Ethics questions

Poetry is Not A Luxury & Mighty Be Our Powers

Posted onSaturday 18 January 2014Wednesday 15 January 2014

Closely examining our matrifocal past and present offers a solid basis from which to theorize a possible healthier future — one not damagingly based in androcentrism. Such a future will not come about on its own, of course; if women are to regain their rightful positions as cultural creators and leaders then they will have…

Fascinatingly more on matrifocal societies

Posted onFriday 17 January 2014Wednesday 15 January 2014

Both Sanday (reviewed by me here and here) and Du are anthropologically trained ethnographers researching indigenous societies. As previously noted, their work offers explicit epistemological modifications of great benefit for a more humane, feminized science. This is not the only valid methodology available, however, to a women’s spirituality scholar, as is demonstrated by the next…

Refusing Standard Masculinities

Posted onWednesday 15 January 2014Saturday 11 January 2014

The following was part of a subsection in my comps essay which was titled “Theorizing Patriarchy Past & Present,” which performed said theorizing via a variety of epistemologies. I reviewed the hypothesized roots of patriarchy, surveyed the broad cultural expression of its impact on women of antiquity as well as more recent history, researched its…

A History for Women and a Feminism for Everyone

Posted onTuesday 14 January 2014Saturday 11 January 2014

…and now back to my comps essay book reviews! :) A more sweeping view of women throughout history, including both their loss of power and their struggle to both resist and reclaim it within the kyriarchy, is brilliantly demonstrated by English journalist, broadcaster, and social critic Rosalind Miles’ book Who Cooked the Last Supper? The…

Way too much sexual analysis ;)

Posted onFriday 10 January 2014Monday 6 January 2014

As was noted yesterday, Biaggi’s essayists examine the emergence of patriarchy in order to persuasively analyze and explain our current global issues — such as environmental devastation, a near-perpetual social injustice which particularly oppresses women and the poor, the increasing corporatization of the massive war and prison industry — then posit a brighter and feasible…

Blood Rites & the Rule of Mars

Posted onThursday 9 January 2014Monday 6 January 2014

Interestingly, it is only recently that socially gendered coding and categorizations have been recognized, such that the biological condition of being male is not automatically conflated with the social production of masculinity. I believe the next book — white American feminist, award-winning columnist, independent scholar, and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich’s Blood Rites: Origins and History…

The Real Wealth of Nations: the people

Posted onWednesday 8 January 2014Monday 6 January 2014

Irigaray’s fascinating work, which I reviewed yesterday, calls for a radical change in the individual’s worldview as expressed through an intersubjective spiritual caring and hospitality, but is (perhaps unfortunately) also written primarily for the academic. Intriguingly, in the same year an eminently pragmatic book was published on much the same subject, though from a far…

Difficult & fascinating: Daly & Irigaray

Posted onTuesday 7 January 2014Monday 6 January 2014

My next selection to showcase here is Euro-American radical feminist philosopher, professor, and theologian Mary Daly’s fiery and iconoclastic Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big. I believe the book is a fascinating exploration of Daly as shaman for her community of women. Deliberately written to occasionally flout standard (as in: patriarchal) rules of…

The first 20,000 years: women’s work & women’s social power

Posted onMonday 6 January 2014Friday 3 January 2014

As we work towards shaping social realities, research on women-centered societies which are based upon cooperation and partnership facilitates a more sophisticated discussion of cultural alternatives. This discussion also ensures that the voices of women of color are respectfully heard and recognized as both researchers of integrity applying a wide variety of methodological approaches to…

The boudoir shoot, part 1 (hopefully)

Posted onSaturday 4 January 2014Friday 3 January 2014

I’m writing this having just gotten back from my little interview session, or whatever it’s called, at the photography studio for the boudoir shoot groupon which a dear friend gifted to me. I have to say… I’m starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable about this. A quick note: while I will mention the name of the…