Unshaved Legs
Let me be clear about one thing right up front. In a faulty analogy, one of the parties to the, um, altercation at hand asked in a snide, rhetorical way "Would you condemn the ad if it had featured Speedo-clad beefcake instead?" For my part, the idea of Speedo-clad hunks throwing pies at each other — or doing anything to each other, for that matter — sounds like a pretty okay idea. But that's just my own perversion. This isn't about that.
The present story goes something like this:
- Straight-male-A-list liberal blogger has an ad featuring bikini-clad buxom babes in a pie fight.
- Outspoken feminist [= "uppity feminazi" in this context] suggests that the ad might be dissonant with respect for issues of women's equlity.
- Straight-male-A-list liberal blogger cops attitude and suggests that outspoken feminist stop being so sensitive about a divisive issue, that she get a life and realize there are bigger things at stake ("important shit").
- Straight-male-conservative-blogger, disillusioned with his own Republican party's headlong rush away from their own principles, runs towards the fracas*, exclaims "yeah, me too!" and suggests that the reason Democrats keep losing is thanks to the "the crowd who dares not shave their legs."
- In response to the raised eyebrows elicited by that remark, straight-male-conservative-blogger trots out the tired old online excuse that it was all just a joke anyway.
My favorite summary is at What Do I Know ("Stuff This Wherever You Keep Your Important Shit"); it names names and links links. Sean Carroll, another physicist, wrote a thoughtful, analytical piece that says stuff that I'd like to have said myself if I were more attentive and serious about it.
First, about the "it was just a joke" gambit mentioned in #5: it's so 1990. That excuse didn't work a decade ago in Usenet flame-wars, and it doesn't work today any better, even if we do have a Republican administration.
I suspect that I'm not a very good feminist. I'm an aging white male, albeit a gay one, but that leaves me with a good chunk of the "white male" part, I expect. I also suspect that I just don't care about women's issues as much as women feminists do, but maybe that's okay, since I don't really expect other people to care about things like gay issues, or diabetic issues, or physicist issues as much as I do. I can try to understand and respect them, however.
My operating principle in this situation outlined above is this: offense is in the eys of the offended.
One gets tired after awhile of hearing the angry straight white male tell one that there's no need to be offended, that there's nothing to be offended about. For at least 4 decades that I can remember, straight while males have been offering strategic advice to: a) black people; b) women; and c) gay people (I'm sure there are others) about how we can help advance our cause, or about how something — tsk! — that we've said or done undoubtedly sets our cause back. It's most helpful of the gentlemen, who are always surprised by the lack of gratitude from those on the receiving end of their wisdom. It's the last vestage of the White Man's Burden and no one appreciates their efforts.
Well, it's wasn't their place then and it's still not their place. I know that this notion offends them — perhaps they should just get over it.
One claim in the present altercation is that there is more "important shit" than worrying about whether a bunch of women are offended by an ad or an attitude. It's a specious argument: there is nothing more important for a principled, liberal stance than valuing others. Ours is a co-operative philosophy. Contrary to claims, we are not cultural elitists.
I've been pissed off for years by Republican Gays who point their fingers at Liberal Faggots like me and claim that we're "single-issue voters" when there are "more important issues" to consider than "gay rights".
More important than Life? More important than Liberty? More important than the Pursuit of Happiness? Nowadays I may be willing to go along with the idea that there's a single issue at stake, but it's not the one they think it is.
Imagine a group of people, a large crowd of Americans gathered together perhaps in a room to listen to some speakers.
A conservative steps to the dais and surveys the crowd. What does he see? A uniform crowd of yokels, powerless peasants looking to be led and exploited, by him if he can manage it. God helps him who helps himself.
A liberal steps to the dais and surveys the crowd. What does she see? A diverse group of people with an abundance of hopes and dreams, anxious to join together in a cooperative effort to realize those dreams, knowing that as a group we can accomplish that which might otherwise be impossible.
The biological metaphor that comes to mind here is that of genetic diversity in corn. We recall the concern some years ago that too many farmers around the world were using just one or two strains of corn; genetic diversity was being lost, leaving the corn crops vulnerable to unknown future pests or diseases. Tactically, unformity might increase yields; strategically, diversity is the only viable solution. (I like this metaphor since it invokes ideas of evolution and selection, making the bad guys look even worse since they hate reality-based science.)
There is no more "important shit" than respecting our diversity as a reservoir from which we can draw deeply to slake the thirst of those who dream of liberty and toil endlessly to have it.
By the way, I don't shave my legs either, nor do I care for my lovers to shave their legs. In fact, I rejoice in unshaved legs!
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*The appropriate joke would be the one, usually told of an Irishman, who sees two men fighting outside a pub. "Is this a private fight," he yells, "or can anyone join in?"
on Monday, 13 June 2005 at 23.45
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very well said… kudos to you for displaying exactly the kind of humility and thoughtfulness that is needed in political activists/ commentators.
on Tuesday, 14 June 2005 at 00.43
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I care about physicists' issues too, albeit I don't know a gamma ray from a beta. Really, that Hubble rocks!
Thanks for caring about our issues, too, and like I said: women's issues usually are everyone's issues.