Cooked the Last Supper? The…

The wonderfully titled: Goddesses, Whores, Wives & Slaves

Posted onFriday 3 January 2014Friday 3 January 2014

(repeating from yesterday…) Both historically and in the modern day, patriarchy stunts and diminishes both women and men, and will continue to do so until that time when women are once again regarded as both human, and an integral part of history and civilization. This is not to say, of course, that women had no…

So where did this patriarchy crap come from anyway?

Posted onFriday 3 January 2014

Woo! My prof has finally signed off on my second comps essay — I am so very relieved! Always nice to get an all-caps “EXCELLENT WORK!” too. :) So, I’m going to start posting the various book reviews from my Women & World Religions bibliography list, interspersed with whatever other stuff I feel like posting,…

A review of the comps essay

Posted onThursday 2 January 2014

I’ve come to the conclusion — which I shall not be officially sharing with my school — that the comprehensive essays are inefficient for demonstrating comprehension. They are effectively a 50 page essay (not including the title page or Bibliography) in which you discuss the books you choose for a particular subject, such as my…

What is humankind’s “worst discovery” ever? part 1

Posted onTuesday 24 September 2013Saturday 21 September 2013

A common assumption I’ve frequently read is that the “worst discovery” made by humankind was agriculture, in that it taught men (not humans) the concept of property. The rather androcentric theorizing seems to be that once men conceptualize food as property which can be hoarded away despite the needs of others, it’s invariably a short…

Women & World Religions comps booklist, take II

Posted onWednesday 11 September 2013Thursday 9 January 2014

This has been a very strange semester so far, and I’m less than a week in. Amongst other things, my Women & World Religions comps essay prof did another review of my bibliography, and suggested some changes. I found this odd for two reasons: 1) I thought we’d agreed on the official booklist at the…

Education | Feminism | Random | Spirituality | University papers

Triple word score! ;)

Posted onThursday 25 July 2013

Of necessity during my doctoral studies, I’ve learned to be glib with conceptually complex, multi-syllabic terms. It is a personal quirk, however, that I only use such terms when I am quite sure of what they mean — especially since I’ve been on the receiving end of supposedly academic conversations where I was highly dubious…

Two fascinating examples of women’s resistance to oppression

Posted onSaturday 15 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

An excellent historical example of increasing patriarchal domination of women, and their ensuing resistance, is feminist historian and professor Ulrike Strasser’s “Bones of Contention: Catholic Nuns Resist their Enclosure.” The Pütrich nuns of Munich were established in the 13th century. Like all nuns at that time, they were not cloistered and therefore served extensively in…

The pain behind Fire Eyes

Posted onFriday 14 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

Trigger warning: this documentary review covers female genital mutilation. Don’t read further if you are easily squicked, please. ~ * ~ *~ *~ *~ * ~ We see activism as it happens in Soraya Miré’s short 1994 documentary film Fire Eyes. As a victim of the practice who has chosen to become a survivor, her…

Wisdom worth listening to: Daughters of Mother Earth

Posted onThursday 13 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

Daughters of Mother Earth: The Wisdom of Native American Women, edited by Barbara Alice Mann, offers us a view of ecofeminism rooted in indigenous women’s teachings (one caveat: when I use “we,” I am recognizing that I, like the Whites being written about, am speaking from a position of social privilege which is and should…