Comments on: Better Day, Apparently

By: wildflower

wildflower — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:07:06 +0000

Okay, point taken. Thank you for being civil.

By: atiton

atiton — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:02:16 +0000

@kristin and A Sarah: You are both very welcome. Some of the stories in that book haunt me and some just made me furious. Women and mothers come in all creeds, shapes, sizes and attitudes. That book showcases a lot of different kinds of them.

By: Phantomllama

Phantomllama — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:49:17 +0000

The difference seemed pretty clear to me–the idea that a cat would refrain from eating a rat because of a diet, and even be on a diet is preposterous. This seems like satire. I thought the other could be seen as mocking those obnoxious “flatter every shape!” magazine articles, but I can see how it would be hurtful; the comments themselves were about covering up flab to appear thinner or enhancing svelteness. Maybe I’m just reading too much into this!

By: kateharding

kateharding — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:07:11 +0000

Tuxer got it in one.

Wildflower, in all seriousness, my biggest issue with “discredit your cause” is that it’s not MY cause. It’s a cause I believe in, but if I mess up (and I still disagree that I did here, but that’s not even relevant), there are literally more than a hundred other bloggers, and thousands of other people involved in the movement, who will be more of a credit to the cause than I am that day. So I’m really not worried about undermining the message with one lolcat blogpost.

By: Tuxer

Tuxer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:38:03 +0000

Wildflower, I think it might have been that the words “discredit your cause” seemed out of proportion when applied to the posting of a lolcat picture. Might have put people off a bit, not that I can speak for anyone else, natch. (I didn’t see the Cute Overload pic, so I may have missed some context here.)

Not flaming, just saying.

By: wildflower

wildflower — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:42:10 +0000

I said that letting one’s *personal mood swing* affect what is or is not acceptable to one’s *social cause* does “discredit your cause somewhat.”

Somehow other commenters view this as “Hey, Kate, your moods have destroyed Fat Acceptance!” which is analogous to “single-handedly destroy[ing] feminism” and “No one needed fat acceptance, anyway, so don’t worry about it” and “fat acceptance is really just a bunch of pissed off whales too lazy to exercise 10 times a week and lose weight.”

You got all that out of “discredit… somewhat”?

By: A Sarah

A Sarah — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:59:33 +0000

Oh, and atiton, I really need to read that. I have been telling myself that it was savvy of me to have kids in grad school, rather than on the tenure clock, but now I’m not so sure. I’m on the market with a thin CV in an economic downturn, and faculty in my department vaguely remember me as the oft-pregnant one who wasn’t around much.

As in so many things, until men get pregnant it seems like it’s going to be intractably unfair.

By: A Sarah

A Sarah — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:56:29 +0000

Thanks, y’all. :) You’re way too nice. Mrf. Hope I wasn’t an attention hog.

Just speculating… I would think some well-organized rats could give a cat an even fight, no? Even one with intact claws.

By: kateharding

kateharding — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:27:40 +0000

(((A Sarah)))

By: kristin

kristin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:23:11 +0000

atiton- Oh, thank you for mentioning that book. I have spent an hour this morning googling things like “tenure and pregnancy” “when do female faculty have kids” and the like. Seriously, thank you so much.