Freud

"Aha! Freud has told me why I am uncomfortable discussing sex! I DO wear a thick overcoat as though it were bad weather in the world of sex!" - My amazing grad school Job

I was pretty much in it to win it with Freud when he got in to the gays, because quite frankly, the dude was pretty damn open-minded even by today's standards, never mind over a century ago. His metaphors are, as my job noted, hilarious, and every now and then he'll come out with something that really is kind of pure poetry:

"That cruelty and sexual impulse are most intimately connected is beyond doubt taught by the history of civilization."

WORD, Freud. Word. But then, every now and again, he will just totally, completely lose me, and, I believe, any sane and rational reader. To wit:

"The significance of the factor of sexual overestimation can be best studied in the man, in whom alone the sexual life is accessible to investigation, whereas in the woman it is veiled in impenetrable darkness, partly in consequence of cultural stunting and partly on account of the conventional reticence and dishonesty of women."

Soooo... ok then.

Freud is turning out to be quite the challenge. An enigma, if you will, which was the title of a recent message I received on OKCupid, which went as follows, true story:

You’re Julia Child on acid meets Betty Page’s masculine side on Prozac.
You are a riddle wrapped in an enigma dipped in chocolate.
I want to wrap you in cellophane and throw marshmallows at you.

Which I have to say, I think Freud would have had a fucking field day with.

Traditiiiiiiiiooooooooon

Raymond Williams, Marxist scholar, breaks down the meaning of "tradition" in Marxist terms in his book Marxism and Literature. He defines it in part as "the most evident expression of the dominant and hegemonic pressures and limits." What we see of tradition is inherently selective, an active process of choosing what will be represented and what will be discarded of the history that we use to shape our present. According to Williams, the hegemonic sense of tradition is the most active - meaning the structures that shape our whole social process, the process of social domination that keeps everyone in line, is the most active in the process of selection which accounts for what we see in the present tense as tradition. It "offers a historical and cultural ratification of a contemporary order".

What does it mean, then, when our President refers to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funding to provide abortions, as "tradition"? The idea, when expressed, was politically loaded, but upon re-examination, so is the word itself. This means that the President is actively participating in establishing "dominant and hegemonic pressures and limits" on a woman's right to choose an abortion specifically, and on women's access to reproductive services generally. It means of the many traditions to choose from, including the tradition of unfettered access to legal medical services, the President has chosen instead to align himself with the conservative tradition of treating women's bodies as a grounds on which to establish extensive policy. And that, I feel, is much more deeply disturbing than the sentiment itself - what it means to uphold the tradition of and behind the particular sentiment, to choose that tradition over all others, and the ways that tradition over all others will shape the future of women in this country.

Oh Yeah, That Happened

As last semester was the age of Foucault, so is this semester, clearly, the age of Marx, to the extent that I have named my car battery charger (don't ask) "Karl", and when people inquire to my relationship status and I say I am sleeping with someone, I am referring to this German, long since passed from this world and also, married. The fact that this does not strike me as at all odd until I actually write it down says something deeply disturbing about graduate school which I will endeavor not to examine.

I am house and puppy-sitting for the weekend, which is really enjoyable. I love having a new environment in which to sit for hours, head in my hands, drowning in theory and coffee. And for the record, these wonderful people have AMAZING coffee. They also, apparently, have a housekeeping service.

So this one time, I was sitting at someone else's kitchen table, reading the works of Karl Marx while chatting with the housecleaner.

Oh yeah, that happened.

I could unpack the experience, but let's just go with the facts:

1) The two ladies, Lucia and Maria, were absolutely lovely.
2) Lucia was from Brazil, where dogs, apparently, drink beer.
3) They both spoke much, much better English than I speak Portuguese.
4) They are self-employed and make an excellent living.
5) I was also, in this case, "the help", but I am to all appearances white, I speak English, I am pursuing higher education, and I have a more personal relationship with our "employers".
6) I did not grow up in a house that used a cleaning service, so I am unused to the situation generally, and kept apologizing and trying to get out of the way.
7) I found the whole situation both intensely awkward and completely hilarious, which might mean I'm a terrible person and definitely means I am an inadequate revolutionary site.

My Friend's Gchat Status Message

"My feminist Marxist dialect brings all the boys to the yard."