Welcome to the 25th journey to the Planet of the Savage Strident Daily Kos Supervixens!
This week's - thanks to everyone's favorite drunken gadfly, Christopher Hitchens - is on humor and women. Specifically, women who laugh at men.
"Feminist Supervixens" of every sex and gender are invited to participate in this feminists' circle. Our goal is to build a vibrant community of feminists here on Daily Kos. The emphasis here is on camaraderie and support, not argument and debate.
The idea of a "feminists' circle" was inspired by the work of Jean Shinoda Bolen, whose book The Millionth Circle described her vision of spontaneously forming women's circles that eventually catalyze a transformation in the world:
When a critical number of people change how they think and behave, the culture does also, and a new era begins.
From her web page on [http://www.jeanbolen.com/cybercircles.html circles]:
Imagine yourself in a circle of women, meeting together around a fire in the center of a round hearth. The fire in the center of the circle is a symbol of divinity,of spirit or soul, of goddess or god; it is the archetype of the Self in the center of your psyche, as it can be in the center of a circle, and as such, is a source of emotional warmth, spiritual and psychological illumination, wisdom and compassion.
Feminists who are interested in being a guest-host can email hrh at: feministsupervixens (AT) yahoo.com
The Hitchens Vanity Fair article excoriated by Gilliard is really more baffling than outrageous, judging from what I've read of it, which hasn't been much because I can only read a few paragraphs at a time before the site crashes my browser. Something wrong with the software, or is it Hitchens' turgid attempt at witty prose falling of its own weight? No matter, the most important bit in the article is Fran Lebowitz telling him that humor is aggressive, hence more "male" in terms of our cultural norms.
I've been thinking about that for a while. It seems to me that women haven't been encouraged to be funny, to be witty, to be humorous because society is nervous about women LAUGHING AT MEN. Men are supposed to be the authorities, respected and catered to. Women who laugh at men are fearsome and dangerous.
A woman once told me a story about getting pulled over for speeding on the NJ Turnpike. The car was full of her female friends. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw the state trooper swaggering toward the car, bristling with macho self-importance - and it was such a ridiculous sight that she burst out laughing. When he reached the car all the women were LAUGHING AT HIM, uncontrollably. He was infuriated beyond belief. He searched the car, etc. trying to throw the book at these women, but had to settle for the speeding ticket.
I will carry her across the threshold
I will make dim the light
I will attempt to spend my love within her
Though I will try with all my might
She will laugh at my mighty sword
She will laugh at my mighty sword
Why must everybody laugh at my mighty sword?
- Randy Newman, "A Wedding in Cherokee County"
Then there is the story about Gertrude Stein and Hemingway. Once a close friend of hers, Hemingway offended her by dissing her other friend, Sherwood Anderson, and a chill fell over the relationship. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, she quietly but deftly mocked his macho act, and laughed about how he was so "fragile" (he was always injuring himself in some testosterone-driven adventure).
Hemingway was so inflamed by this that he made veiled insulting references to her in several of his later works. Regarding calling her a "bitch" in Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway blustered to Maxwell Perkins:
"About the Stein thing- I was just trying to be completely honest. I don't mention her name and what proves it is Gertrude? What would you like me to put in place of bitch? Fat bitch? Lousy bitch? Old Bitch? Lesbian Bitch? What is the modifying adjective that would improve it?" (Selected Letters 423).
Stein never responded in kind to Hemingway's insults, and seemed to think they were more amusing than anything. As John Malcolm Brinnin wrote in his biography of Stein, The Third Rose:
[S]ometimes at home she would seize a handkerchief and, maneuvering in front of her poodle, Basket, would play-act the toreador while the dog was supposed to play the enraged bull. "Play Hemingway," she would say to the pampered white dog, "be fierce."
I can only imagine what Stein would think of the blowhard Hitchens.
Gertrude Stein with her dogs Pepe and Basket, at her home in Bilignin, France