feminism

The other day, I got into an argument somewhere else in the blogosphere. Not a discussion, which is all right. But an argument, where people start taking offense. Which is not all right. Life’s too short. Especially when the argument is over butts.

Now I’ve got nothing against butts. I have one myself. It’s too old and fat. I wish it were younger and trimmer. But it continues to serve its principal functions, one of which is not, and never has been, to be a babe magnet. I wish it were otherwise. Maybe in my next life.

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1. Pay. We the People in these United States have always made teaching an economically marginal vocation. There was a reason most teaching was done in a church setting, where the community counted on the "calling" to cut their costs, and the Sunday offering plate offered some level of security to the teacher. Secularized teaching naturally attracted the marginalized or subsidized, especially unmarried women still living at home or, as spinsters, with few other career options. Few people with talent now lack more lucrative options. If we desire talented persons as teachers, pay must be competitive with those other options. Especially given the expense, and marginal value, of the formal education we now insist that teachers acquire.

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Pornography as a Moral Issue

Catherine Mackinnon is a feminist who argues that all pornography is a violation of women’s rights. Mackinnon says freedom of speech does not apply to women because they are silenced by pornography. I disagree with her. Mackinnon says “pornography does not cause harm, it is harm.� And she feels this “harm� outweighs its expressive value.

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