Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Feminine Mistake

BroadSnark:

Politics isn’t only that which has no immediate application to reality.  “Immediate concerns” like being able to feed your family are political.  It isn’t that women aren’t interested in politics.  It is that some people define politics so narrowly that it only applies to pseudo philosophers.

Sadly, it's always the men with the most fascinating penises who never understand why women don't share their interests.

3 comments:

C-Nihilist said...

Mel makes a good point about how narrowly politics is defined. it would seem that some point "politics" pertained to how people interact with each other as part of a larger group, with 'people' being the operative element. and merely by being present in said group, meant each person had a definite interest in the politics of the group. this conception of politics has very little to do with debate or voting or seeking office.

in the context the term politics is most often used today, it seems to mean something more along the lines of 'what one is willing to do for self interest, or to gain advantage over the other members of the group.' which has a lot to do with running for office, cozying up to power, forming so called 'good old boy networks,' trading favors, and so on. many women and men find this aspect of politics reprehensible, but the spectacle files this trait under 'feminine' (speaking in terms of gender rather than sex.) whether this distinction has any merit or not is an interesting question, but as far as i can tell (not far!) the categorization goes back at least to Machiavelli.

i half seriously wrote about this kind of sexism in politics back during the presidential election over here.

BroadSnark said...

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that (Right) Libertarians want to define politics so narrowly. Its just amazing they can have a blind spot so incredibly large.

BroadSnark said...

Oh and PS, thanks for the link.