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I have been one of those high fallutin’ feminists who labored over the language in order to be taken seriously, and I’ve been a feminist who marched in DC in 1992 with a crude sign graphically depicting the only bush I felt was worthy of the white house (if you get my meaning)... I grew up poor, abused and feminism saved my ass too! Finding Dorothy Allison in 1993 was a revelation and a joy. Her voice is still so honest it’s painful - but that’s one of the phases of growth isn’t it? Whether we speak the language of academics or the language of the cotton mills, women all speak the language of common experience. AND… Wolf is 11 years old???? How is it possible???? Congratulations on your marriage!
Posted by Liz Brown on Apr 27, 2004 at 3:49 PM
Wow, this article reads as if she were speaking directly to me! I would love to hear this woman speak in person! Fuck that, I would love to meet her! Every movement needs a person like this noble and brutally truthful woman.
Posted by Brian Siefke on Apr 29, 2004 at 2:08 AM
The bottom line is—the arcane and unintelligible language used by academics is a barrier to reaching those who aren’t academics. And lawmakers, judges, politicians, police, battering husbands, divorce lawyers, teachers, and social service workers are not academics.
For adherents of some disciplines, using the resources allotted to them by academia to produce arcane, unread tomes may be fine, but this isn’t doing feminism any good. We have real world problems which need solved. Feminism is not a theoretical construct. It’s a real reaction to real problems in the real world.
We need practical output that will lead to progress in the real world—a way to make welfare and childcare work, without creating dependency, and make funding it politically palatable, maybe. Or, actually come up with an effective plan for the overhaul of divorce law, custody law, prenups or civil union contracts that would help relieve the inequity in marriage! Something that would make sense to policymakers!
Women enjoying the money available inside academia should start writing material that is actually useful to abused women, women doing the double shift, women abandoned with child, women battered and abused, women accused of being
Posted by Jan VanDenBerg on Apr 29, 2004 at 10:35 AM
No mention of Germaine Greer?
Posted by Terry on Apr 30, 2004 at 9:39 AM
Academics, and feminists in particular have overwhelmingly thrown themselves out of reality. There terminology and vocabulary of the heavy suggests they are not interested in the public only in publication and publicizing.
Posted by Haynes on Apr 30, 2004 at 12:47 PM
I love this article and I hate arcane accedemic language. I’m a historian, or at least I’ve got a Masters in history. However, as I want to write clearly, I’m probably never going to get to go on to get my PhD. Accedemia is so determined to speak in perfect jargon that they no longer care if they can be understood by anyone outside their specialty. Feminism has become seen as property of the accademy. They don’t want women like Dorothy Allison mussing up their property. I’m so glad they can’t run her off.
Posted by Thomas Devine on May 2, 2004 at 7:29 PM
I
Posted by Jan VanDenBerg on May 4, 2004 at 7:22 PM
Feminists caught in this hostile environment find that using this jargon creates a “mystique” around their material that helps them to survive in the academic environment, but is that something anymore worth doing?
If you have to give up everything you believe in—progress in the real world for real women—to protect yourself from the cynical, competitive, harassment-monitored, backbiting, hypercritical, hypocritical closet-sexists who populate academia, maybe it makes sense to figure out a new way to bring in your baloney money.
The best positions in Women’s Studies Departments pay about enough to barely get by. One can make that much doing a lot of things that don’t require prostituting your work. If feminism is what gives meaning to your life, should you comply with set of onerous and vicious requirements designed to render it ineffectual
Posted by Jan VanDenBerg on May 4, 2004 at 7:22 PM
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Reader Comments
I have been one of those high fallutin’ feminists who labored over the language in order to be taken seriously, and I’ve been a feminist who marched in DC in 1992 with a crude sign graphically depicting the only bush I felt was worthy of the white house (if you get my meaning)... I grew up poor, abused and feminism saved my ass too! Finding Dorothy Allison in 1993 was a revelation and a joy. Her voice is still so honest it’s painful - but that’s one of the phases of growth isn’t it? Whether we speak the language of academics or the language of the cotton mills, women all speak the language of common experience. AND… Wolf is 11 years old???? How is it possible???? Congratulations on your marriage!
Wow, this article reads as if she were speaking directly to me! I would love to hear this woman speak in person! Fuck that, I would love to meet her! Every movement needs a person like this noble and brutally truthful woman.
The bottom line is—the arcane and unintelligible language used by academics is a barrier to reaching those who aren’t academics. And lawmakers, judges, politicians, police, battering husbands, divorce lawyers, teachers, and social service workers are not academics.
For adherents of some disciplines, using the resources allotted to them by academia to produce arcane, unread tomes may be fine, but this isn’t doing feminism any good. We have real world problems which need solved. Feminism is not a theoretical construct. It’s a real reaction to real problems in the real world.
We need practical output that will lead to progress in the real world—a way to make welfare and childcare work, without creating dependency, and make funding it politically palatable, maybe. Or, actually come up with an effective plan for the overhaul of divorce law, custody law, prenups or civil union contracts that would help relieve the inequity in marriage! Something that would make sense to policymakers!
Women enjoying the money available inside academia should start writing material that is actually useful to abused women, women doing the double shift, women abandoned with child, women battered and abused, women accused of being
No mention of Germaine Greer?
Academics, and feminists in particular have overwhelmingly thrown themselves out of reality. There terminology and vocabulary of the heavy suggests they are not interested in the public only in publication and publicizing.
I love this article and I hate arcane accedemic language. I’m a historian, or at least I’ve got a Masters in history. However, as I want to write clearly, I’m probably never going to get to go on to get my PhD. Accedemia is so determined to speak in perfect jargon that they no longer care if they can be understood by anyone outside their specialty. Feminism has become seen as property of the accademy. They don’t want women like Dorothy Allison mussing up their property. I’m so glad they can’t run her off.
I
Feminists caught in this hostile environment find that using this jargon creates a “mystique” around their material that helps them to survive in the academic environment, but is that something anymore worth doing?
If you have to give up everything you believe in—progress in the real world for real women—to protect yourself from the cynical, competitive, harassment-monitored, backbiting, hypercritical, hypocritical closet-sexists who populate academia, maybe it makes sense to figure out a new way to bring in your baloney money.
The best positions in Women’s Studies Departments pay about enough to barely get by. One can make that much doing a lot of things that don’t require prostituting your work. If feminism is what gives meaning to your life, should you comply with set of onerous and vicious requirements designed to render it ineffectual
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