feminism

["Brian J Dillard" <dillardb@student.msu.edu>]

jennifer@casa writes that she considers kate a feminist even if kate doesn't
and that that's not a hate-filled statement

well, perhaps not, but i think it's presumptuous, childish and damaging.

one wouldn't say, well, rush limbaugh is a democrat in my mind, even if he
isn't in his own. not to compare kate to rush or anything, but you get my
point. the label 'feminist' has certain concrete connotations with which Kate
clearly does not want to label herself, as evidenced by things she has said in
interviews.

according to jennifer's definition (anyone who paints, writes, etc.
what it is really like to be a woman), alice walker is afeminist. why, then,
does alice walker insist on the label 'womanist,' as in, 'womanist is to
feminist as purple is to (some other less wonderful color i forgot what and i
don't have 'in search of our mother's gardens' in front of me, sorry)'?

i think it is a human tendency to want people we admire to be as much like us
as possible. but i also think it is childish to insist that they ascribe to the
same sort of ideology as we do when they have clearly stated that they do not.

i think thi s is a very amierian (an all the worst senses of the word) type of
thing to say/do. eyerything here is so damned ideological!

my french professor said it best when i, a vegetarian, was bitching about
having to learn 'la viande' and 'le biftek' and other meaty vocab words:

"don't be so dogmatic!"

in other words, if the only kind of people you can stand are people exactly
like yourself, stay at home. alone.

brian dillard
dillardb@student.msu.edu

HAS ANYONE, EVERYONE HEARD THE NEW ANNIE LENNOX AND/OR PJ HARVEY SINGLES? BOTH
BRILLIANT AS HELL!!!!!! PJ'S DOWN BY THE WATER, ALMOST PUTS ME IN MIND OF THE
DREAMING ALBUM, IT'S SO DAMN ATMOSPHERIC AND RHYTHMIC AND JUST CREEPY