A2K Politics Forum/Where are Our Politically Savvy Women?

lil k - The thread you started yesterday on Africa had a lot of political aspects to it!

chatoyant - "Politics" is a birthday-suit only forum...

Phoenix...great thread and so welcome!

I do agree with you... I would say more, but Bush has caused me to have to resort to medical therapy in the form of "spirits frumenti"...in other words, a martini!

Yes it did fishin.

That is usually what happens to me I am just over looked and not part of the conversation. The Vietnam thread was the final straw for me.

I spent four years working for the Navy during that war in an office yes but in a position where I was fully informed probably more informed than any soldier. But what I had to say was simply discounted out of hand.

For a brief moment I entertained the idea of giving my military history but then realized it would not matter as I had already been accused of not knowing what I was talking about. Actually I was told that a statement of fact I had made was untrue. Sheesh, ignorance of a fact does not make it untrue. Not that I never make mistakes or error I do but this was not one of those times.

Overall I have found, working with all men as I did for four or five years, they are more nit picky than women every are. Always anxious to point out mistakes. And the gossip, my goodness, it was the gossip among those guys that really shocked me but then I was just a youngster then.

The main problem for women in politics at any level in my opinion is that women do not have economic parity yet. Look around and all you see at the top are white males. Once women achieve equal financial power and management status things will change. I know that sounds sexist and it is who know for sure that women will not become more aggressive when they are in power.

Pay Equity

VNN, I'm watching the rerun now, my thumb on the shuttle button of the remote, a glass of Whiskey in my other hand. I figure it'll be about an hour before The Pundits have anything meaningful to say.



timber

Actually the SOTU I half listened to the first part, then listened intently to the last part, while trying not to notice the subtle nuances.

ehBeth

Woof. I confess my interest in politics is greatly theoretical and is driven by the same urge which has pulled me into anthropology, primate studies, and a number of other areas, to try and understand why humans do what we do. Of course, an underlying part of that is to gain tools against the less pleasant human tendencies.

We are fortunate, I think (and made this point in a PM to someone today) to have a less binary set of options in Canada.

I feel about men the way Blatham feels about women. I like um. And I find them as receptive when their personality allows as women can be. Of course, I agree with dlowan and ehBeth, that some women can also be as aggressive as some men. I'm a fairly aggressive woman. And if I contribute and am ignored, I post again until my voice is heard. And it doesn't usually take many attempts to be accepted by men in a discussion. I personally think men and women are more alike in the truly important aspects of their lives than they are different. However, I do agree that men and women are very pleasantly different as well. Politics is intensely interesting to me. For me, participation is simply a matter of available time.

Lola, your remark " ... I post again until my voice is heard. And it doesn't usually take many attempts to be accepted by men in a discussion ... " contrasts well with JD's perception she gets overlooked or dismissed as being irrelevant, and that both observations support ehBeth's assessment the threads were boring and repettetive. A lot of the individual interactions are precisely one or another poster repeating, reitterating, or refining a point. And often, arguments or assertions are disected and addressed point by point. To be heard in such discussions, one must make one's self heard ... folks are already very busy listening to themselves.



timber

Guess I will have to change my avatar to be heard Now I am off to look for ty lucious red head look, I am teachable (is that a word)? :wink:

I don't think folks over there pay much attention to what anyone's WEARING, JD. Hell, they often pay much less attention to what one another are SAYING than how someone is SAYING it. Costumes mostly don't get a lot of notice.



timber

You don't like my new avatar timber?

I think there are a lot of politically savvy women. And I also think most men are very uncomfortable with them. Women seem to be more at home with mixed discussions (in general) but are too smart to engage with them most of the time.

I agree with Joanne. Economic parity will start to make it different, if we want it to.

Watching and listening to Bush tonight, I, along with VNN, was watching his mouth twitch, and he had his smirk back. How he was saying what he said was meaningful to me, and there, I think, is one of the major differences between the way men and women react to things. Most women, in general, do look for the nuances (although some men do, too). And I think a lot of women just get very tired of what goes on in some political threads. We are different, which isn't a bad thing, but we are interested in a lot of other and different things, too.

I dunno, there's Lola's legs...

Someone (Phoenix?) likened the men talking politics to sports, and I do get something similar out of participating in politics as I did when I was playing pick-up b-ball regularly. I did this before Rebecca Lobo or the WNBA, when it just wasn't done, and I was the only girl out there. I was always viewed with suspicion at first, but then the guys let their guard down and were themselves around me.

Like ehBeth, my job used to involve lots of direct confrontation, and I was good at it. I don't get that many opportunities as a SAHM. I mean, pity the poor mom who lets her kid do something to my kid, but... So if I get in the mood for some of that kind of action, I do kinda like the politics category. I don't like when it spills over to the "nicer" categories, but I think there's a place for the more aggressive stuff (as long as it's in the plain-talking category, not just plain mean.)

I agree about the whole repetitiveness thing, though. I feel the same way about US/UN/Iraq -- stopped checking in a while ago.

When I posed this question to Maximom, she responded with "because I want to spend my time on things more worthwhile".

I married her for her looks and sense of humor, the brains and ability to cook were a bonus.

max, I married my wife for her brains and looks. Her sense of humor and ability to cook are the bonus. c.i.

Maybe I should spend just a little more time there then.

I am VERY interested in politics but I don't want to spend ages online arguing with other people with opposite points of view to mine. Life has enough challenges without that added stress. A2K is a very pleasurable experience & I want to keep it that way.

Hey, JD, did you do your hair different or somethin'? Sorry I didn't notice earlier ... looks real nice that way.




timber

Yes timber I did. Thought I needed to be taken more seriously.

Like many of the women here I have held my own with men when it was my job to do so. Nothing like working out of a union office full of guys smoking cigars, ugh. The funny thing is that while they talked I went about organizing the union, enforcing the contract, bargaining contracts, and making case law. Eventually and reluctantly some came around. But you know what I really never cared what those guys thought. It was the folks I represented that matter and they loved and appreciated my work on their behalf and that was more than enough to satisfy my ego.