"...it's not the training to be mean but the training to be kind that is used to keep us leashed best." ~ Black Dog Red

"In case you haven't recognized the trend: it proceeds action, dissent, speech." ~ davidly, on how wars get done

"...What sort of meager, unerotic existence must a man live to find himself moved to such ecstatic heights by the mundane sniping of a congressional budget fight. The fate of human existence does not hang in the balance. The gods are not arrayed on either side. Poseiden, earth-shaker, has regrettably set his sights on the poor fishermen of northern Japan and not on Washington, D.C. where his ire might do some good--I can think of no better spot for a little wetland reclamation project, if you know what I mean. The fight is neither revolution nor apocalypse; it is hardly even a fight. A lot of apparatchiks are moving a lot of phony numbers with more zeros than a century of soccer scores around, weaving a brittle chrysalis around a gross worm that, some time hence, will emerge, untransformed, still a worm." ~ IOZ

Dec 28, 2010

sovereign truths



h/t Broadsnark

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

speaking to an theatre full of middle-aged women...

Jack Crow said...

Does that matter?

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I'm afraid that the (for want of a better word) pathologies that are embraced by men are only going to get worse in this time of increasing economic uncertainty. Most men define themselves by their profession, and their chief source of pride is in their earning potential. When those go away, they tend to lash out at those around them, and to turn to alcohol for solace. I am really concerned that the current woes will only lead to more patriarchal thinking and violent outbursts.

Jack Crow said...

BBBB,

Twas not easy for me, at first, to separate my experience of self from my image of self-as-man-and-provider, after my wife and I swapped roles, and I became the homedad.

Respect,

Jack

changeseeker said...

Thank you for posting this, Jack. I teach courses in the Sociology of Gender and the Sociology of Sexuality. I'm SO going to use this bit of film in those classes. Plus I'm going to re-post it on my blog -- linking to where I first saw it, of course. It made my eyes well up. Not just because Porter's right on the money, but because you posted it. You made my day.

changeseeker said...

@ Anonymous.

It's not just men who need to hear Porter's message. Women are socialized to buy into the idea that all the vaginas belong in the box marked "Flowers" and all the penises belong in the box marked "Racecars." If women don't know any better, they think the Man Box (and Woman Box) are appropriate and even "natural." And they carry that virus and pass it on to their sons and daughters just like men do.

Jack Crow said...

Thanks, CS. Means a whole lot.

Credit due to Broadsnark and Racialicious, though. I'm just reposting.