Re: Fem. Studies Prof Accused of Assaulting Teen Prolife Demonstrator[W:12:85]
No, I read what you said, and I reread what you said, and I still think you have a complex and I don't use tumblr. I also think you're short sighted and not making sense. You suddenly say, ok, fine, you want to learn about Sunni and Sh'ite... and then you go into tell everybody HOW TO LEARN and HOW TO APPROACH LEARNING. But you still stand by saying that college and university studies are not the time and place to study religions. Then what do you propose doing, everybody study such questions on their own free time???
You're about empty slogans like "college should prepare you for the world," but you want to control what people learn and study because YOU don't find certain knowledge useful. That's not about freedom of thought or about intellectualism. I simply don't respect that characteristic in anybody.
And furthermore, it's incredibly naive to suggest such areas of study do not contribute meaning in society or have no place as of a career choice.
Those women in Saudi Arabia are brave, which you know nothing about first hand, so don't try to throw it in my face. My grandmother went through similar things and lived in genocidal war zone where rape was used as a form of punishment and terrorism to control women. I know my heroes in this discussion, and I have worked with women who have been trafficked and forced into third world prostitution rings, beaten and raped. What the **** have you done for women, or for any woman that has risked more than you ever have for freedom? I am willing to bet nothing.
This discussion is not about you putting women into different categories and telling us we aren't ****. This conversation is about your ignorant attitude that studying women's progress is wrong and taboo. Obviously, you should study it, because you might find out, that in America, before women could vote, own property, or work, they quoted the founding fathers. They didn't go back and try to find feminists from dark corners of history. Women's freedom is about ****ing freedom and nothing else. If a woman in Saudi Arabia can't quote the Saudi Royal Family, but she finds inspiration in quotes from American feminists, then good for her. It isn't about women versus men. It's about freedom. A woman's voice is just as strong in that struggle.
Learning is not an absolute. there are right ways to learn things and wrong ways to learn thing. Not all learning process is correct or leads you to be a better person and can cause you to develop some serious complexes and sometimes, create a warped image of the world. Learning about history, in the correct form, is not a fun activity. It's depressing and it's hard. But once you pass through that... what you end up with is happyness. The joy of understanding.
There was this very amazing image that describes exactly what I was talking about but I just can't find it. There are a few people. The first one is standing and looking at a wall that is full of pretty flowers (ignorance is bliss). The next one is on top of a few books and he sees above the wall and it's a dirty dark world-> people who are not ignorant but know just enough to see the bad in the world and have a warped image of it. The next guy is sitting on more books and he sees beyond that at the green pastures and beauty and stuff -> you learn more, you dont' see the bad, but the good too. And then the final guy is sitting on even more books and he's above the clouds and what he sees is a beautiful, marvelous sky image... and that is the guy whose knowledge makes him see the full picture and the possibilities for the future that said knowledge brings to him.
If you want to learn about religion... learn about more than 1 religion and it's stages of development. It gives you perspective. This is the right way to learn if you want to be an intellectual. Otherwise... you're just satisfying your own religious or anti-religious needs. it's like how people like Bill Maher are. They don't know jack about most other religions, just about Christianity, and they use that knowledge to bash on it to get a following. Or... how people like... wahts' her name, stupid from Alaska... that tries and mix religion with politics and claims that god spoke to her.
I don't want to control what people learn. it's not my ambition. I'm just saying, if you want to learn something, learn it properly. Don't do it half-assed and if you can't or won't, then be ready to be branded ignorant when that term is called for. It's not a matter of satisfying my own criteria, it's about increasing the level of understanding of people so that you don't engage in meaningless debates with people who think they know something when in fact, they know nothing.
I'm not against womens' freedom and liberties. Quote me where I said that I am, I dare you, I double dare you.
Feminism is not about freedom anymore or about anything of the sorts. The problems of today cannot be solved by feminism or feminist attitudes or ideology at least not in this little neck of the woods. It's just not how it works because it doesn't work.
Are you sure that saudi women are quoting american feminists? You know, the things I saw... they were praying to Allah to give them strength to continue on what they were doing. Just saying. That world, that place... it's kind of less about americans (so much ego... really, americans aren't the center of the universe for most people) and more about religion. Like it was in the last 1400 years, Islam will either make or brake the middle east in these few years. Well... so far it's broken it... well, kinda... but who knows what the future brings.
Also, you have no idea where and what I experienced in life and furthermore, whatever you appraise your experience to doesn't in any way mean that you can assume you're more knowledgeable than I am. Or that you have a better understanding that I do. Unless, of course, you can bring something provable, palpable, to the table of discussion from a reputable source. Which you know... good luck. I wish you do so that if it's something worthwhile, I'll actually learn something in this exchange instead of just having a chit chat basically.
