No posts! (How am I still upright?)
Howdy, friends! I’m still (mostly) on holiday break here, but I thought you might enjoy some thoughts from bloggers more energetic than I am right now. I hope to be back later this week–I just don’t seem to have any original thoughts to share at the moment. So, herewith are my recommendations for your bloggy perusals:
- Suzie at Echidne offers a Swiftian satire after Julian Assange’s comment that Sweden is the “Saudi Arabia of feminism,” as in, “Feminists run Sweden like wealthy sheikhs run Saudi Arabia.” As if! What a tool. Once again, we see that so-called leftists are just as disgusting as right-wingers and just as opportunistic in their alternate deployment of feminist arguments and contempt for feminism and/or actual women. (Even George W. Bush said we needed to invade Afghanistan because the Taliban were horrible patriarchal despots and we had to liberate women from their burkhas! Remember that convenient feminist argument? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?)
- Tenured Radical is doing some quality pre-American Historical Association 125th Annual Meeting blogging these days, with a few posts for those of you fortunate enough to be interviewing for jobs this year. (That is, fortunate enough either to be in a department that is hiring, or fortunate enough to have interviews lined up.) “Tell Us About Your Dissertation: And Other Commonly Fumbled Interview Questions” is a good primer for what to expect and how not to blow it. I will just add my two cents: first, assume that the people interviewing you have read your file but in the rush of interviewing have forgotten 90% of what you sent them. They’ll be grateful to be reminded of a few key facts about your work and training if you can do it crisply and without fuss. Secondly, pay particular attention to the comment by Comrade PhysioProf about how interviews are opportunities to present yourself as a colleague and peer to a wider professional network. (He’s also posted a version of his comment on his blog here.) Finally, it is a truth universally acknowledged by those of us forty and older that the ease of finding information on the web about hiring departments is apparently still a convenience of which most job candidates don’t avail themselves. Do yourself a favor and get to know the department interviewing you and the individuals on the search committees. You don’t need to read their books or kiss their a$$e$ by saying you’ve read their books–just know who’s who and who in the department teaches most closely to your field. Ask an informed question or two. Pretend like you’d like to be seen as a future colleague.
- Here’s a one-word nightmare of teevee-induced insanity: “Bridalplasty.” (Twisty explains it all.) I thought it was annoying enough to have my Joyous Year of Affiancement 1997 mostly characterized by hearing dumba$$ questions about why my last name wasn’t changing, why I didn’t want an engagement ring or a big wedding, and why my job rather than his determined where we lived. (And what were we going to call the children??? If they ever might exist.) And the biggest irritation of all: no one ever asks dudes these questions! How lucky I was not to be badgered about which “procedures” I planned to endure in my unending quest for physical perfection!
- GayProf has a funny post about Christmas giving and receiving. If you’re in the mood to give to GayProf, I suggest either bourbon, a vintage 1930s Tom and Jerry punchbowl, or bourbon.
Historiann 
Thankes for the fucken linke, Historiann!!!!!!!!
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Welcome back! This is a pretty meaty post for a non-post. A foot of snow here on the upper/lower middle East Coast, but we’re slowly getting dug out.
Assange gets my weirded-out meter racing at unsustainable levels. I was wondering who I could try to sign to play Gilbert Imlay in an upcoming production (another guy who must have thought Scandinavia was a bummer of a place for his sort of narcissistic spirit). If his book deal falls through, he might be available.
Heading to Boston next week, both to do interviews and hopefully a little research, plus a reception tucked into the outerwalls of Fenway Park!! Glad to send pics or updates.
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One blog had a picture of Palin’s legs. They didn’t understand why I am bitching about it. How about show McCain’s butt?
My school changed out health insurance carrier from Blue Cross/Blue Shaft to a company run by the Russian mafia. Progress now, progress forever.
Happy new year everyone.
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The Bridalplasty thing. Wow. Usually I have a dark sense of (gallows?) humor such that most of these news of the weird make me laugh. But for some reason, that one just … I mean, there are no words. Seriously. What is wrong with these people, where does it stop? This sickening exploitation of the sad, the desperate for their 15 mins of fame? Jeez. Why do so many people go into conniption over gays in the military and don’t go in mobs with pitchforks to storm the corporations that promote this kind of televised horror? Oh well. So what’s new, right?
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Thanks for the link! I’ve been blogging the hell out of Assange. On Tuesday, I took on the NYT story by Bennhold and wrote about a Kinsey study that said men who can’t sustain an erection with a condom are less likely to wear a condom (duh), and also more likely to have it break during sex. Today, I added that the Guardian withheld some details from the police documents that would have been especially cruel and embarrassing to Assange. I know it sounds gossipy to question whether he can maintain an erection while wearing a condom, but 1) men who force sex without a condom are an enormous problem in the world, especially considering HIV and maternal mortality. (Assange has said that, even if the accusations against him were true, they still wouldn’t amount to rape.) 2) Assange has portrayed himself as a very manly man, and I think that’s one reason so many women want him and men want to be him. Erectile dysfunction might deflate his hyper-masculinity.
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I just really, really, really cannot understand how anyone can believe that “not wearing a condom when he agreed to” *isn’t* a HUGE problem. Like Suzie said: HIV, STDs, pregnancy. And I’ve been the girl nervously pressured into agreeing to dispense with condom use against my wishes, so I have a lot of admiration for these women who insisted upon it. If Assange did behave as the charges allege (innocent until proven guilty, of course) then he wilfully violated the bodily integrity of his victims against their express wishes. How can this not be obviously rape?
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