Blogger Appreciation Session

[highlyeccentric]

This evening, I feel like putting out a general round of applause for one of Bitch P.H.D's new(ish) co-bloggers, M. Leblanc. I have been reading her posts ever since Bitch took her onboard, and here are some of the reasons why I have decided she is Excellent:

Her introductory post, entitled "Muslim Mean Girls", discusses the question of how western(ised) feminists do and should react to Islam and Muslim women, from her personal perspective as "an Arab feminist and now-atheist".

I tire of seeing Western women pinpoint the headscarf as not only a symbol, but the apex, of oppression. When Karen Hughes, Bush's Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, went to Istanbul, she was surprised that Islamic feminists wanted to talk about the war in Iraq, about poverty, not about the headscarf. And they were pissed at her, for trying to tell them what their oppression looked like.

Speaking of personal stories, I was moved by her post on being sworn in as a lawyer.


Have you got Skirt for that? An offhand comment on her part is transformed into "a new feminist phrase for the lexicon" by her quick-witted boyfriend.

In case you were wondering if Leblanc in fact has skirt for any occaision, check out:
Her policy on terms of endearment
Her impromptu manifesto, a small sample of which I will present here (selections being my own favourite bits, of course):

I'm not a difference feminist. I really believe that men and women are much more similar than we are different... I believe that part of seeing women as human beings means NO EXCEPTIONALISM for women... We are no better or more noble or more pure than men; we are only more oppressed, more beaten down, poorer and with less political power. But we are not better...
I get to fuck up. I get to be rude, I get to be both selfless and selfish. I get to be sexually demanding. I get to want fame, and power, and money and love and to be really, really hot. I get to also want to take care of others, to fight for social change, to help the weak and create art. I get to feel it all, and do it all, because that's what it is to be human.

Last month, M. Leblanc attacked the idea that Men are more "visual" than women. Meanwhile, in her latest post, she talks about her own pornography consumption, and the postive and negative effects it has had on her sexuality and sense of self. Go, read. It's not often you- well, it's not often I- read an article on the problems with porn written by a woman who actually watches, and is turned on by the stuff.


On the topic of self-image, she has also had a fascinating series of posts lately about body image, weight and self esteem. She criticises "the habits of ladies" when it comes to eating in public, suggesting this policy:

If you're going to eat something, eat it. If you're not, don't. Beating yourself up about food, privately and publicly, much as you think might help you stay thin out of guilt, doesn't actually work.

Recently, M. Leblanc linked to Shapely Prose and this excellent essay on "The Fantasy of Being Thin" which points out that, for those who constantly dream of being Thin, Thin is not simply a weight range but an entire new self- cooler, more attractive, more outgoing, more of any given desirable quality. It was an eye-opening read for me, as someone who has never had a Thin Fantasy. She then follows this up with a personal reflection on her own relationship with her body, and its effect on her life choices. It comes up again in the pornography article I mentioned above.


So. There you go. Four or five paragraphs of unadulterated praise for a feminist blogger, from Highly-hater-of-isms-and-Theories. I wonder if I'm ill?

Comments

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

Lol, I hate being around women who do that guilty thing with food. My housemates used to do it and I eventually snapped and just told them to eat the damn cake and stop angsting. Didn't work but it made me feel better :)

This may sound like heresy but I've never been all that bothered by terms of endearment from random strangers... there are women who do it, after all, and anyway it just seems like life's too short to worry about the power dynamic behind everything a man says.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

it annoys me when people do that, full stop. especially people calling elderly men or women that they don't know by terms of endearment. ESPECIALLY in retail. Honestly, by the time a man has got to seventy, he's earnt the right not to be called "Sweetie" by kids a third of his age. Hell, go the extra mile and call him Sir.

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

Lol, ok it is a little weird to call someone that when they're many decades older than you.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

my first boss taught me that it was bad retail practice to be overly familiar with customers at all, so it always grates on me that people do it.

and it REALLY aggravates me when people "sweetie" or "darling" cashiers. It honestly is demeaning.

[rxgra.livejournal.com]

How come she never stops to think "wow, the guys in this here porn are ugly"? That's what I notice about straight porn. I told my dear friend Liz, after she mentioned porn heels, that gay people like to take their clothes off. She said "maybe that's where I've been going wrong with porn all this time".

I don't know, female pornography performers seem less like an ideal of sexiness than they do an image of attempted perfection: drugged out looks, improbable breasts beyond which the ribs can frequently and depressingly be seen, and those damnable high heels. So if the women look wrong, and the men are deliberately unattractive (and they are, because the target audience doesn't want to be turned on by guys), what is there in straight porn for me? Nothing.
It has begun to make sense to me why some girls are into gay porn - and I hasten to add that gay society has about a billion different niches and types, so there's no one image for someone to become disillusioned by. It's a cornucopia of potential pretties and not a heel in sight.

PS. Will do Meme in a bit.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

yeah, many of the comments to M. Leblanc's post recommended she foray into gay porn :P

*shrug* having never even SEEN porn in my life, i can't venture an Opinion. i don't like the idea of it, but...

[rxgra.livejournal.com]

I think that a large part of it involves the idea of whether the participants are being exploited. I always used to think that it was boring, but now we all realise why that is.

That said, if you don't feel any compulsion, don't feel like you have to try it out. People have different standards and reactions to things, and it doesn't always make sense. One of my friends was really upset when she found "smut" on her long term boyfriend's computer, and felt bad about having a (tasteful - no nudity) picture that I sent her on her computer. Yet she feels fine about commenting on a guy that she sees walking by, or by describing the kind of man that she likes. Infidelity in images, rather than in the mind? I don't know, I don't understand.

All I know is that men are supposed to be attractive and women can do their thing?

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

yeah, exploitation is Bad.
also, i have never been an Images person. I grew up without a TV. I can't shake the feeling that if it moves, it's Real. words, or even still pictures, don't bug me so much.

ahhhhh feminism

[daiskmeliadorn.livejournal.com]

i like this:
"I tire of seeing Western women pinpoint the headscarf as not only a symbol, but the apex, of oppression."
yeah, damnit! argh.

i'm not so sure about her description of "difference" feminism and linking it with "exceptionalism for women". if we're talking about academic feminists at least, then i think those who focus on the differences between women & men are not making an "exceptionalist" argument (in fact to use that word is somewhat offensive because it implies that men are the norm...). the usual thing is to say that such feminists (the "difference" ones) are "essentialists", because they believe there is something "essentially" female (not feminine though) about... women. now you may ask who counts as a woman, and this is the key problem with essentialists in my view, that they don't see how even our idea of "woman" is socially constructed.

so the question is really whether you focus on the woman-ness of women, or whether you focus on the same-ness of men & women. some non-white women have accused feminism of the latter variety of not paying enough attention to their lives and experiences as women, and you can see it's really quite a complex question.

[daiskmeliadorn.livejournal.com]

meanwhile, this is classic: man finally put in charge of feminist movement (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/man_finally_put_in_charge_of?utm_source=onion_rss_daily)