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I'm reading The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir. It's definitely not a breeze, but I'm certainly enjoying the introduction very much! Wanted to quote from it somewhat for you all, but the bit I want is fairly long, so...


"What is a woman"?

To state the question is, to me, to suggest, at once, a preliminary answer. The fact that I ask it is in itself significant. A man would never set out to write a book on the peculiar situation of the human male. But if I wish to define myself, I must first of all say: 'I am a woman'; on this truth must be based all further discussion. A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man. The terms masculine and feminine are used symmetrically only as a matter of form, as on legal papers. In actuality the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity. In the midst of an abstract discussion it is vexing to hear a man say: Tou think thus and so because you are a woman'; but I know that my only defence is to reply: 'I think thus and so because it is true,' thereby removing my subjective self from the argument. It would be out of the question to reply: 'And you think the contrary because you are a man', for it is understood that the fact of being a man is no peculiarity. A man is in the right in being a man; it is the woman who is in the wrong. It amounts to this: just as for the ancients there was an absolute vertical with reference to which the oblique was defined, so there is an absolute human type, the masculine. Woman has ovaries, a uterus: these peculiarities imprison her in her subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits of her own nature. It is often said that she thinks with her glands. Man superbly ignores the fact that his anatomy also includes glands, such as the testicles, and that they secrete hormones. He thinks of his body as a direct and normal connection with the world, which he believes he apprehends objectively, whereas he regards the body of woman as a hindrance, a prison, weighed down by everything peculiar to it. 'The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities,' said Aristotle; 'we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.' And St Thomas for his part pronounced woman to be an 'imperfect man', an 'incidental' being. This is symbolised in Genesis where Eve is depicted as made from what Bossuet called 'a supernumerary bone' of Adam.

Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being..."


Mmm, yes. And also, I was reading poetry yesterday; were Ogden Nash still alive today, he might be the funniest poet alive. Since he died in '71, I will merely say that he was extremely funny, and particularly in this poem. Read it aloud if you can.


Very Like a Whale

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by authors of simile and metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can't seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
What does it mean when we are told
That the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn't just one Assyrian, it was a lot of Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and thus hinder longevity,
We'll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a wolf on the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy there are a great many things,
But I don't imagine that among then there is a wolf with purple and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I'll believe that this Assyrian was actually like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;
Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red mouth and big white teeth and did he say Woof woof woof?
Frankly I think it very unlikely, and all you were entitled to say, at the very most,
Was that the Assyrian cohorts came down like a lot of Assyrian cohorts about to destroy the Hebrew host.
But that wasn't fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers to people they say Oh yes, they're the ones that a lot of wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.
That's the kind of thing that's being done all the time by poets, from Homer to Tennyson;
They're always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of snow and I'll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical blanket material and we'll see which one keeps warm,
And after that maybe you'll begin to comprehend dimly,
What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.


Also, mock exams.. got most of my results back today. English first, an Excellence, two Meritss and an Achieved- I'm pleased with those abstractly, because those are what I deserved, except for the Achieved, which I totally deserved to fail. So thaqt's good. Mg beat me by one Excellence, but I think she was the only one (except I don't know about Jordan... :-/ wildcard fallow. :p) Then French, two Es and an M and I lifted my 3.6 which is great. the M was in reading, which I'm fairly gutted by but hey. Francesca beat me. Don't think anyone else did, but who knows. History, an E and two As, both As for the essays and the E for the resources. I'm pretty stoked with that. and that was, I think, best class marks, and I got E for my internal. (I'm terrible like this, I rank myself class-wise trying to guess which prizes I'm getting... I'm thinking only History this year. And maybe the Bickleen Fong cup for Appreciation of English Literature... :p ) An Physics we only got Mechanics. Eyeroll. Failed that, surprise surprise... I'll get it at the end of the year though.

Date: 2004-10-11 06:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
Creepy creepy your English and French marks are just like mine (Until I pointed out that I DID get the excellence in French Reading that I was marked down on but it's less creepy that way) What standards in English did you get each mark for?


And I failed algebra fuck fucking bloody cunt twat..... XD Got E for creative Writing though ^_^

Date: 2004-10-11 07:29 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
OMG I NEARLY GOT EXCELLENCE IN THE READING BUT WAS MARKED DOWN TOO! freaky.

Meh, algebra. Totally, totally sucked last year, I so feel for you. Well done on CW! I knew it, though. :D

Date: 2004-10-11 08:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
One step closer to taking over the world ;)

Date: 2004-10-11 06:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
And did I mention that Very Like A Whale is my favourite Ogden Nash poem in like ever?

Date: 2004-10-11 07:32 am (UTC)

Date: 2004-10-11 06:53 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
testing

Date: 2004-10-11 06:57 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Hey Tui- that was me testing...'who is "me"?' I hear you ask... Well I'm going to let you figure that one out for yourself. I must agree that you are very competitive, rating yourself in the class, but maybe I am only surprised by this as I am not at a competitive standard and therefore do not pain myself by making comparisons. I enjoyed those little poems- 'specially the one bout the whale. Hmmm...c'est tout from me. Au revoir

Date: 2004-10-11 07:31 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Well, from the spelling I can tell that it's not Meg. I doubt that it is Jenni for the same reason. And you're apostrophe obsessive and you go to my school, so I'm thinking Debbie here...

On the other hand you said you weren't at a competitive standard, which is definitely a point against your being Debbie.

I confess, I am confused.

Still going for Debbie though.

Date: 2004-10-11 08:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
ME TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Date: 2004-10-11 08:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
The sad thing, I think, about post-feminist society is that although women are no longer regarded as second class, the very attitudes that passage decries are the ones being used to justify women's place - men are just people but a woman in many fields is noted because of being a woman. You get woman doctors, woman painters woman writers etc, and it seems often they are classified, spoken of, whatever, not with respect to their merits but with respect to their sex. It happens in the arts especially, I think.

Date: 2004-10-11 08:40 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
I think you're misinterpreting the passage a little there, although I can't explain how... I see your point somewhat, and there's some sense to it, but I think that in general what you're talking about, identifying the gender of a painter or whtever as a woman, is used..

... actually, I think you're totally right. o.O And yet, I believe that to some extent, because there are still differences particularly in the roles of women, the fact that a painter or an author is a woman is still relevant, because it can sometimes give you an insight: the painter is coming from this point of view as a woman, as someone struggling with these percieved roles, in the same way you might note that a male author (or female) is gay, or maori, or second generaton indian immigrant, because coming from that background, from that role or stereotype or perspective, can be important to the work, it can help understand why the work was written. So you're right, of course, but the fact is still relevant and it is not neccesarily the product of sexism, it is a consequence of the remaining sexism in society, of you take the distinction.

Date: 2004-10-11 08:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miriamus.livejournal.com
But why shouldn't it be relevant that the artist is a straight caucasian man? It's almost as though that is seen as the default and is thereby devoid of political or social opinion, or something.

Date: 2004-10-11 08:53 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Because, as she says in her writing, "man represents both the positive and the neutral..." ie there are not specified roles for the straight caucasian male. I mean, of course that isn't true, there are some and not all straight caucasian men are happy conforming to them- nursing, for example, is a career in which men are either not wholly accepted or still regarded in a certain light. However, the roles for a straight caucasian male, the restrictions upon him, are different and generally less binding than that on another group. In this time. Because of this, the straight caucasian male is more likely to write a book or paint a painting or whatever that is... well, I was going to say influenced by his straight caucasian maleness, but of course that isn't true. But it is less, say, preoccupied with that, because the straight caucasian male has nothing to prove: he is "both the positive and the negative." Whereas the gay maori male* may wish both to reaffirm his place as a Maori, may wish to say something about being gay. But what is there to say about being a stright caucasian male? gradually of course there will be more to say about that and less about any of the others but now, as society is now, it remains relevant. Similarly for women. Eventually of course either all factors will be equally relevant, or all equally irrelevant...

... or will they? I mean, as a woman, a girl, I think I do have some ideas, some way of thinking, that is different from the male. Is that a product of society, is it biological, what is it? I don't know. But maybe that will always be relevant, or maybe not.

*I'm thinking of Witi Ihimaera here, okay, so sue me...

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