All entries for Friday 28 May 2004

High Fidelity –Style–Top–Five–Greatest–Music–Tracks–List

Kay, i've decided to note my current Top Five list of tracks. This list changes periodically (as all good top five lists should). Included are tracks from across the genres and eras. Some are, in fact, cheesy but still fab…

5. Don't You Want Me – Human League
4. It Had to be You – Harry Connick, Jr.
3. Sweet Child of Mine – Guns 'N' Roses (for Abby Babby)
2. Fortunate Son – Credence Clearwater Revival

and in like a rocket at number one:

1. Come Away with Me – Norah Jones

Joanna Jameson : 28 May 2004 16:15 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Terrifically funny. Well, if you aren't one with a monobrow…

Writing about web page http://www.monobrow.com/monobro/

Hmm….someone spent a lot of time on this site.

Week 30 is particularly good. It's the issue where Liam Gallagher's monobrow makes the front page.

But my all time fav is always Bert.

Joanna Jameson : 28 May 2004 11:32 |  Tags: Funny Web Sites |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

About Women, Macs and Microsoft….an answer

Writing about Why everyone should have a Mac from Secret Plans and Clever Tricks

I stand by all three assertions.

"[rolls eyes]" "wooly-minded" – Silly girl, what are you talking about?

"Slightly anti-feminist" refers more to the piece's effect as a whole rather than any of its "bits," even though this text clearly dismembers the female form and assigns its different "bits" as attributes of the machine (definitions of hardware and software aside). Face, "wide" mouth, heart, posture all combine to form the dirty little "act" that implicates both the writer and reader in a sort of cybernetic voyeurism. The female form is laid over both Microsoft and Apple which serve as examples of two impossible feminine archetypes, that of the whore and the angel. One is "cheap" and "painted" while the other is a "lover" who "wants you to be happy." Both are definitions of female subservience and servitude. The third feminine archetype of the monster is clearly represented by Linux as the "psycho ex." Why does this matter? It matters because all three are negative definitions of femininity against which all women are measured and assessed in a patriarchal society.
To answer your second larger question, yes, (in relation to this example and others like it) I am asserting that when someone anthropomorphises an object that they implicitly (or explicitly as here) reverse the relationship and objectify the person/people to whom the comparison is being made. It has long been observed that machines like computers, cars, boats, motorcycles etc. have been assigned feminine qualities and been likened to the female form in order to appeal to the male market's (hetero)sexual ego. The fact that machines are marketed in a way as to suggest that they are feminine and exist to give pleasure to and be "owned" or "bought" by men is not a new critical perspective.

An "elegant metaphor" this piece of text is not. Frankly, "anti-feminist" was a polite, understated description of a piece of text which embodies everything many women strive to eradicate from modern gender relations.

A good book to have a look at is The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader by Gill Kirkup et al., which has a few good cultural articles about Blade Runner (in my all-time-top-ten list of films ever made list) and the Alien series. Cracking book.

The next short lecture in feminist critical theory will be: TBA….

Boy, this whole "community dialogue" bit of blogging is fun :-)

Joanna Jameson : 28 May 2004 09:14 |  Tags: Critical Theory |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem