What did your mother always tell you? If you can't say anything nice...

So many things got brought up in these articles that I'm finding it hard to draw them all into one idea to draw on here. So, I'll start with what I know. 

If gender roles are so natural, why do we need to work so hard to preserve them? (187) 

I am woman. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing at all against men. And there are many more things than just those stated by Maya Angelou in "Phenomenal Woman" that make me an individual. I say that I'm a woman with pride, because I'm also a living being, and celebrate what a unique experience it is to exist--- just as I am. (And I hope men do the same. And that animals do so as well.) That's just how I approach the world. We're all kind of these beings encapsulated in physical bodies that may or may not come with a set of functions and way of seeing the world. In that case, it makes male/female/human/animal/race lines kind of obsolete, and all the discussion over words one of the quality of the experience we have here, and how our beings communicate with one another beyond just on an energy-type way. Yes, I know this all sounds very New Age, but my ability to craft words to say what I mean seems insufficient tonight. Anyway, I kind of equate it to this passage from Derrida, though he put it far more simply and eloquently than I: 

 It is true that I identify it as a male or female cat. But even before that identification, I see it as this irreplaceable living being that one day enters my space, enters this place where it can encounter me, see me, even see me naked. Nothing can ever take away from me the certainty that what we have here is an existence that refuses to be conceptualized. And a mortal existence, for from the moment that it has a name, its name survives it. It signs its potential disappearance. Mine also, and this disappearance, from that moment... is announced each time that, naked or not, one of us leaves the room." (212)

 But for the sake of this discussion, I think it's important realize that there are a lot of things I don't consider about being a woman on an everyday basis. 

There are the good, like the fact that I am apparently born with an innate capacity to care (though it may take some confidence and development of a sense of agency to put this into practice). 

I remember any time I might have chastised my dad about needing to be nicer to people he was dealing with in business or some part of the everyday dairy operation, he always told me, "A man's got to do what a man's got to do. It's not pretty. I don't like doing it. But it's got to be done." I wish I had had the guts back then to say... but do you really? Do you really have to demonstrate your "ability to override your sympathetic hesitations." (187) What would happen if you just chose a different method. In which case, I was always shrugged off as a naive idealist. Perhaps the world needs more idealists. 

 Moreover, there's that whole clause in the human creation contract that has bestowed upon us women that whole "

ability to generate and maintain life" thing. How much more power can you get?! Perhaps it is a reach to say that "Women have an overt capacity to generate and maintain life through gestation and suckling. Lacking these capacities, men seek other ways to demonstrate generativity." (190) 

The not so great part of being a woman-- objectification. 

I'm not accusing all of you guys of being bitter towards women in general because you can't be pregnant. I hardly think that most of you have had that thought (especially considering we live in a little bubble of culture in which babies freak 99% of the population out). But there is still that institution lingering within us in which gender roles are centered around procreation. I mean, I can list them out, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and while we've made some advances in breaking this down, I have to wonder how far these reach? How much does our background of trying to conquer nature and reproduce well enough to evolve have to do with our still being "at war" with nature? 

Or when I get older, when I am "no longer sexually attractive or able to reproduce," will I be the "'old biddy' [who] has outlived her usefulness." ( 200) I mean, I hesitate to ask this, but are these true? And in that case, what do you all think of the term "cougar" ? Positive? Negative? 

I mean, I grew up with the nickname Rabbit. I had my fair share of people calling me dumb bunny or Playboy or (the least creative) Humper, instead of Thumper. I just remember having a conversation with my mother in which I pretty much asked her to stop calling me Rabbit in public, lest people get the wrong idea about me or my feminine sensibilities, and my mother said, "If anyone who spends more than three minutes with you thinks you are of questionable morals or of lower intelligence, then either they did not listen to a word you said or they are not very bright. Either way, you should probably cut your losses and leave them to your ignorance. Never let words own you." And this is something that I live by. However, we have to remember that not everyone looks at words as tools that human have a limited ability to control to interact with the world around them, and nothing more. Most people can truly be offended by them. Then again, words are the medium through which we understand and define our laws, our education, and the things that we do or consume. 

So, look at society today. I, like a lot of other people, take for granted the way subjected people are portrayed. In fact, it was the discussion of women wearing fur and cosmetics, or "naturally and ceaselessly engaged in decorating and adorning their bodies to attract the attention of men" (187) that got me thinking about human behavior. Am I a subjected person, irrationally exploiting the world around me in order to buy into a patriarchal system? I think the important thing here is to question everything.

 I mean, we could literally break down every little decision we make in a day, and look how it effects the lives around us. As living beings that have quite a bit of technology and resources to impose upon the world at our disposal (which should make us feel empowered), we also have a responsibility to what said technology and resources might do.

With great power comes great responsibility. It's cheesy, I know, but applicable. 

Think of the accidents that happen on an everyday basis, the things we do, "not deliberately but as an expected yet unintended consequence of our continuous development and expansion," (180)Now I'm scared that everything I do is like the butterfly effect, where I might be accidentally killing something some way with every move or gesture. It's a wee bit stressful. 

I don't know guys. Do we really think about it enough for these words to matter? Until I read this, I had never really considered it like this. I mean, the word "bitch" I did. But not vixen or foxy. 

Foxy- because "stylish and attractive yet sees her largely as a sex object worth possessing." 

Vixen- perjorative "expresses sexist resentment toward the contentions woman... threatens a man's self-esteem and sense of security, intruding into his perceived domain." (201)

Now I'm almost scared to say anything, for the power words hold, but I will say that I like the idea that it does hold the ability to be so meaningful and to tell so much about what we really thing and how we look at the world (though I wish it had better things to say about humanity.) I guess this is part of why I'm an English major--- this power of words.

Not that you guys don't have it rough, too. I just wish we could be more aware of how we say things. 

Being empathetic apparently brings into question your manliness, virility and strength. Stereotypes for men, like women, are often off the mark and exist to devalue people and perspectives that threaten the status quo. I mean, if you need proof, look at Robert Cheeke and Kenneth Williams. As another fun fact, apparently vegan men are less likely to experience impotence as they age; and straight men who date in the vegan community are outnumbered about 3:1 by women so they have an opportunity for very raucous dating lives. 

But still, again, if we're going back to the power of words, why did they have to use the word pussy? And why does PETA (again, PETA?A) bring gender into their ads so often. Is it a "sex sells" idea? I don't even know. Somebody needs to have a discussion with the head of their marketing campaign. Their intentions are good. Their follow through isn't really.  

Why do we have to think that male identity must develop in opposition to female identity? (190)

Ok... my last point. I liked how Luke pointed out that these issues are all interrelated somehow. I always fancy myself Wonderwoman, like I'm going to save the world. And I always have people tell me I'm wasting my time working with animals when I could be helping out people. And I always say, a lot of our problems come from the same place. I, of course, simplify it as "humans are flawed. But this is better: 

 "How could I spend my time writing when so many people were illiterate? How could I discuss food choices when so many people needed any food whatsoever? How could I discuss violence against animals when women victimized by male violence needed shelter?... By my own silencing, I endorsed the dominant discourse that I was seeking to deconstruct. It is past time for us to consider the sexual politics of meat for they are not separate from other pressing issues of our time." (193)  

Save the chicken-- save the world!

Sources used: 

 Luke, "Gender and the Exploitation of Animals" (179-193)

The Sexual Politics of Meat(194-198)

 "Sexist Words, Speciesist Roots." (199-205)

Derrida, "L'Animal que doc je suis (a suivre)" (209+)