Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Gendered Marketing Compare and Contrast

– “Everything in these ads — from the background music and narration, to the types of bodies shown — communicates messages about “proper” masculinity and femininity.”

• The Essay Collection as Revolution

– “For example, Roth – I like picking on Roth, it’s a hobby of mine – has written enough novels about how sad his penis makes him to last me a lifetime. I realize that there are some people in the world who think of penis-gazing as “great literature,” but I would like to venture that those people could be incorrect. Obviously critics have suggested many different definitions of “great literature,” what it is and what it does. And obviously the answers may contain multitudes. But let’s take the one Gould posits – that good literature “describes the human condition.” I guess I am not sure if the literature there described – a man writing about himself – does that either. Certainly the modern penis-novel – which, it seems, is the main way men write about themselves, these days – does not accomplish this, in my view. It might describe the male condition, but then, it only probably describes the white Jewish mid-20th-century male condition, and that, let us all agree, can’t be all it means to be human. To me, anyway, reading Roth often feels like reading letters from another planet, and not one I’ve much interest in visiting.

It’s not so much that I’m calling for all literature to organize itself along the fault lines of my personal taste as I am noting that I see no reason why we ought to be praising Roth on the basis of his skill at “describing the human condition.” Or, in the feminine equivalent, speaking to “the truths of women’s lives,” as though there were only a few and we all have equal access to them. If that’s the value of the “narcissistic” personal narrative, how much it touches on the universal – well, I think we need to be honest and upfront about what kinds of people we view as eligible for “universal” status. Because that category is hardly universal.”

• Them trollops had it coming!

– “Trigger warning: Rape apologists ahead.”

• 26th Down Under Feminists Carnival: The Leadership Edition

– Plenty of reading related to the leadership change – check it out.

• Rudd undone by the enemy within | The Australian

– Very interesting article

• Harpy Seminar: Camille Takes a Dump

– The Harpies do a round-table on the latest emanations from the Paglia

Categories: linkfest

Tags: Read-ems