Over here, Doc Searls includes the following in response to all of the hullabaloo about girlism:
One of the things that attracted me to my wife was that feminism (and political correctness in general) bored her as much as it bored me. She once dismissed the whole topic by saying “I’m not interested in equality with men. Why deal down?”
Feminism (and now girlism too… or any ism, I suppose) still bores me. I think that’s because it’s still about power, and there are other subjects that interest me more.
Like how much I miss sweet and romantic kind of beauty that fell out of favor with feminism (and the Vietnam war, and the Sixties in general) and never came back. I listened to a lot of old music while I unpacked boxes over the weekend… Patti Page (Old Cape Cod), Dean Martin (That’s Amore), Doris Day (Que Sera Sera), Bobby Darin (Dream Lover) and it blew my mind how completely gone that stuff is.
Doc, you and your wife are two of the lucky ones who somehow avoided being battered around by the gender politics stuff. We all wish we were in relationships that felt as good as yours seems to. While love doesn’t solve all relationship problems, it can go a long way. I read once that, rather than total compatability, what makes a relationship work is “compatible neuroses.” I would add to that a shared sense of humor and mutually genuine affection.
But, Doc, if you were able to walk a mile in some of our shoes, you would understand why we are so upset. Since you can’t, however, check out this post by Pascale Soleil and see what happens when sexism runs rampant. You mentioned that you and your wife are not concerned with feminism and political correctness; let me remind you that the guys in India aren’t either.
(And, Doc, the kind of romanticism you posted about never falls out of favor, as long as it’s not triggered by that dumb girlism stuff.)
Quoting the Doc quote you already quoted:
“Feminism (and now girlism too… or any ism, I suppose) still bores me. I think that’s because it’s still about power, and there are other subjects that interest me more.”
I don’t understand the aversion to acknowledging that certain things are, in fact, about power. Presumably, Doc would understand that, say, the fight over copyright is about power and who gets to have it. Gender issues, racial issues, sexual issues, labor issues, environmental issues — there are all about power.
Sometimes I think the only people who dismiss power politics are those most pre-determined to have access to exercise their own.
You just made a point I was thinking about but couldn’t figure out how to phrase. When someone is comfortable because he has power over/is not at the mercy of those things that are important to him, he tends to think that power issues are not worth bothering with. Exactly. It is only those who know what if feels like to be disempowered who believe that it’s worth fighting the good fight.
Funny. I’m having exactly this conversation with Dave Rogers in the comments to Pascale’s blog. Somebody wanna come help me out? *grin* You’re doing better than I am.