Collie's Bestiary

(Originally written some time in 1999 for an Independent Study anthropology class on various seminal works in the field)

Roland Barthes' exploration of the mythologizing characteristics of bourgeoisie society in France is an absorbing read. He starts out by investigating the possible mythical meanings of many of the conventionally accepted societal norms or rituals in France, then closes the book with a fascinating chapter on the nature of myth today.

His writing uses an implicit formulation. He assumes an informal common ground with his reader, adopting a rather conversational discursive tone; he obviously sees language as a social activity. Oddly enough, even though Barthes almost chattily assumes entitlement in dissecting the meanings of various mythologized objects and ideas, he then does an end-of-book about-face, noting that the "mythologist," by unpacking such possible meanings, excludes and isolates himself from the very society and mythologies he examines. Read the rest of this entry »

I try not to write "hop on the bandwagon" postings about the current "hot" topic in the news. I like to have a bit of time to consider and reflect on issues and situations. Within that timeframe I frequently find that simply quietly helping however I can is all I wish to say on the matter — and often, others have said it better than I could anyway.

The situation in Haiti is a currently evolving issue where, as I did a little research, I was shocked to discover things were much worse than I'd initially thought — because of my country. This is one situation where I believe others have indeed said it better than I could, but I feel strongly that their words need to be shared and passed around so we all know in what we, as citizens of the USA, are unwittingly being complicit. Read the rest of this entry »

I've come to the conclusion I don't agree with the definition of Gatekeeper. I do agree there's more than just the two extremes — regardless of whether you call them "Warrior" and "Forgiver" or "heavy-handed militarism" and "turn-the-other-cheek pacifism." I suppose Gatekeeper is as good a term as any for that "middle of the road" position, especially since I can't yet come up with anything better. However, as someone who thinks they may well be a Gatekeeper, I can say quite definitively that maintaining the status quo is emphatically not my goal — neither in regards to rape nor to self-defense.

I remember years ago watching a television program about date rape — specifically the "gray" area where a young woman at college would be drunk at a party, get taken home by a young man, and the next day claim she was raped — at which point the man would say she'd asked him to stay and have sex, or they were both drunk and she came on to him, or whatever moronic excuse he could come up with so it wasn't his fault that he "accidentally" overpowered her — and thus it was clearly her fault — it simply couldn't be rape! The eminently logical position being developed by the interviewers was that smart men simply didn't do that — didn't take advantage of women who were drunk — instead they'd use the facilities provided by that university to call a ride for the woman to get safely home. Read the rest of this entry »

Part of a quick "reflection" written for my aikido class.

Huzzah! My aikido class has a list of recommended readings. The first of those books, which I requested at the library, has come in and is now successfully in my hot little hands. I'm the proud new borrower of Richard Strozzi Heckler's "Aikido and the New Warrior"! ;)

I had an interesting revelation on the way to pick the book up. Driving down the road, I realized there was an ambulance behind me but several blocks back. I didn't immediately pull over, since it was a 4-lane road and there was other traffic, as well as an exit coming up soon that would have been tricky (although not impossible) to maneuver around. Instead I stopped in the middle lane, leaving the other lanes clear, at the next stoplight. Sure enough, the ambulance came up and drove past easily, and headed on down the road out of sight. I felt a small pang of guilt at not pulling over immediately the instant I'd heard the first faint sounds of the siren, but consoled myself that the ambulance hadn't been slowed at all by my doing so — and thought no more of it. Read the rest of this entry »

This is an invite to the Open House being held for the Master's program I'm in. It has been, quite frankly, life changing for me, so if you're at all intrigued, please come out to hear more about it.

Open House & Information Session
Saturday, January 23, 2009
at 12:00 p.m.
with Co-directors
Judy Grahn and Dianne Jenett

We are pleased to invite you to an information session about the WASC-accredited Women's Spirituality Master's of Arts Program (WSMA) at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. This is a graduate-level program for women who find themselves at a pivotal "crossroads" where they feel life should have more purpose and meaning. Read the rest of this entry »

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I'm an Amazon.com Associate. In my postings here, I put links to all the books and movies and things I review, so people can easily purchase them from Amazon if they so wish. I figured that would allow my readers and friends to get a nifty book (or whatever), and I'd get a little thanks from Amazon — a win for both of us.

Curiously, as far as I can tell no one has actually bought any of the books and other items I've reviewed, through the links I've provided. What's been far more useful to my readers has been the Amazon.com Associate button I put up, which when clicked simply takes you to Amazon.com and allows you to browse around for whatever you want, while still giving me the little bennie for any purchases you might make. The button looks like this:

Well, after giving it the old college try, I think posting former papers from college in this format is way too much bother! If I refer to them in future reviews or Firestarters, I'll upload them here as single, very long pages, rather than a kabillion short blog entries.

That being said, as promised, here from the paper is the book list, which includes some truly fascinating titles. Enjoy! :)

Bibliography Read the rest of this entry »

Possible Solutions

It is a simple but appealing answer to say all that needs to be done to solve the problems delineated and explored above is to restructure the societies in the readings. Were this to occur, then by definition women and minorities would not be repressed any longer, but would instead be hegemonically considered full and contributing members of each society… and voila! there would be no further need for fundamentalist repression. I say simple, because this is obviously impossible, and thus syllogistically removes the onus and burden of change from the shoulders of non-participants within any of the cultures discussed in the readings. It allows one to sit comfortably back, satisfied one's job, of examination only, is finished.

A slightly more thoughtful answer might look at the nature of both fundamentalism and nationalism for some means by which to either diffuse or replace them. There is by definition a certain lack of flexibility inherent in the concepts of nationalism and fundamentalism. Fundamentalism by its nature freezes a perceived historical past to justify a present or desired reality. It must therefore not change, for it is as a defense against too rapid change in the modern day world that it was first conceived. Read the rest of this entry »

In yet another essay which discusses violence against women, Kumar notes that it is the deliberately poor definition of what constitutes rape and wife-beating that allows it to continue in India, despite laws forbidding it. She notes furthermore that women are often blamed for the attacks against them due to their "easy virtue" or due to being "a loose woman who could not by definition be raped" (1995:70).

In a commentary on the Rodney King case, Butler speaks of the same pastiche of power and language use against a minority member: Read the rest of this entry »

It would make sense the society of the newly established nation-state would incorporate both its previous, 'historical memory' based power within itself, whether theoretical, religious, or physical, and that the struggle for power should occur between the varying discourses presented by each of these types of power. Also, by their very nature within the society and their linkage to pre-colonial "authenticating historical memory," each of these forms of power would be considered eminently logical and correct — a hegemonic expression of the new dominant paradigm working within each of the societies, justified by selective recollection and re-presentation of their pre-colonial pasts.

This would also explain the situation in the United States, where current fundamentalist (and sometimes also hegemonic) thought wishes to remove both agency and power from women and minorities, and blames the lack of strong social boundaries for the loss of some idyllic, selectively remembered fictional historical golden age. And yet the very vehemence and pervasiveness of these repressions, across a wide variety of cultures and societies, must give pause. Can only one simple answer possibly be correct? Read the rest of this entry »