Did you see this stupid video where a climacteric guy is badgering a young woman and venting his resentment that things have grown worse for entitled middle-aged white guys now that uppity womenfolks dare to speak in public and, even worse, attend college?

Enjoy:

Yeah, Spain has freedom. Freedom from having a job. What a stupid video about a totally stupid, rabid jerk.

Also note his insistence on “we acted like men” and “men we revered.” Andropause is a scary thing. Especially when it’s combined with the loss of total gender  supremacy.

This crap reminded me why I don’t watch television any longer.

Thank you, reader Titfortat, who brought this piece of proof that television sucks to the blog.

Words fail me to describe how offensive I find the following article:

While the campaigns eagerly pursue female voters, there’s something that may raise the chances for both presidential candidates that’s totally out of their control: women’s ovulation cycles.

You read that right. New research suggests that hormones may influence female voting choices differently, depending on whether a woman is single or in a committed relationship.

Please continue reading with caution. Although the study will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Science, several political scientists who read the study have expressed skepticism about its conclusions.

I know that, as usual, there will be people who will explain to me condescendingly that this is supposed to be funny and I’m a humorless stupid autistic to be offended. But you know what? If you are not offended by this, you are an idiot. Yes, I said it. An idiot who allows a brainless excuse for a journalist to sell you her sexism in lieu of news. Keep finding excuses for this crap while she laughs all the way to the bank.

 

Musteryou came up with the brilliant idea to list the stereotypes we were taught as children. Here is my list:

1. Men are useless and have no willpower. Women have to manipulate them. If you don’t manipulate a man, some other woman will, and that isn’t of any use to you.
2. Everything is decided by women who then make men adopt their ideas as their own.
3. Women are strong and resilient while men are weak and sensitive.
4. Girls don’t cry (unless to manipulate men.) If you are in pain, you have to suffer in silence because what kind of woman are you, if you don’t?
5. Men can be forgiven anything because they are like children or like mentally disabled people. They can’t be expected to exercise any self-control or be guided by reason. So they need a woman to guide them.
6. Men have no tolerance for physical pain. If a man has a hangnail, he will create more drama around it than a woman would if she had a gaping wound in her chest.
7. Your body can be invaded at any time by other women.
8. It’s really horrible to be a woman.

Of all the reasons to miss class, it is the weather excuse that bugs me the most.

Over half of my students in the 3 pm class failed to show up for my lecture on Catalan nationalism. When I asked the rest what was happening, they told me that the weather was too nice to be in class. And that really bugs me.

If at least we lived in a climate where people only see the sun once or twice a year, I would find this somewhat easier to understand. But we have had this hot and sunny weather since March. How painful is it to dedicate 50 minutes of one’s life to being in the classroom instead of outside?

I don’t want to sound like a frumpy ancient creature who doesn’t understand the young people, but I’m tempted to ask how these kids imagine their future in the workplace. Isn’t it time they grew up already?

This is such a good lecture, and it annoys me that so many people missed it. Now they will not be able to understand half of what I say in class and will slow things down for the responsible students who did show up.

 Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Tuesday when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, “that’s something God intended.”

Mourdock, who’s been locked in one of the country’s most watched Senate races, was asked during the final minutes of a debate with Democratic challenger Rep. Joe Donnelly whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest.

“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen,” Mourdock said.

If abortion exists, then it is obviously something that God intended, too. If we are going to base our politics on psychoanalyzing God, then let’s at least engage in an exhaustive reading of God’s intentions.

I’m kind of upset with God right now for allowing Richard Mourdock to happen. I understand there must be some higher purpose here, but I have to tell you, God, this Mourdock guy is very badly done.  The gift of Mourdock’s life that you inflicted on all of us is quite a shitty gift.

Today’s lecture (that I almost overslept) was on Catalan nationalism. It is very hard to speak about current events without betraying what my opinion about them is. But I figured that since we are talking about a different country, it’s OK to be less cryptic.

“I don’t want to tell you how I feel about Rajoy,” I told my students. “So I will just show you some photos to let you know what he looks like.”

 

 

 

After I showed these images, everybody laughed.

“I’ve been wondering,” one student said. “Why is it that the professors here never express any political opinions. Is that because you are not interested in politics or because you are not allowed?”

 

I almost overslept my class today. This is weird because my class is at 12 pm. I went to bed quite early and slept well but then the heat came back over the night. Of course, I didn’t have air conditioning on because I didn’t expect the temperature to rise to +28 once again. I sleep on the second floor, under the roof which gets very hot when it’s sunny. So the heat sent me into a stupor and I barely managed to awaken at all.

This climate is going to drive me nuts.

Musteryou, also known as Jennifer Armstrong, is a Zimbabwean woman living in Australia. Musteryou is fierce which is what I love about her. She is one of the most original thinkers I know who wouldn’t manage to say anything boring or pedestrian to save her life. She is a voracious reader who has elaborated a complex personal philosophy of her own.

Musteryou is engaged in a constant process of intellectual and personal growth. Her writing is intense and her comments always make me consider things from a fresh perspective. She is also a passionate feminist who analyzes the workings of the patriarchy in a very powerful way.

Musteryou’s blog can be found here.

Last night, N. brought me a huge bouquet of roses.

“What is the occasion?” I asked.

“Your last bouquet wilted,” he explained very seriously.

This is the only typically Russian trait that N. possesses. He has been raised to believe that a man’s duty is to ensure that his wife always has fresh flowers about her. In everything else, he is the opposite of the stereotypical Russian.

He is very non-violent to the point where he can’t watch any TV shows because they traumatize him. I once got him to watch half an episode of Law & Order: SVU, and the poor guy had nightmares for a week. He also doesn’t like talk shows because he suffers when people yell over each other.

He is more indifferent to alcohol than any other person I know except my father.

He does half of household chores happily and enthusiastically. “Why did you wash these dishes?” he says, looking offended and confused. “This is my job. You are scaring me when you turn into this Soviet woman who just has to do all of the housework.”

He is a passionate feminist who winces when I jokingly say that somebody is a “typical man / woman.” Then he gives me a lecture on why gender stereotyping is wrong.

He is very progressive and a lot more Liberal on the economic issues than I am.

He is extremely faithful, monogamous, and uxorious, which is unheard of in a Russian person.

He is very methodical and organized.

He is very good at saving money.

He is also very kind. He pretends to have forgotten the stories I told him three times already to give me a chance to tell them again.

And he doesn’t talk about the tortured and mysterious Russian soul. He doesn’t even believe it exists. He also tries to control the frequency with which he quotes Pushkin for which I am eternally grateful.

My students need an urgent course in feminist theory. I didn’t have the slightest idea of how incapable they are of making an even remotely feminist analysis of a work of art. I’m a feminist and so is everybody I know. As a result, I’m completely out of touch with how infected many people are with a deeply patriarchal way of thinking. The absolute majority of my students (irrespective of gender, by the way) hold the following beliefs:

– If a woman works, she does so only because there is no man who can provide for her. There is no other conceivable reason why a woman might be working.

– If a man does not keep a woman and “has to allow her to work”, he has no choice than to feel desperate and “unmanly.”

– Women almost never leave men. Men are the ones who are more likely to leave. (This is not surprising, since in this bizarre imaginary universe where women have no income of their own, they wouldn’t be able to leave.)

– Women cannot have male friends. If a woman has a male friend, it means she is sleeping with him.

– If a man lives in a pigsty, that means there is no woman who loves him.

– Men don’t care about their appearance. But that’s OK because women also don’t care about men’s appearance.

– If a woman leaves an alcoholic husband who beats her, she betrays family values.

– If a man hugs his male friend to comfort him, that explains why women don’t like him.

– A high percentage of women who work is a sign of a bad economy.

– Unless a man and a woman have very strictly defined and very different roles in the family, the family will fall apart.

– Masculinity is a quality men acquire by paying all the bills.

I believe that we need to add at least one course in Gender Studies to the basic requirements for all students to prepare them for life in the modern world. These kids can do a kick-ass analysis of class issues, they mostly lean  towards very progressive political and economic views, but in terms of gender roles, they are living in such a remote past that my illiterate great-great-grandmother would have been horrified with their opinions.

People! Friends! Citizens! Are we still living in 2012 or have we traveled far back in time?

P.S. One wonderful, amazing, brilliant student made me feel better about things when she wrote, “Only old people care about gender roles.”