feminist-politics

So it's early on a Saturday morning, I have several hours to kill before breakfast plans materialize, so I finally have some time to think about that post I wanted to write a few weeks ago:

So tonight, a post about gender, appetite, weight-lifting, saying yes, and being alone. Wait for it....

This awesome series of comics about the adventures of Byronic genius mathematicians Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage as they try to combat the "economic crisis" with an Experimental Engine, has already wasted a good 45 minutes of a day that started too late to begin with.

Best part of the strips? Puns like "steamulus".

These are the finished strips - there are a bunch of little sketches here there and everywhere as well.

Lovelace the Origin

Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy part 1 - 3

"Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Author Virgina Woolf's A Room of Ones Own is an eloquent argument in support of the idea that a woman, should she want to pursue her own dreams and goals, must have a measure of financial and material independence.

For Woolf this was because:

Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog’s chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one’s own.

(If you have not taken the time to read this brilliant but dense essay I urge you to do it. It is a great argument, although long.)

So it was 'surprising' to me to read the headline Females who rent weigh less. The subhead? 'Home-owning women outweigh their renting counterparts by an average of 12 pounds'. That's right ladies, do not try to own property, you may think it leads to a greater degree of financial security, and thus more social power and control over your life circumstance. In fact it just makes you fat. And we all know fat, stressed out, property-owning ladies are not as good as skinny, care-free, renting ladies.

You know what I hate?

I hate when marketers take things I love with all my being, and make them look ridiculous, vapid, and stereotypical.

Take chocolate and sex.

There are other sweet treats, but none are such a miraculous mixture of sweet, bitter, sharp and spicy as a decent chocolate bar (especially the chili/peppercorn variety). And as for consensual physical pleasures, I am including all sorts of activities here: massage, sexy dancing, making out in the park, holding hands for the first time - the whole spectrum. Like chocolate, sex is wonderful in its variety.

Even though I am clearly a demographic goldmine, I can't stand the campaign for Fling chocolate bars. The "naughty but not that naughty" chocolate bar made especially for women:

"It is a delicate truffle,sitting on a subtle crisp layer enrobed in shimmering chocolate that looks as glamourous as the women it speaks to. It tastes indulgent but it keeps its figure, at under 85 calories per finger. Sneak out to a movie. Go curly. Lick the wrapper. Shake things up! Nobody's looking."