Comments on: S.O.S., Different Year

By: Nott

Nott — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:58:55 +0000

I never thought that way about corsets. : /

Lame comment, I know. As always, you’ve got an interesting blog. Thanks :]

By: Debbie Nathan

Debbie Nathan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:31:14 +0000

The Times article had some grievous journalism problems: mischaracterizations, serious errors, placing the piece in the News section in the first place when there was no news. See this:

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/01/12/side-effects-complications-the-new-york-times-diy-abortions

By: Asada

Asada — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:51:36 +0000

“que lastima”,
shun birth control, abhor abortions, but expect women to be sexy.

IT’s seems few women have mastered the art of being sexy while not having sex.

I sympathize with young girls who get pregnant and have no where to go. I can’t understand how we allow teenagers to carry babies to full term. I think its nutz. Why not have honest sex ed? I and my friends had honest sex ed and we are not parents.

I grew up in a culture that also shunned abortions ( many girls leaving church for about a year coming back with a baby) and birth control ( Sunday message-girls have sex because they are lonely , not horny, so love them and teach them to avoid sex!).

Maybe it was a combination of proper sex ed, religious influences, sheltering parents, a desire not to derail my life- but I’m 22 and not pregnant. I’m a virgin who has amassed over 50 condoms ( from health fairs, GLBT parades, and college “sexperts” presentations) and I give most of them away.

By: Diatryma

Diatryma — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:01:21 +0000

I have usually seen ‘sexism’ to mean ‘women are less than normal’ and ‘machismo/macho’ to mean ‘manly man! Manly man of awesome manliness!’ The first tears down one sex/gender, the second builds the other up. Macho/machismo doesn’t have anything to do with women. It is all about the manly men and their manliness.

This is only how I’ve seen it used, though.

By: Adrienne

Adrienne — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:14:57 +0000

I get the impression that English has two synonyms to refer to sex discrimination: “sexism” is universal and “machismo” is what Latinos and sometimes Mediterranean people (ie Italians) do. I don’t know if that’s the actual use but I find it extremely racist, as if it was implying that “Hispanic and Mediterranean people are so sexist that they need a special word all for them”.

I’d tend to agree with this (and I’m white, and English is my first language). I understand what Duncan is saying, but my experience with the word has been closer to what Nia said.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:51:11 +0000

Nia, “machismo” and “macho” became a buzzword in American English in the early 1970s as I recall, but it was applied to *American* men. A lot of the gabachos who used the term didn’t even know how to pronounce it (I often heard it said as if it were spelled mako), or thought that “machismo” was an adjective, or thought that “macho” meant “machismo.” (See, for example, Michele Wallace’s book “Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman,” first published around 1979.)

Further, “machismo” is not a synonym for “sexism.” I’m not so sure of all of its connotations in Spanish – I’m just now becoming confident enough of my Spanish to begin looking at the literature in that language — but in English it refers to a particular style of aggressive, impenetrable masculinity. This style is commonly associated with Latin men, but as I said, we find it in enough gabachos that American English took “machismo” as a loan word and applied to American men as well. So I’m afraid your impression is mistaken.

By: akacocolopez

akacocolopez — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:39:07 +0000

good take Nia, I never thought of

By: Nia

Nia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:30:16 +0000

Maybe my problem is that I’m Spanish and English is not my native language, but I get the impression that English has two synonyms to refer to sex discrimination: “sexism” is universal and “machismo” is what Latinos and sometimes Mediterranean people (ie Italians) do. I don’t know if that’s the actual use but I find it extremely racist, as if it was implying that “Hispanic and Mediterranean people are so sexist that they need a special word all for them”.

By: jess

jess — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:36:46 +0000

this is a great article. multiculturalism is good in the abstract, but too often even the purportedly most inclusionary parts of western culture use “awareness” of other cultures as an excuse to continue applying really appalling primitivistic assumptions.

and how demeaning a term is “cultural awareness,” anyway? “oh, dominicans? yes, we’re aware of your people. please read our list of studies in which we have included them.” it’s as though the inclusion of WoC in research is enough to call the research progressive, and blinds so many readers to the actual content and conclusions within.

By: it’s a woman’s world « rising phoenix

it’s a woman’s world « rising phoenix — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:06:28 +0000

[...] out nojojojo’s take on this article, from Angry Black [...]