Fearlessly Feminine: How Circular Arguments and Personal Truth Threaten Women’s Right to Self-Determination

In the interest of understanding more about the view of women that informs so many of the religious right’s policy goals, I’ve been reading books such as Jani Ortlund’s Fearlessly Feminine: Boldly Living God’s Plan for Womanhood and Michael Farris’ How a Man Prepares His Daughters for Life.

Ortlund’s book — in which I am currently reading the chapter on motherhood — is particularly interesting. On the first pass, I was surprised with just how much of her outlook I actually agreed with.

After all, in my experience communication is central to a good marriage. Things that can be bought and sold are not of true spiritual significance. Sex without respect is morally bankrupt, and taking care of the needs of others is a critical component of righteousness.

So many good points started jumping out at me that I started asking myself, “just how different am I from Christian Nationalists, anyway?”

Confused, I went back and re-read the passages I agreed with. I began to deconstruct Ortlund’s rhetorical devices and quickly realized that her book is 95% regurgitated conventional wisdom about marriage, motherhood and singleness.

Like most conventions of our society, this wisdom is tinged with hints of misogyny. After all, we’ve changed the relationship between the sexes more in the past 50 years than we did in the past 4,000. It’s perfectly understandable — although not acceptable — that our social conventions still reflect our patriarchal roots.

This is where Ortlund segues so effectively into her more controversial points about the role of women. Before you know it, it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that a woman’s place really is in the home being “slave labor” — as she so elegantly puts it — for her children. She extrapolates her arguments beautifully from the tendrils of social convention that so desperately need to change.
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TeresaCentric is Back Online

Well, we hit a little snag with our MySQL databases. Somewhere along the line, the database convinced itself that we were running WP 1.0 and all kinds of strange things started to happen. Thankfully, fixing the problem wasn’t too complicated once my friend Jennifer explained it to me.

There’s just one little snafu. While the database was fracked, all the plugins deactivated. That includes Akismet, which is responsible for blocking all of the spam that comes through this site. When I finally was able to get back into the WordPress backend, I had 1,245 comments to approve. In the interests of preserving my sanity, I assumed that they were all spam.

If you’ve left a comment on this blog in the past couple of days and it hasn’t been approved, that’s probably why. Drop me an e-mail at tsv02001 [at] gmail [dot] com and we’ll sort things out.

So thanks to Jennifer, TeresaCentric is back online.

GOP Debate Tonight

The Republican candidates are holding a debate tonight on CNN at 8PM ET, with questions from “regular” people asked via YouTube. As the Republican field is still wide open with just over a month until primaries start, the candidates have started to take the gloves off. I will enjoy watching the candidates spend two hours calling each other un-conversative Hillary-esque liberals.

I also expect the debate to be more frightening than Saw IV, as the Republican candidates (with the expection of Ron Paul) try to convince the American people that they are the only person who can save us from the Islamic Jihadists regularly crossing the border armed with suitcase nukes. I fully expect to hear this message repeatedly in October of next year from the Republican primary winner:

“Be afraid. Be very afraid. Hillary Clinton loves terrorists. If she is elected, terrorists will come to your house and kill you. Then they’ll convert your children to Muslim-ism.”

What was it that FDR said before he defeated the Nazi’s? “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I wonder if that message would still work in 2008.

The Real Heterosexual Republican - By George W. Bush

Your attention please. Ladies and gentlement, your attention please.
Will the real heterosexual Republican please stand up?
Umm, we’re gonna have a problem here.

Y’all act like you’ve never seen a homophobe before.
Jaws all on the floor like Elton John and Tom Cruise just walked in the door.
I started persecuting years before the Culture War,
Now the liberal media is trying to even the score.

Karl Rove is down with this, Karl Rove is down with that,
And if I’m lucky Jeff Gannon won’t talk smack.
And that’s the reason that Rove isn’t coming back,
If Gannon outs him I’ll surely get jacked.

Larry Craig is meeting men in the bathroom,
Mark Foley is hitting on interns in a chatroom,
Ted Haggard’s doing meth with his escort in a backroom,
While Richard Curtis wants to do it in costume.

Of course all my cronies are having affairs with men,
And these stories keep coming out again and again,
It turns out Trent Lott also has a special friend,
All this hypocracy is making marriage really hard to defend.

And there’s a million of us just like me, who trangress like me, repress like me,
Lie, cheat, cross-dress like me,
Hate, resent, detest like me,
And just might be the next best thing, but not quite me.

Because I’m George W, I think gays are vile,
And all the other homophobes are just in denial.
So won’t the true marriage defender please stand up,
And make sure civil rights are completely shredded up.
And be proud to be in the closet and out of control,
And when you’re straight like me, just yell it, loud as you can, let everyone know.

Is Trent Lott Gay? Who Cares? The Believability of the Story Speaks Volumes

Recent rumors of a relationship between prominent GOP Senator Trent Lott — who announced his retirement today — and gay escort Benjamin Nicholas have been roiling the blogosphere all afternoon. The Stranger’s Slog has a a great round up of the discussion.

The back and forth in the blogosphere is starting to sound a skeptical note. Both the escort in question and the blog that broke the story have had credibility issues in the past. But from a gay rights perspective, whether or not Lott actually had a liaison with Nicholas isn’t the most relevant detail of this story. It’s the familiarity of the storyline.

How often have we seen rabidly anti-gay leaders outed for their backroom dealings with gay escorts? It happens in every state and at every level of government. Homophobia is often homosexuality waiting to come out of the deepest, darkest, smelliest regions of the closet.

I hope that anti-gay crusaders will wake up one day and recognize that their leaders are wasting their time and energy on a self-hating wild goose chase. True or not, the Trent Lott story brings us closer to that day.

Join Me for a Facebook Webinar

Want to know more about the power of Facebook for public relations and marketing professionals? Then come check out my webinars on November 26-27 at 10:00 a.m. PST. Click the bug for more information.

Beginning Re-Baathification in Iraq

We all know that the early mismanagement of the American occupation in Iraq hinged on three key mistakes:

1. Purging the government of all Baath party loyalists.
2. Disbanding the Iraqi military.
3. Allowing large-scale looting in the streets.

Now it appears that the Bush administration has made re-integrating Baath loyalists into the Iraqi government. Is it too little too late?

I think so.

Bush Waits Seven Years For Middle East Peace Talks

President Bush decided today that the time is ripe for peace in the Middle East. Next week he will begin the first of three rounds of talks in the Middle East intended to create peace in the region, particularly in dealing with the Israeli-Palenstinian issue.

When first taking office, President Bush choose to break with President Bill Clinton’s policy of working towards peace in the Middle East through talks. However, seven years later, things in the Middle East are post-apocalyptic. As a result, Bush has decided to break with his strategy of invading countries for no reason and instead is opting for conversation. Bush’s press secretary, Dana Parino, had this to say about the trip:

“President Bush’s decision to involve himself in peace talks is in no way a reversal of his previous policy. The conditions for peace in the Middle East simply did not exist seven years ago. However, now that we’ve destroyed all trust and respect between every single faction, sect, race, ethnicity and religious group from Egypt to Pakistan, signing a piece of paper saying they will not try to kill each other will totally fix everything.”

Black Friday An Embarassment of American Priorities

Americans spent an estimated 20 Billion dollars shopping today. Aside from the ridiculousness of everyone shopping on the same day, which means heavy traffic, cramped parking, long lines, and overcrowded stores, the vast majority of these purchases are dispensible and disposable.

In other ways, this type of spending, while it appears to give our economy a bolst, is simply of waste of resources. Any long-term economic growth must come from investment in infrastructure, which ultimately comes as a result of SAVING. We are a nation with a 9 trillion dollar debt that just spent 20 Billion dollars on Christmas presents in one day. Wow.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Enjoy the day we give thanks by watching football and eating too much.

Facebook Launches Controversial Beacon

Facebook’s new program, Beacon, is receiving a lot of negative buzz.

The new program shows users online purchases in their news feed. Personally, I don’t want my online purchases shown in my news feed. Not only could it ruin my Christmas presents, it could potentially get me fired.

MoveOn.org has suggested that is in invasion of privacy, and launched an ad campaign against the service. What do you think?

Saudi Rape Victim Sentenced to 200 Lashes, 6 Months In Jail

In 2006, an 18-year-old unmarried but engaged woman went to the mall with a male escort who was not related to her. While there she was abducted by several men and later raped. The men were convicted and sentenced to two to nine years in prison.

The woman was also tried and convicted of breaking the law. Her crime was being in public without a male family member escorting her, a violation of strict Islamic law. I should also mention that the fact that she violated this law was to meet with a man who was blackmailing her.

After being sentenced to 60 lashes, the woman spoke out in the media against her sentence and applied for an appeal. Upon appeal, her sentence was extended to 200 lashes.

This is of course, abhorrent. But the question is, how far should our government go in trying to change the laws, customs, and practices of other countries. Since the failed Iraq and Afghanistan wars (I know some people think Afghanistan is a not a failure; leave a comment and we’ll debate it), I have become much more paranoid of foreign interventions.

When considering intervention in a foreign countries’ affairs, I always ask WWPD. What Would Picard Do. First though, a look at how American politicians are dealing with this indicent, and how the other Star Trek captains would deal with this.

Republicans:

Bush: The Bush administration will not get involved in an internal Saudi decision. Also, we need more oil.

Guiliani/Tancredo/Brownback: All A-rabs are evil.

Ron Paul: Let’s just stay away from the middle east until it gets its act together.

Democats:

John Edwards: This “is an appalling breach of the most fundamental human rights.”

Hillary Clinton: “I urge President Bush to call on King Abdullah [of Saudi Arabia] to cancel the ruling and drop all charges against this woman.”

Star Trek Captains:

Sisco: Apply heavy diplomatic pressure. Consult prophets.

Kirk: Would stage a daring rescue, resulting in an international incident, but freeing the woman and bringing her back to America.

Janeway: Also would stage a daring rescue, resulting in the death of Harry Kim, who somehow is alive again for the next episode.

Picard: Would offer asylum to the woman and threaten to break off trade relations with the Saudi government if did commute the sentence or allow her to leave.

Which is how I feel. The United States economy is extremely powerful. Everyone needs to trade with us. Even the Saudi’s. We only get 10 percent of our oil from Saudi Arabia anyway. I think it’s about time that US started putting pressure on other countries to start recognizing universal human rights with our economic might. I know that Bush is too paranoid to do anything that might cause a slight economic bump, because then everyone will realize how much he has messed things up. But I hope the next President has the guts to stand for human rights.

I thought I should also mention that by at not, at the very least, saying that lashing a rape victim 200 times is a bad thing, that President Bush is tactily supporting this action.

Here’s a link to help this woman.

“Fat Slut:” Killing Our Teenage Girls One MySpace Bulletin at a Time

By now, most of the country has learned about the suicide of Megan Meier last October. The Missouri teen was the victim of a cruel hoax perpetrated by the mother of one of her former friends.

The mother — 48 year-old Lori Drew — created a MySpace profile under the assumed identity of “Josh Evans,” a 16 year-old boy. Megan quickly became friends with “Josh” and for six weeks, she had the perfect e-boyfriend.

Then things went South. Josh began sending Megan cruel messages. He forwarded Megan’s private messages to people in her class at school. His last message to Megan told her that “the world would be a better place without you.”

Some of Megan’s so-called friends even got in on the hoax. People posted bulletins — electronic fliers that go out to all of your friends — with titles like “Megan Meier is fat” and “Megan Meier is a slut.”

This was too much for Megan, who struggled with her body image and already suffered from depression, suicidal ideation and low self esteem. She hanged herself in her closet.

Aside from being one of the worst cases of cyberbullying I’ve ever heard of, this also represents a colossal breakdown in the responsibility of adult women to safeguard and cherish the nascent self-image of young girls.
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Why Do I Always Feel Like the Guy Spinning Too Many Plates?

I had a really crappy day today. It started off well enough. I was going through my kGTD list and moving rapidly through my workflow. Things were going so well that by 1:00ish, I thought it was safe to take a break and run a few errands in Bellevue.

The whole trip would have taken no more than half an hour, except that just as I was getting ready to come home, my car refused to start.

I checked the oil. I checked the battery connections. There was nothing wrong that I could see. I tried to start the car again. No luck.

So I called AAA. They told me to sit tight and that they’d be there within the hour. They showed up two and a half hours later and fixed the fuel filter, which was the problem.

By the time I got back to work, it was nearly 5:00 and I still had a whole afternoon’s worth of work to get through. To make things worse, I had to get on three conference calls and put out some unanticipated fires that cropped up in my absence. And in the midst of it all, my friends were lobbying me to get my shit together and come rock climbing.

I love my friends, and I love my job. But there are times when I would kill every living being on the planet with a single thought just to get five minutes without some new piece of information, question or request flying at my head.

Whenever I get this overwhelmed, the only solution is spending several hours in a complete vacuum. I turn off the phone, unplug my computer and lie back on my bed with my eyes closed. Unfortunately, this makes me kind of a bad friend because I don’t do a very good job of communicating this need to the people that matter to me. I just suddenly sign off instant messenger, stop picking up the phone and retreat.

Do any of you guys ever get like this? What do you do? How do you explain to the people that you love that you’re just too overwhelmed to deal with them right now and would they all please just leave you alone?

links for 2007-11-20

• Dying to date
  Reports of dating’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Last time I checked, people still date and develop intimacy beyond sex on a regular basis. The right’s fear of sex turning America into Sodom and Gomorrah never ceases to amuse me.
  (tags: sex dating relationships)

Romney Leads In New Hampshire, While Paul Gains Ground

The latest poll results for New Hampshire, the first (probably) stop in the Republican primary, show Mitt Romney increasing his lead from 25 percent up to 33 percent. Ron Paul has also shown he is a serious contender, jumping up to 8 percent to wrest 4th place away from Fred Thompson.

Rudy Guiliani came in second with 16 percent, a small dip from his earlier numbers in the 20’s, and McCain held steady at 18 percent. Thompson nose dived from 13 percent all the way down to 4.

Of course, with only 14 percent of Republican voters in NH saying they’ve made up their mind, the field is wide-open. And with Guiliani losing steam, it is possible that he too may fall behind Mr. Paul. With Romney’s war chest and current lead, my guess is that New Hampshire may go Romney, Paul, McCain, Guiliani, Huckabee, Thompson. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part, since Guiliani, Huckabee, and Thompson scare the crap out of me.

Boston Sports

I posted a few weeks ago about the fortunes of Boston sports fans. I thought I’d give a quick update, since it appears as though the city of Boston is going to sweep the three most popular American sports: baseball, football, and basketball.

The Boston Celtics, at 8-1, have the best record in the NBA. This is especially impressive given that very few of the players have ever played with each other; if these superstars mesh this well after two months, imagine what the team will look like in June.

The Patriots, at 10-0, demolished the 4-6 Bills today 56-10. They are on pace to break virtually ever single offensive record there is. Tom Brady is on track to throw over 60 TD’s. Just for reference, Joe Montana, one of the all-time greats had a single-season high 29. The current record, held by Peyton Manning, is 49. Randy Moss, with 14 TD’s, is also on track to break the single-season receiving TD record.

And of course, the Red Sox swept a World Series they completed dominated.

If these trends continue, the average American sports fan may have to stop hating NY and start hating Boston (although I will always hate Eli Manning).

P.S. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Boston’s sports fortunes were caused by me. So Boston readers, you OWE me.

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