tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post6211795550188938366..comments2024-03-28T19:52:07.635-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: GOING OUT OF OUR MINDS, Sonia Johnson; MAGIC MOMMAS, TREMBLING SISTERS, PURITANS & PERVERTS: FEMINIST ESSAYS, Joanna RussTodd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-53199448092360825242009-08-17T23:38:46.486-04:002009-08-17T23:38:46.486-04:00I suspect you're right -- she seems far too in...I suspect you're right -- she seems far too intelligent to give into Utopian rhapsodies. When I taught <i>The Female Man</i> in Texas of all places, we had a lively discussion that was in part a reaction to the newness of the idea that men and women might be socialised differently and disagree about optimal circumstances; partly also an introduction to lesbianism for many; and also a serious consideration of how gender (I typed "genre" at first, no less true) gets constructed in this country and how we accept and/or resist it. The students were ready to assume that any point of view might potentially offend me (this after my sexual reading of the staking of Lucy in <i>Dracula</i> had left them flabbergasted -- and grudgingly agreeing that it seemed very much like a gang rape.C. Margery Kempehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15910282257993793334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-11508018165251731162009-08-17T23:09:09.412-04:002009-08-17T23:09:09.412-04:00Johnson, I believe, was going beyond notions of he...Johnson, I believe, was going beyond notions of hedonistic freedom, to suggesting that any long-term relation might necessarily be stifling to the person...I'm not sure she was sure of that, but her critics sure were sure she was sure. <br /><br />Too often, libertarians of all stripes simply want to have restrictions off them, and wish to be petty dictators in their own circle...no better example than Ayn Rand, but she was batshit from jump. Stalinism can do that to one.<br /><br />Joanna Russ often seems ready, and never more than with the essays collected here, to challenge her way back out of any box one might want to put her in...I suspect, to mention my favorite example, that she doesn't actually think of Whileaway (the society on what amounts to future Earth in "When It Changed" and THE FEMALE MAN) as paradisical, particularly as portrayed in the novel...her alter-ego from Whileaway, after all, is a cop whose duty it is to hunt down and kill any woman who dares withdraw from Whilawayan society. Sounds like, to that extent at least, writer's Hell, and I wonder what Russ's ratio of amusement to dispair is when folks might rhapsodize within her ear- or eye-shot about the utopian nature of the concept.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-33881657210944202782009-08-16T21:47:02.352-04:002009-08-16T21:47:02.352-04:00I quoted quite a lot from Russ' essay on porno...I quoted quite a lot from Russ' essay on pornography and the liberating venue that slash fiction offers in my own essay on Moore and Gebbie's <a href="http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/08/30/moore/" rel="nofollow">Lost Girls</a>. As in her fiction, she's freewheeling and thoughtful, playful but entirely serious in purpose. <i>Magic Mommas</i> really deserves resurrection for a new generation.<br /><br />I remember Johnson, but not as clearly as I would like. <i>Housewife</i> certainly generated a lot of discussion. I can understand the desire to avoid any kind of chains, but as I contemplate the inevitable pull of the family disease, I suspect that some self-suppression is probably a good thing (not to mention the lynch pin of society). While libertarians -- most of whom are intelligent yet foolishly consider everyone else to be the same -- argue for complete freedom to be the way, some compromise and suppression will be required to maintain relationships. It's the constant struggle to decide how much of each one is willing to accept. The loss of hedonistic freedom does have some payoffs.C. Margery Kempehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15910282257993793334noreply@blogger.com