insurgent49

July 15, 2005
A Letter To Neil Zawicki

Editor’s note: the following anonymous letter was received this week in response to Neil Zawicki’s July 8th ‘Alaskan In Exile’ column. Read the column in its entirety here. If you’d like to send a letter to the editor, you may do so at info@insurgent49.com.

It’s interesting to see that in order for there to be any female participation in the columnist department women must be berated and stereotyped, all the while having to listen to the oozing privilege that males hold over women. There are many things wrong with Collinsworth’s column and they should not be taken lightly in the face of progressive media.

    It is a form of male privilege that men do not have to take responsibility for mailing cards to family members, that may not be their own, and the woman will most likely be to blame if those cards are not sent out. This is for the fact that it is considered the “woman’s job” to be organized for all functions, whether they are hers or not. It is also the male’s privilege to be slovenly in their upkeep and when told to change they can gripe about nagging or some other form of irritating emotional response brought on by the female variety. In contrast, women are held to an unattainable standard in the media, now completely fabricated with the likes of Photoshop. Women keep men warm at night and they are nurtures; all of these things we are applauding the woman for are not based on her intrinsic value, only value in what she can do and offer to others.

    As far as the intolerant sideline concerning the difficult and emotional nature of women, I ask how is this progressive? In one sentence, we seem to be advocating female inclusion but in the next, we are telling people to take female columnists ideas with a grain of salt, based on women being emotional and thus difficult. In order to value the judgments and ways in which women come to their conclusions and decisions we have to be inclusive and not berating or belittling. Women should be valued for using emotion in their ways of knowing and ways of decision-making. To deny a woman value in this regard objectifies her. For example, taking this current response to be laden with emotion – and thus uncredible – gives men the right to disregard my ideas of oppressive speech and resistance to such stereotyping, making their ideas of what I should be and the way in which I should be the only credible and worthy identity forms for women. I am thus reduced (along with all women) to an object, malleable to the “credible” idea-holding males molding.

    It is on this front that feminism is not dead! Women in the First Wave fought for the right to vote, women in the Second Wave fought for equal rights under the law and in the household, now with the Third Wave women have to fight the privilege and institutionalized thinking of our fellow men to gain our equal place. Women have to fight these stereotypes, as well as the placement in the category of the other to gain credibility and solid ground in this socially constructed reality we all play a part in.

    If you want to get more women writers, how ‘bout giving them props for their unique insight into policies and issues, not reduce them to emotionally one-dimensional characters with the sole purpose of tending to the needs of all those around them.

- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford