Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Amanda talks about the empowerful woman, with the help of one of the punkass guys(?) and of course the blaming of Twisty.

I have to admit I like snideness and rudeness and all sorts of other nastiness. I've been making fun of the empowerful woman since I got a period. And I was direct about it. From noting that some 10 year olds were wearing more makeup than the rest of the free world to asking if the jr cheerleaders were uncomfortable with guys looking at their butts, I wasn't exactly the soul of kindness and sweetness. Of course, by high school, I was reading the Beauty Myth and Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady(interestingly enough, the word of the day for today is sui generis, which I learned from that book). The latter had enough snark for 50s Femininity to last for years. And of course by the beginning of college, Bitch magazine was my big to do, with of course, the attendant snark about everything under the sun.

I've grown up with snark, and so I've developed a taste for it. It's a lot more direct and biting than oh sweetie, puking all over men's cocks is a perfectly normal and healthy form of sexuality. But why don't you tell your sweetie that maybe you would like to not puke on his cock today? And seriously, I don't have time for your finer sensibilities.

It's just either you're ready or you're not. When you're not ready, even honey, tell your sweetie that vomiting on his cock doesn't make you happy sounds like OMG, you dumb bitch. You are a tool of the patriarchy and will never amount to anything. I wish you'd die. But when you're ready, you can see the humor in the idea that maybe puking on cocks is ridiculous. You're ready to laugh at the very idea.

I'm not miss perfect or whatever. But I'm able to find the humor in the idea that the crotch length miniskirt I wore the day before yesterday is expressing my sexuality, my essential me-ness and Femininity, but somehow my sexuality isn't expressed in a baggy t shirt and shorts as if the starting point for getting off couldn't be either of the two outfits. I am able to laugh at the fact that I hobble around in shoes I can barely walk in, and that cause my relatives to burst into laughter whenever they see me walking because of the obsession of women's shoe makers with heels of all types.

Basically,I think there's a new type of feminism in town- one that requires a sense of humor and a bit of flex. The world is absurd, the patriarchy is absurd, let's laugh at it, and tell the truth at the same time.

*An aside, I was rude before I started making fun of empowerful girls. I called my brother a doo doo head at 18 months, and got my pacifier taken away.

No comments: