@hightor,
That's a really good piece. I'd somehow missed it this morning. Thanks!
I was reluctant to voice my concerns too, in no small part because I'm a male. And I know that when my 33 year old feminist daughter and I have a chance to talk about this, there is likely to be some fireworks. So, yes, it is very good (and necessary) that women write about this too.
This writer touches on something very important
Quote:It’s because I think that “believing all women” can rapidly be transmogrified into an ideological orthodoxy that will not serve women at all.
Two anecdotes here (to get me into more trouble):
First, I did my degree in the late 80s when feminist theory and activity was very robust at western universities. Some of this was brilliant and some really stupid. Among the stupid stuff was the Catherine McKinnon/Andrea Dworking conception that "all sex is rape". One of my history TAs was a smart and lively young lady who certainly counted herself a feminist. Over coffee one afternoon, she related what had happened at a feminist group meeting she'd attended the prior evening. She, and other women who were in heterosexual relationships, were physically pushed up against a wall and loudly berated for their relationships. There's an example of a good cause going badly astray because we humans are, in many ways, a mess.
The second involves the broad acceptance that Woody Allen, through his relationship with Soon Yi (sp?) was incontrovertibly a pervert because of the differences in age. This is not an uncommon social response. In early American and Canadian history, the charivari or chivaree, carried over from European countries where settlers had come from, were informal means of policing social behavior. Commonly, upset folks would come to the home of the person they deemed a violater and loudly bang pots and pans. The most common reason this would happen was when an older man married a young woman. Through other reading, I had known that when Charlie Chaplin had married his wife, they were exactly the same ages as Woody and Soon Yi. I also knew that they'd had five (I think) children and their marriage had been (from the wife's perspective) a very happy and productive marriage.
The point I'm making here is about the autonomy of those two women. What gives anyone the right to deny those women their choice of mate?
And that's the problem with orthodoxy.
