--On Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:08 AM +0000 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> my point, (ok, ok, my axe to grind) is that generalities such as "male"
> "female" keep us locked-in to a blaming/defensive dualism which
guarantees
> that crippling practices and restrictive meaning-filters stay unexamined
and
> therefore unchanged.
>From Tracy:
Yes, words are difficult things, aren't they? It's one of the trouble-spots
of postmodern feminisms that we need to say "women" when there is, on one
level, possibly no such thing. But these particular words do circulate out
there, and they do have effects, even if we can see philosophical
inconsistencies in them. Blame/defence on its own may not take us far --
but some things are to be blamed under some circumstances, and some things
are to be defended. (And grinding an axe is fine; it's what you do with the
axe that may matter...) It has been pointed out how suspicious it looks
that philosophical theory demolishing the idea of the subject starts to
appear just as women start claiming subjectivity. Paranoia? Maybe...
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