tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post3365249992218768356..comments2024-03-03T13:55:46.243-08:00Comments on Ambling Along the Aqueduct: The Great DivideTimmi Duchamphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00673465487533328661noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-40470101859111359332007-08-30T10:09:00.000-07:002007-08-30T10:09:00.000-07:00Joan, you make some very good points, particularly...Joan, you make some very good points, particularly your reference to deploying the myths strategically. That is, the nurturing myth is pumped up when we want to move women out of the workforce, and denigrated when we need more employees. <BR/><BR/>When I wrote that bit about female nurturing, I was thinking about the so-called "mommy wars" we're still having in the US over whether women should stay home with kids. And I do think that some people -- including some feminists -- are holding onto the idea that women are more nurturing. <BR/><BR/>But I probably chose the term as kind of a shorthand representation of the gender differences that are being pushed by supposedly scientific evidence about male and female brains -- especially since so much of the science appears to be shoddy. It might be better to have used the supposed difference in communication styles to represent the current myth of gender gap.Nancy Jane Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01030267999537291250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-39266326302249284642007-08-29T07:49:00.000-07:002007-08-29T07:49:00.000-07:00NancyDo you think the overblown myths about female...Nancy<BR/><BR/>Do you think the overblown myths about female nurturing still carry the same sway? I'm not sure that they do. Or perhaps it is that they're deployed ever more strategically. <BR/><BR/>It seems to me that one of the double-edged successes of feminism has been to make it easier to see women as aggressive, as perpetrators of crime, as just as capable of the more pejorative versions of rampant individualism as men. Not to say that they won't face a more punitive reaction when the chips are down ...<BR/><BR/>That some women are still in the position of being used as a 'reserve army of labour' for the capitalist workplace and required to perform domestic labour disproportionately seems to me a necessary contradiction in a capitalist society. <BR/><BR/>At which point, perhaps the myths of female nurture may be trotted out, but perhaps more pragmatic rationales might also be offered - albeit pragmatism linked to another version of biological essentialism - somebody has to reproduce the next generation so those (women) who are already doing the biological reproduction may as well be saddled with the rest. <BR/><BR/>all best<BR/><BR/>JoanJoan Haranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04322028322005528698noreply@blogger.com