I'm a bit bummed out today, kids.
More on the other side.
Welcome to the Planet! "Feminist Supervixens" of every sex and gender are invited to participate in this discussion of feminism, women's issues, and anything even tangentially related.
This is a regularly-occurring "Feminists' Circle" for Daily Kos, where all the supercool feminist Supervixens can pull up a chair and chat, get things off their chests, and get to know each other.
Everyone is free to complain and moan and air their pet peeves - this forum can be "What's Your Fucking Feminist Problem?!" if you're in that frame of mind - but humor, fun, happy stories and congeniality are encouraged.
Notice to anyone who is NOT a feminist and wants to come here and complain about how bad feminism is, the problems inherent in feminism, etc.: you're welcome to write your own diary on the topic, but we don't want to talk about it here. That's not what this diary is for.
Previous "episodes" in this diary series have been written by hrh, with guest-host diaries from mem from somerville (here and here), Elise, righteousbabe, and irishwitch. Some more guest-hosts are waiting in the wings. Feminists who are interested in being a guest-host can email hrh at: feministsupervixens (AT) yahoo.com
1. Jim Webb's Dumb Article
OK, this diary was originally going to be about some of our heroic military women who aren't dead - I've collected some great info on some great women - but then came today's mail, and in it was a copy of Jim Webb's infamous 1979 magazine article, "Women Can't Fight".
The copy of the article was sent to me by a woman at the Naval Academy who has read and appreciated some of my writing on this subject.
The article is actually worse than I expected.
This is from the opening, when he describes how bad combat is, and how quintessentially masculine and sexual:
We became vicious and aggressive and debased and reveled in it, because combat is all of those things and we were surviving. I once woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of one of my machinegunners stabbing an already-dead enemy soldier, emptying his fear and frustrations into the corpse's chest. I watched another of my men, a wholesome Midwest boy, yank the trousers off a dead woman while under fire, just to see if he really remembered what it looked like.
Oh, is that all he did, Jim?
The article is not only sexist as hell, but very poorly-reasoned and full of "We be so macho" dickwaving sentimentality like the above. It's as if Webb is trying hard to be the Scots-Irish Norman Mailer.
So I'm pondering this article and feeling bummed. Not enraged, but bummed - disgusted, with a tinge of disappointment. Not unlike the emotions that flood through my mind when I'm walking around my house in bare feet and step in a big puddle of cat barf.
I'll address this article in a more comprehensive fashion sometime in the future when I've cleaned off the metaphorical catbarf and have composed myself.
Of course, if Webb would just come out and tell us how he's changed his mind since he wrote this article, and explain to us what a huge supporter he is of women at all levels of the military, then I'd forget about the article.
TWO: What Shall We Do at Yearly Kos?
Of 1000+ comments in the "Suggestions for Yearly Kos" diary, ONLY ONE brought up feminism and women's issues. Yes, I was bummed by this too.
The valiant Supervixen who made that suggestion was our own Elise.
What would you Supervixens like to see done in the name of feminism at Yearly Kos? Besides a Viggo Mortensen/Johnny Depp mudwrestling match, of course.