Great post at “Not Sorry Feminism” re men cleared of rape because the woman was “too masculine” to be attractive.
Jan 23
And here’s something else that would never happen to a man …
Jass has also set up a tumblr page for additions to Jane Smith’s “And here’s something else that would never happen to a man…”
https://jass-richards.tumblr.com/
Jan 22
Jane Smith’s Translation Dictionary
An interesting thing about the novel (A philosopher, a psychologist, and an extraterrestrial walk into a chocolate bar…) is that one of the characters, Jane Smith, starts a ‘translation dictionary’ and the author, Jass Richards, has set up a tumblr page for people to add entries. Cool.
https://jassrichards.tumblr.com/
Jan 21
Just out! A radfem novel!
JUST OUT from Lacuna!
A philosopher, a psychologist, and an extraterrestrial walk into a chocolate bar… a novel by Jass Richards
It’s kinda an extended argument for radical feminism. And very funny.
Here’s the blurb:
When a self-appointed independent activist and her office-temp-with-a-doctorate buddy embark on a quest for a chocolate bar (a bar that serves not alcohol, but chocolate – in all its deliciously decadent forms), they pick up a hitchhiking extraterrestrial who’s stopped on Earth to ask for directions. Trying to explain Earl (Earth), confronting everyday sexism (rather like bashing your head against a jellyfish), and committing assorted outrageous acts and everyday rebellions, they help ‘X’ find the information she needs to get back home – and go with her – to become chocolate bartenders.
Available in print at Lacuna, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, and wherever you buy your books online.
Also available in Kindle, Kobo, as a NookBook, and as an iBook.
Dec 25
Making Fun of Rapists
Big words confuse them. They think ‘No’ means ‘Yes’.
They have no sense of direction. They confuse running away with running toward.
They have a questionable understanding of basic biology. They think they need sexual intercourse. (Like, what, if they can’t stick their dick into some woman’s vagina, they’ll die? Wouldn’t that be nice.)
They also seem to think pregnancy is under a woman’s voluntary control. (Wouldn’t that be nice.)
They don’t seem to understand the difference between fiction and reality: they think porn movies are documentaries.
And they’re completely incapable of logical thinking. For example, if it’s no big deal, why are they forcing us?
And they’re so thin-skinned, aren’t they? When someone politely expresses a lack of interest in having sex with them, they completely lose their shit.
Dec 22
A great point about legalizing prostitution
“There is no other ‘job’ where a 13-year-old with zero experience can be sold for 100 times the price what a 23-year-old with ten years experience is sold.” Samantha Berg
https://www.genderberg.com/phpNuke/modules.php?name=FAQ&myfaq=yes&id_cat=2&categories=
Dec 17
And here’s something else that would never happen to a man …
So this guy in our neighborhood has early Alzheimers and dizzy spells. He’s looking for a babysitter (his word) and someone to cook for him and do his cleaning so he doesn’t have to go into a home. And he asked me.
I have no experience babysitting. And absolutely no aptitude for it.
Yes, I do my own cooking and cleaning, but I have no interest in it, at all, and do as little as possible.
So why did he ask me? Because I’m a middle-aged woman. Apparently that’s what middle-aged women do, that’s what we are, that’s what we’re for.
Yes, I’ve been friendly with him, stopping to chat or at least wave when I walk by (as a result of which he once asked me if I like sex and whether I’m any good at it—apparently that’s another thing women do, are, are for), but I doubt that friendliness on the part of a man would have indicated that he’s available for babysitting, cooking, or cleaning (or sex).
I’ve got three degrees, I used to be a philosophy instructor, I’ve published several books, and I’m currently making a living as a freelancer. Would a man with such credentials be asked to be someone’s babysitter and do their cooking and cleaning?
Ah, but this guy doesn’t know I’m all that. And that’s also telling. If I were man who has lived in this neighborhood (small, rural) for twenty-five years, everyone would likely know all of that about me. But I don’t go around announcing these things, and no one’s ever asked. Because they just assume I’m—well, none of that. After all, I’m just a middle-aged woman.
P.S. – Spread the word – I invite women to add their own “And here’s something else that would never happen to a man” entries via the comments function. I’d love for this post to turn into a blog sort of like ‘What is it like to be a woman in philosophy?’…
Dec 07
How to Make a Man Grow Up
I was recently surprised to discover that in the U.S., men are required by law to register for the “selective service system”.
Only men. I thought women were allowed in their military now.
And required. I didn’t think they had ‘the draft’ anymore.
When I expressed my surprise, hoping to engage someone in conversation, the guy in line behind me (I was in a U.S. post office, where the brochures reminding men of their duty were prominently displayed) said he agreed that it should be mandatory to serve for two years: it makes ‘em ‘grow up’.
Hm. How does teaching someone how to kill make a person grow up? That is, what’s mature about learning how to kill? What’s mature about actually killing?
Of course, being in the military is not just about killing. Arguably. But what’s mature about not being pressured to conform, to obey orders?
Sure, the forced routine, of physical exercise and psychological effort, might become a habit. And that’s a good thing. A grown-up thing. But there are other, far better, ways to achieve that same result.
And sure, the presumed altruism—you’re serving their country, life’s not all about you—is good, mature. But again, is killing someone for others really the best example of altruism we can put before young men? Young men who need to grow up?
It seems to me the selective service system is a bad way to fix a bunch of other bad ways.
The question we have to ask is how do boys get to eighteen without growing up?
Nov 28
Solo Women’s Invisible Economic Expenses
It really hit home when my father gave me twenty bucks for a pizza, his treat. As if I were a teenager. Instead of a 50-year-old woman with a mortgage to pay, property taxes, and monthly bills for oil, electricity, phone, internet, tv, house insurance, car insurance… Amazing. He was sitting in my living room at the time. (My living room.) A carpenter I’d hired to do some renovations on my house (my house) was outside working at the time. And yet, he seemed to think I didn’t need, or couldn’t use, any real money. He couldn’t see me as an adult negotiating my way in the real world, the one with jobs, paycheques, mortgages, and bills.
How did he think I came to own my own house? Who did he think would be paying the carpenter? Who does he think bought the car sitting in my driveway? And pays for its repairs?
I don’t doubt for a minute that my parents have given my brother and my married sister a lot more than twenty bucks over the years (I divorced them thirty years ago, so I don’t really know) (and for that reason, I don’t feel entitled to anything from them, but that’s not my point), starting with the hundred-dollar (thousand-dollar?) gifts they gave them to start their households. Said gifts were ostensibly wedding gifts, but hey, I had a household to start too. Why do they get a new fridge and I get a hand-me-down blender just because they’re starting a new household with someone to whom they’ve contracted themselves?
And it’s not just my parents, of course. The twenty-bucks-for-pizza incident wasn’t by any means the first time my economic expenses have been apparently invisible. A neighbour (a kept woman) explained to me once that she and her husband were happy to have given the commission from the sale of their property to a certain real estate agent, a woman, (instead of selling the property without involving her, which they could have done), because her husband had recently died, so she was on her own now. No similar sympathy has ever been directed my way. And I’ve been on my own since I was twenty-one.
Why is this? What can explain this phenomenon, a phenomenon that is surely causally related to women’s lower salaries? The belief, clearly mistaken if anyone cared to open their eyes, that every woman is married? (And every married woman is completely supported by her husband?) The insistent belief that women are, or should be, considered children? (And children don’t have adult needs, adult financial responsibilities…)
In 2009, American single women outnumbered married women (All the Single Ladies, Rebecca Traister). So what do people like my parents think? That banks waive our mortgage payments, and landlords never charge us rent; that insurance companies waive our premiums; that oil and propane companies fill our tanks, but never send us a bill; that we get our cars and bus passes for free; that we don’t have to pay for gas; that grocery stores let us walk out with all the food we want, for free; that our dentists and optometrists don’t charge us for check-ups; and that little elves come in the middle of the night and leave heaps of money so we can pay for whatever else we need.
Books by Peg Tittle
Writing as Jass Richards
Writing as Chris Wind
