Gluing shit down

I love this article: When Men Are Too Emotional To Have A Rational Argument. The website (at least on my little netbook) is kind of fucked up and annoying, but the article? SO GOOD.

I wish to dispel the notion that women are “more emotional.” I don’t think we are. I think that the emotions women stereotypically express are what men call “emotions,” and the emotions that men typically express are somehow considered by men to be something else.

This is incorrect. Anger? EMOTION. Hate? EMOTION. Resorting to violence? EMOTIONAL OUTBURST. An irrational need to be correct when all the evidence is against you? Pretty sure that’s an emotion. Resorting to shouting really loudly when you don’t like the other person’s point of view? That’s called “being too emotional to engage in a rational discussion.”

Not only do I think men are at least as emotional as women, I think that these stereotypically male emotions are more damaging to rational dialogue than are stereotypically female emotions. A hurt, crying person can still listen, think, and speak. A shouting, angry person? That person is crapping all over meaningful discourse.

Note the use of "stereotypically" here. That's important.

This issue is particularly interesting to me because I am usually the shouting, angry person. And I am most definitely a woman. Yes, I and others occasionally joke that I am a gay man in a woman's body, but I'm not trans. I love queering things, I loved dressing in drag when I had short hair, and I still love wearing menswear-inspired fashion, but I identify as a woman 100%. But apart from the very few times (I can count them on one hand) when anger has reduced me to tears, I follow/succumb to the Typically Male Emotional Response Model.

I'm not saying this is bad or good (although it probably really is more bad than good but I'm not going to address that in this post, if ever). I'm saying that assigning behaviors according to sex and gender is ridiculous and (surprise) misogynistic. I'm also probably preaching to the choir, here, but oh well.

Men and Women = Not As Different As You Think. Pity that our society doesn't agree.

I had a fantastic art day yesterday with some of my local dance ladies. Yay for introducing redheadfae to the joys of art-card-making! I made one art card and got my 2013 planner decorated. I'm exceptionally happy with both--which is important in the case of the planner, since I have to look at it for a year. Also, they're a good lesson in impermanence. I spend hours making them, and the art cards go to a home where they may or may not be appreciated and kept, and the planner will get beat up from daily use and eventually thrown away.

mckitterick worked on the Chevelle while we were arting it up inside. He called me to the garage briefly so I could use the impact wrench (with its new, appropriately-sized hose) on those damn control-arm bolts. And HURRAY we got them off! Mostly. Both bolts are off, anyway. The driver's side control arm is still giving us a bit of a problem. It's supposed to get up into the mid-fifties today, so we might do a little bit more work on the Chevelle today.

Or we might sit on the couch, drink wine, and watch Supernatural all day.

I don't want to go back to work tomorrow.