I’m a bit silent these days, since I’m busy conducting some negotiations for a company upon who’s board I sit. It’s interesting. I feel like a medieval ambassador between city-states… which I suppose is what corporations these days are — to some degree. Albeit weak city states. To the many emails I haven’t yet responded to, my apologies.
But I do wish to draw attention to Luka’s blog, Engender Truth. She’s posting almost often enough for me to permanently blogroll her (hint, hint). And certainly deserves this post which has been in my edit-queue for a week.
She lacks at managing images, and manages to post them all-out-of-scale (email me), but it’s still very good.
She’s finishing off her undergrad and is posting about an essay a week. Do Click on “MORE >>” beside her writings or you’ll find yourself pining for the colour of… Friday Boobies — even if you’re a heterosexual female! (Her site only gives brief snippets of her essays otherwise. And maybe you won’t find yourself pining for Friday boobies… but you’ll find yourself pining for something if you don’t click MORE).
She’s an essay detailing how she was ejected from feministing; (no link; they don’t deserve it). Basically, like Grump, she was booted as a troll. Sad, but true.
There’s a lot I could quote on that link, and a lot I could say, but basically she’s got what’s wrong. Men are viewed as crap and discriminated against.
Oh in fairness, the converse is, sadly, still true in some places. But not many. And no, Female, not the ones you think it is.
Luka’s above essay is excellent, but I really like the one I’m about to quote.
“What is your Honour Code“?
Here, Luka quotes two poets from the Commonwealth:
To open this post I am going to introduce you to two poems which resonate very deeply within me. The first poem is called ‘If’ written by Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) and the second poem is called ‘The invitation’ written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. These are two poems which guide me in my own morality throughout my life; they teach me what it means to be a decent, honourable and real human being. To me, what both poets write is a challenge to the reader to think about what their personal honour code is.
Now, having praised Luka, I’m going to bury her. She quotes a great poet and she quotes someone who, in my opinion, writes steaming odoriferous piles of uh… well, I’ve taken this metaphor about as far as I can and still hope to have Luka speak to me. And, I am speaking slightly tongue in cheek.
For, in fact, both Kipling and Oriah suffer from a very similar problem. Neither, in fact, are great poets, though what they write can be very moving. Extremely moving.
Both are extremely gender-oriented; Kipling is very much a man’s poet. Oriah, very much a woman’s.
Oriah doesn’t move me. Kipling does. Yet of the two, Oriah is certainly more emotional.
No insult is intended to Luka on this: it’s clear we differ in our views, and it’s a gender based difference. It’s to her great credit that she gets as much out of Kipling as she does. It’s perhaps not to my credit that I don’t get anything out of Oriah… or maybe Oriah just isn’t as good. That’s for posterity to decide.
In any event, do read Luka’s blog, and woman, Post More! At least once a week! Do that and you’re blogrolled!
Kipling shall be this weeks’s Sunday Sonnet. I think.
-wolfe
