[post-feminism] back to the stone age ... or to reason

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It's official:

The housewife is back, with younger women embracing domestic crafts in droves, according to new figures. Sewing machines have rocketed off shelves in the past six months with Lincraft reporting a 30 per cent increase in sales.

"There has been a definite trend happening and we have also started to see an increase in dress fabric sales," said Lincraft spokesman Jeff Croft. "Demand for sewing classes has increased and one of the biggest growth areas has been knitting yarn, with a 10-20 per cent increase in sales compared to this time last year."

Feminism - wherefore art thy victories?

Save the women, I say, before they deconstruct into Stepford Wives. Save the women before they spend all day in the bath. Women didn't achieve their victories, they didn't become harder than the male, doing everything much, much better than he ever could, only to lose it to a spurious rise in homecrafts and other productive but rubbish activities.

Down with sewing, knitting and gourmet cooking, down with improving your mind with world literature - you should be narrowing your focus with Beauvoir, Walker, Greer and the Vagina Monologues. You must understand that the male truly is to blame for everything so get back to Wollstonecraft and Lydon right now and immerse yourself in orgasm.

That's an order!

[best posts] swift work, jon

Jon Swift has done a massive job putting together Best posts of the year for 2008. If you get a chance, get over there - there's a lot of reading to be done.

[oh dear] not another assassination

Hope it never comes to that.
Is she tempting fate?
Pity about her indefensible policies.

[creature quiz] five to test you

1

2

3

4

5

Which is which? Gytrash, stone marten, mongoose, house martin, sugar glider.

[hope] this is everything

The sign over the gates of Dante's hell reads, quite appropriately:

'All hope abandon ye who enter here.' [Cary's translation]

Liz Hinds says though:

The wind that took your dreams blows softly on it and the darkness itself is lit by the glowing ember, the fire that can’t be extinguished, that’s always there, the hope that makes the difference between living and dying.

When you're incarcerated, it's hope they wish you to despair of first. When you have nothing and become a serf, a slave, hope wrecks that dastardly plan. With no hope, there is resignation and a greater chance of controlling you. This is why a certain way of thinking, being based on hope, faith and charity, is so difficult to suppress [although they're giving it their best shot].

When a person continues to entertain even a glimmer of hope, he [she] can never be finally destroyed.

Calum Carr also did a post on hope here. He'll be sadly missed.

[real life] sometimes impinges

Busy day today preparing job submission so not a lot of time to blog till later.