Posts of the Week
|
Feminist and Proud of It Marlene Blanshay - 12:27pm Jun 14, 1997 PST (#8 of 164)
I'm 37. Ten years ago I was looked down upon by women who were ten years older than I, who thought that because I wasn't around when the first bra was burned, I couldn't possibly be a feminist. A few years later I was in graduate school surrounded by women either my age or a few years younger or older who thought that: Feminists were manhaters. That if you became a feminist you would be 300 pounds and grow a mustache. That only men should have opinions. And so on. Somewhere in there women my age got lost and forgotten about. I still am a feminist and have been one since I was 14 and have never apologized, not once. So much for us all being a monolith. Hottest Scenes of all time Denise Witzig - 11:32am Jun 20, 1997 PST (#127 of 129)
Maybe this is a voice in the wilderness ...but creepy/hot scenes are particularly memorable for me. Perhaps this is because I grew up on Hitchcock at the drive-in; to me that whole restrained libido thing is really charged. My favorite example is North by Northwest (sex in suits, on trains, through tunnels, stockinged feet on Teddy Roosevelt's nose - wow), but probably the best creepy/hot scenes occur in Vertigo, after Scotty has remade Judy into Madeline, in her cheap hotel room, on that chenille bedspread...no one could do sadistic sex like Hitchcock. Has anyone seen The Company of Strangers with reptilian Chris Walken and Rupert Everett as love-stud-sacrificial-objet? This is truly disturbing for its climactic scene of sado-eroticism staged in front of a paralyzed Natasha Richardson. But memorable! Homeschooling As Copout Paul Clark - 05:55am Jun 17, 1997 PST (#2 of 17)
I always find it interesting when people start talking about homeschooling that early in the debate the discussion turns to a left vs. right issue. I know this is because the largest semi-organized group of people who homeschool tend to be people with strong religious beliefs, who may also be fairly (very?) conservative. But I've been close to two families who home-schooled their children, and neither one of them was particularly religious and politically they were both liberal, on the verge of being radical. Homeschooling is such a personal choice, made for a variety of reasons. Some families respond to ineffective public schools by putting their kids in private schools (if they can afford them). Some respond by throwing themselves into the life of the school, becming a constant presence in the faces of teachers and administrators. Some disaffected parents find enough other disaffected parents that they start their own school. And some parents are disenchanted enough with the idea of a school organized under any principles designed to teach a variety of students from a variety of backgrounds, that they take the task on themselves. Parents who homeschool are not copping out--they're taking on a huge responsibility. The parents who cop out are the ones who don't recognize when their children aren't thriving in whatever learning environment they are in--public school, private school, military academy, or home school. |
Salon front page | Posts of the Week Issue No. 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 64