Re: the pics of Therese Rein, to add to the insult, when channel ten ran it on the 10.30 news headlines the other night it was immediately followed by a story on giant jelly blubbers. Just in case we were unclear on what we should take away from the story about the prime minister’s wife in the gym. Nice.

Basically, she’s saying that the ideals of “femininity”, of which our thirteen year old blogger speaks so lovingly, are really about being expected to do enormous amounts of labour without compensation of any kind — the flowers and dresses are just outward symbols of a willingness to do it all, without getting anything in return. I know that the idea that women do huge amounts of unacknowledged labour is not new to feminists, but I love that she’s talking about it in contrast to the notion that feminists are perceived as greedy bitches for wanting more options.

Yes, I noticed that as well. Having a wife who only works directly for her family’s comforts at home has always been a social status marker, where those men who need the extra income from a working wife to cover expenses are looked down upon by wealthier men.

There’s the very occasional “acceptable” monetary employment for a wife (especially a young wife) to have in these traditionalist communities – music teacher, part-time bookkeeper, solicitor’s clerk, subject tutor – ideally things that they can do from the home. But even these are viewed as secondary pursuits that “help” with the family’s bills and they are expected to cease these activities as soon as their husband progresses sufficiently with his career that his income covers all the bills.

I agree on the women’s mags things; although interestingly, as I’ve grown older, I’ve found them less interesting. I can’t tell if that’s because they’re just so goddamned repetitive, or because I’m feeling less like I need or want or am even interested in the kinds of assurances they tend to offer, or the kinds of topics they tend to focus on. Or perhaps because I’m increasingly irritated and depressed by the ways in which there’s a tendency to encourage and belittle women at the same time (and this belittling is something that some women don’t see or experience that way). Apparently I like my encouragement pure ;-)

Yes, I see what you’re saying here, though the instances I’m thinking of were more along the lines of, “there are women, therefore it is feminist and no further inquiry into the social forces at work is needed.” Nonetheless, your broader point still stands.

I think that women’s magazines are another example along the lines of romance novels — yes, they often pertuate a lot of harmful patriarchal nonesense, but they are also often spaces for women to discuss issues that are important to them as women. In manys, the patriarchal trimmings on these texts are there, I think, to give many women an “excuse” to read about things that interest them as women.

And yes, you’re probably right about her not quite getting the slashiness of the vid, but I guess in these kinds of situations (where you encounter someone whose religion has become so all-encompassing, so totalising) I just want to hope that it plants a queer seed, y’know? That she turns over in her head those longing gazes, and those tender moments with weapons… at night… under the covers ;-) And yes, bah! to Tolkein for his shocking misogyny. His mistreatment of the awesomeness that is Eowyn (not to mention the Very Few Other Women who are either Divine or Evil or Both) has always made me grumpy.

It’s interesting, however, how the concepts of “femininity” and “feminism” do operate in general discourse (that is, the discourse of those who haven’t engaged with feminism to a great extent). Although they are not mutually exclusive concepts, at the writer believes, I’ve often encountered the idea that any text that deals with “feminine” experience is automatically feminist, even if that experience is limited to a closed domestic sphere. Conversely, I also find that some women worry that they are unable to be feminists if they wish to reclaim certain “feminine” traditions for themselves (for instance, arts that have typically been associated with women– and are consequently perceived as being “lesser” in value, regardless of the skill required and the effort expended).

You know, WP, I have to wonder if that girl would even get the slashiness of that video — I kind of suspect that she’d probably just see it as evidence of exactly why Eowyn shouldn’t be allowed to be a warrior — after all, as a girl, she’s not capable of wielding phallic symbols like swords and arrows (her arm gets crushed when she finally does wield a sword in battle — proof that she’s not, er, up to the task, shall we say).