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I got a bit of verbal confirmation last night that the purpose of this exercise went over some heads. I'll restate it, more explicitly this time.
I am doing this in order to work through a lot of societal bullshit I've internalized. In particular, the notion that women's lives are less interesting than men's. To tell me, "it's easy, you just have to X" misses the point. :|
Another thing women learn from society is that we can't talk about how good we are, and if we do, we're braggarts. It's hard to talk yourself up, to say why you're the best applicant for the job or why your novel is special and the agent should rep it, when you're fighting against years of conditioning that tell you not to do that. (Not to mention backlash, wherein people call you a bitch for saying, why yes, I *am* awesome, thanks for noticing. One reason I love Toph: she's awesome, and she knows it, and she'll let you know it, too.)
It's easy for me to come up with things I can't do. It's harder for me to come up with things I can do. And even harder for me not to qualify them -- I can X but not as well as.... So this is a list of things I can do (and some of them I do well). That I will NOT be qualifying, dammit.
-I can learn languages easily. I started reading at 2.5, and the internet tells me 4-5 is average. My German 2 teacher in high school got permission for me to skip German 3, and in 10th grade, I took German 4, Latin 1, and sign language. I thought Latin was too easy, so I didn't continue. I took two years of university Japanese for fun. I have never gotten less than an A in a language class. I want to learn Turkish and Hungarian.
-I have good pattern recognition skills. This is likely part of why I can learn languages easily (grammar is a pattern, after all). I love word searches, and I don't really have to try until I've found over half of them. The ones where the words aren't just in straight lines are more fun because I have to work for them.
-I am naturally athletic, and I have a good kinesthetic sense. I can go 6 weeks without practicing tai chi and not lose much of the form.
-I am a classically-trained soprano. I can sing. I have a 3-octave range, from the C below middle C to two octaves above middle C (higher if I'm warmed up). I can also sing alto and first tenor.
-I can sew. I can crochet.
-I can cook. I make awesome desserts.
I could only come up with five things. That's really sad.
I am doing this in order to work through a lot of societal bullshit I've internalized. In particular, the notion that women's lives are less interesting than men's. To tell me, "it's easy, you just have to X" misses the point. :|
Another thing women learn from society is that we can't talk about how good we are, and if we do, we're braggarts. It's hard to talk yourself up, to say why you're the best applicant for the job or why your novel is special and the agent should rep it, when you're fighting against years of conditioning that tell you not to do that. (Not to mention backlash, wherein people call you a bitch for saying, why yes, I *am* awesome, thanks for noticing. One reason I love Toph: she's awesome, and she knows it, and she'll let you know it, too.)
It's easy for me to come up with things I can't do. It's harder for me to come up with things I can do. And even harder for me not to qualify them -- I can X but not as well as.... So this is a list of things I can do (and some of them I do well). That I will NOT be qualifying, dammit.
-I can learn languages easily. I started reading at 2.5, and the internet tells me 4-5 is average. My German 2 teacher in high school got permission for me to skip German 3, and in 10th grade, I took German 4, Latin 1, and sign language. I thought Latin was too easy, so I didn't continue. I took two years of university Japanese for fun. I have never gotten less than an A in a language class. I want to learn Turkish and Hungarian.
-I have good pattern recognition skills. This is likely part of why I can learn languages easily (grammar is a pattern, after all). I love word searches, and I don't really have to try until I've found over half of them. The ones where the words aren't just in straight lines are more fun because I have to work for them.
-I am naturally athletic, and I have a good kinesthetic sense. I can go 6 weeks without practicing tai chi and not lose much of the form.
-I am a classically-trained soprano. I can sing. I have a 3-octave range, from the C below middle C to two octaves above middle C (higher if I'm warmed up). I can also sing alto and first tenor.
-I can sew. I can crochet.
-I can cook. I make awesome desserts.
I could only come up with five things. That's really sad.
Re: A bit of feminist theory
Date: 2010-06-25 02:14 pm (UTC)From:But still not quite. I'm trying to overcome 34 years of societal programming that tells me I don't matter. That tells me I'm only valuable as an accessory to a man (T&A). What I'm doing has nothing to do with men or comparing myself to men. That's what I'm trying to avoid here.
Men have nothing to do with this at all whatsoever, except inasmuch that I'm running into male privilege every three steps.
What gender are the people who are writing these comics? Just curious. Some male comic artists do a good job of writing real female characters, as opposed to cardboard cutouts, or so I hear. It's been a long time since I've read books or comics written by men (unless I already know the male writer doesn't fill his text with egregious misogyny or even run of the mill misogyny. I get enough of that shit in my daily life that I don't need it in my fiction.)
Re: A bit of feminist theory
Date: 2010-06-25 04:24 pm (UTC)From:I can dig the personal affirmation and I hope I better see what you're working on. I'm overcoming a lot of similar crap; deprogramming how I see myself in spite of my upbringing.