We don't fear you, Mr. Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh has issued a fear-of-losing-more-sponsors,-after-all,-money-talks apology to the young woman he called a slut. He also stated his view of what the 'other side' must think, "And now, at the end of this week, I am the person that the women of America are to fear the most."

No, Mr. Limbaugh. Your self-aggrandizement is pitiable. Women don't fear you. In fact, we don't give you a second thought. We tuned you out long ago and your buzzing is nothing more than a minor irritation, like that of a fly dying on a windowsill.

Mr. Limbaugh, you are not feared by us, you are nothing to us.

Being Female

I belonged to a religion for eighteen years, almost everyday of which I felt caged or different because I didn't quite fit that religion's definition of femininity. I was constantly told what being female meant and what my life would hold for me, and that I would like it. I was living someone else's idea of what my life should be because I am female.

I hold to no religion now. I am my own person, or at least I am learning how to become my own person. It takes a while to flush out the dogma.

Here are a couple of quotes that I've come across lately that echo my sentiments, but say it so much better than I could. The first is from a couple of YA authors who write strong female characters. They were on a panel from which an attendee drew a list of advice on how to make a kick-ass Young Adult heroine. Here's one piece of advice:

Ignore orders from both sides.



[Tamora] Pierce discussed how upsetting it was for her, who grew up during the feminist revolution in the ‘70s, to arrive at college and have women saying that “real” feminists were gay or celibate. (“I was neither,” she quipped.) This debate extends to her female characters, as mentioned above. “The whole point of what we did was giving every woman the power to choose how they wanted to live,” she said. “Not to present only restrictions on women, but to present the possibilities that come from being female.”

“The thing about being female,” [Esther] Friesner said, “is that it makes us think there’s only one way to be female. I’ll bet there’s at least two or three, or six, different ways in this very room. There is no one female… Sometimes the biggest battle is ‘This is what you should be doing,’ handed down by the feminists or by the anti-feminists.”

And here is the second quote, from Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address to the graduating class at Stanford University:

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Don't be trapped by dogma. Trapped is exactly how it feels, and if you feel that way, start asking questions and then find the answers out for yourself.

A problem with Ardipithicus ramidus

Ardipithicus ramidus, the 4.4 million year old fossil hominid, has been in the news lately. She's caused quite a stir because it turns out that she was bipedal. No one expected that from a 4.4 million year old hominid. The thinking was that as far back as that, all of our precursors would still be knuckle-walkers. But Ardi has surprised everyone.

My problem is not with Ardi's bipedality. It's not even with Ardi herself. It's with some of the hypotheses being thrown around about her bipedality coupled with the relatively small canine size in both the males and females of the species.

I watched a discovery channel show about Ardi, her discovery, the analyzation of the remains, and results of the research thus far. A big deal was made about the small canine size (in both males and females) and the bipedality. These are two very strange traits - bipedality in mammals is almost uniquely found in the hominid/human family tree. And, why in the world would evolution favor the males giving up their huge canines - used for defense and in battling over females? The focus was on trying to account for the circumstances which would drive the evolutionary selection of these two traits together.

And what reason did the men come up with? It must have been because the males of the species suddenly could provide more for the females, who were more receptive (sexually) to them because the males could now walk upright and carry food that they had gathered back to the females.

That's what I have a problem with.

Hasn't it been Man The Hunter up until now who drove the evolution of the species while the females quietly gathered in the background? And now that it looks like gathering might have been the impetus for bipedality, suddenly it's the males who are doing it? While the females are doing what, exactly? Sitting around back at camp waiting for the males to come back loaded down with food so that they can open their legs for them?

A bit one-sided, don't you think?

How about this scenario: Ardipethecus ramidus was a hominid, the group structure of which was not run by male dominance, but instead was a matriarchy, similar to Pan paniscus, or today's Bonobos - a species of chimpanzee whose social structure is run by the females. Bonobos are more comfortable with bipedal motion than their cousins, Pan troglodytes (the chimps that you may be more familiar with). And Bonobo canines are smaller and less sexually dimorphic than those of regular chimps. In the Bonobos it is the female who chooses the male, unlike their cousins, P. troglodytes, the males of which use their large canines to fight for the females, and are often aggressive toward the females themselves.

Lets put the female hominid back in her role as gatherer. It is not an unimportant role, although perhaps it has been made to seem so only because it's the females who have been doing it. Gathering is what has sustained the hominid population throughout these millenia, while the male role of hunting (or, more likely early on, scavenging rotting carcasses for putrid meat) has been important, but not as sustaining. In fact, let's look at this scenario and see if half of the population feels left out somehow:

The female hominid, by walking upright as she gathers, and is able to both hold her infant and the food she is gathering , is able to go farther afield and return with more food, enabling her to share with the group. As the brain size of the hominids evolve and grow larger - no doubt due to the female's need to recognize useful and harmful plants, insects, and small animals, and to be able to to make the tools needed to dig and cut, and then to mash and chop, and to fashion things such as baskets to carry her foragings in - birth becomes more difficult because of the growing head size of the infants and the increasing difficulty of the head fitting through the birth canal. The need for help in childbirth drives group dynamics further, with women needing other women to help them. Peace and goodwill among group members, especially the women, drives group cooperation and selects against the aggressor.

Anything missing there? Well, if you are male, you now know how we women have felt every time we've read or heard about Man The Hunter.

I say we all grow up and start to look at human evolution from both sides of the story, and stop with this nonsense of attributing evolution-driving behavior only to the males of the species.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali makes surprise appearance at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

A quote from today's Cleveland Plain Dealer (the full article can be found here):

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a feminist detractor of Islam and a former member of the Dutch Parliament, is lauded in some quarters and lambasted in others for rejecting her Muslim heritage and condemning the religion's treatment of women."

Apparently it was kept secret that the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards committe had honored her with the prize for best non-fiction book for her memoir Infidel. The secret was kept to protect her and the audience members. When the surprise announcement was made and she walked on stage, the audience gasped and then rose in applause.

A quote from her speech:

"Bigotry is not only a white man's disease. It's a universal disease, and the only way to get rid of it is through self-examination. And there is not self-examination if there is no self."

The Plain Dealer reporter (book editor Karen R. Long) noted that this quote was in reference to "what Hirsi Ali sees as the subjugation of women in the Muslim World."

After her friend and documentary film collaborator, Theo van Gogh was killed by extremists in Amsterdam in 2004 - left with a death threat aimed at her stabbed to his body - Ayann Hirsi Ali has been living in isolation.

Subjugation is sometimes committed in God's name, treated not as subjugation, but as God's will. This sort of treatment is not called what it is, but its name is turned around and lauded as reverential. Those who are subjected to it are deemed so special they have to be taken care of, placed on a pedestal for their own good, for their own protection, along with harsh penalties for stepping off of that pedestal.

That's the excuse given for withholding the respect and dignity with which every person should be able to live their lives, from women. The "reverence" is really an objectification, a thingification, an excuse to treat women badly, in God's name, or just because it feels good.

And if you think it's only to be found in the Muslim world, you are vastly, sadly, sorely mistaken.

Another Recommended Book

I just finished reading Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It details her life in, and escape from, the FLDS – the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. The FLDS have been in the news lately; they are the polygamist colony which was raided in Texas and had over four hundred of their children taken away. Carolyn was able to escape them in 2003, when they were still in Arizona and hadn’t yet moved a substantial number of adherents to Texas.

Her tale is harrowing and almost unbelievable, but believe it.

The FLDS is an offshoot of the Mormon (LDS, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) church. I used to be a Mormon myself until I smartened up and left the fold. The Mormon church is nowhere near as goofy as the FLDS, but once a person becomes part of any group which exerts control over their life, it’s a slippery slope and not a far tumble into strange realms of belief.

Don’t ever let anyone think for you. Question everything, and don’t let anyone or anything stymie your search for answers.