What is a Woman?

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Some things are not obvious on first take. Time and concern enable discovery. Discovery brings knowledge. Knowledge applied imparts wisdom. It starts with a second look. DTLA from the 2500 block of Glendower Ave Hollywood CA Photo-Credit: Ric Leczel

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Asking a person “What is a woman?’ is now characterized as an “attack.”

When asked point-blank, Ketanji Brown Jackson said “I can’t”. That clears it up, right? You can watch it here

She did qualify it by saying “I'm not a biologist.” But wait. Now we’re bringing science into it. Follow the science. Can we ask Fauci? I got it. Like with the Rona? Yeah. I see where this is going. Anyone got a mask? Smells like some bullshit on the way.

If she were asked what is 2 + 2, would her answer be “No I can’t. I’m not a mathematician.”

The remarkable bad faith involved in the ‘what is a woman’ attack was the angle the WashPo took. They believe the answer is nuanced and intuitive. It’s more philosophical than biological. That’s a first. Using nuance and intuition in a story? Who knew? 

Maybe we can ask the government?

I’m trying to remember all the nuance employed in calling someone a gang-rapist. Or a right-wing lunatic. But that dude is serving 22 years. Maybe I can mentor him someday! But, it’s all water under the bridge. Or a hatchet in the back for some. But I don’t use the word try anymore, so I didn’t.

Then we get to this. It’s not as if one has to even look for this. It literally falls out of the laptop when I open it. Except on some platforms. Which is extremely funny. Because they keep calling almost everyone a woman. But they cannot define the word.

Where’s Caitlyn in the Cacophony? (Hmm, is that a new franchise children’s book?)

Biden Pledges to Nominate Black Woman to Supreme Court

Biden says he will pick a woman to be his vice president

LIA THOMAS IS A WOMAN, A SWIMMER, AND HER CRITICS WILL DEAL?

Rachel Levine is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year

The Significance of the Passage of Time

I know, it’s completely and totally unfair to make fun of a sitting US Vice-President. It’s a low blow. It’s probably racist and sexist as well. I’m so ashamed of myself. To make us all feel better, I'll make fun of a cis-white-male (Not)sitting US Vice-President. Isn’t that anti-something?

It’s actually hard to decipher who says dumber things between the two.

There we go. Fair and balanced, I’ve heard some people say. I say just put all the cards face up on the table. That way, when you or I cheat, we can all see it. And see it all we do. That’s transparency. That’s all I’m doing folks. I deal the cards. We’ll all play them. Totally changes the phrase I’m a man’s man!

It’s feeble to fold. It’s fine to call. It’s fun to raise. At least we are in the game, making contact, and moving things forward. Mostly, having to pay attention. Or lose. Actually lose. Real Treasure sometimes. Like now.

I believe that this is the conversation so many are pleadingly and plaintively asking for. I wish those that ask if we can start would just join in. We could be really progressive. 

But as these future judges at Camp Yale so elegantly and articulately put forth, there are many valid reasons not to listen to both sides of an argument. These Yale Campers are on the path to becoming a judge (job description: to form an opinion about things through careful weighing of evidence and testing of premises). Good to see tolerance on trial.

Yale Law students protest anti-LGBTQ speaker, armed police presence triggers backlash

Lack of ritual and routine makes life simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating! Strip away the rut and rote. What remains could be called Freedom. What do you call Freedom? 

Freedom could be found in the passage of time. In a weird sort of way, like a blind squirrel that finds a nut, maybe Madam Veep is on to something. Stumbling around words seems to be her favorite international pastime. 

Stumbling around Substack seems to be mine. Make it one of yours. 

The latest platform that tripped me up and captured my time and attention is The Forgotten Files written by a dude that teaches History. His name is Peter Pappas. Reading his bio is like reading the table of contents in the encyclopedia. 

Like George Constanza's debilitating deliberations when he changed his fake careers from Architect to Marine Biologist, I have been wanting to pretend I’m a History Professor when I get tired of pretending I’m a Big-Wave Surfer. Pretend career choices are the most difficult to make. 

It’s kinda like the Celebrity Crush thing. I mean, just 5? Really. Ok. It’s not the choices that have to be cut. It’s the criterion. Now I can’t pick and choose. I have to decide on how to decide. Oh shit. 

Anyways, the post that trapped me in the fabbit-ho is Do you want your wife to work after the war? (c1944) and it is mind-blowing on a few levels. With the subtitle "Does she have as much right as her husband to try to find the work she wants?”​ I was fully prepared to laugh and snicker at the outdated concepts of patriarchy, misogyny and colonialism.

And I did. There were plenty of those in spades. But something else. Something I don’t see as much today as I believe we need to see. And read. And think about. 

Phrasing the dilemma de jour as "the woman problem” says more about the times that it does the topic. It doesn’t detract from the import and impetus of the issue.

More questions than answers. A mock debate. Graphs and charts and squiggly different colored lines. All spell-binding in their oldness and quaintness. Smelt like my grandma’s as I read it. 

On page-3 I scrolled down and saw - eeek - 44 pages - in old font and format! With clumsy page-turns. But turn-the-page-indeed I did. Rich in colloquial colonialistic detail and expression and infuriatingly insulting in its imperialism. Even worse, it is nauseatingly notatative of Nazi newsletters and sickening Soviet sensationalism. But these things are snapshots. It’s how we learn. 

It is well worth the read and the time spent doing so. Many of the issues identified in the pamphlet are still with us today. Some of the solutions of the day are prescient given today’s evolving adaptive labor market.

Now, to be sure. the patriarchal lion roars here, but who doesn’t love a fur coat!

All that aside, as we play the cards history deals us and that we ignore at our own peril, here we are. Smack dab in the passage of time. What do we have to show for it? What will our remains say about us? 

Prior posts touching on these themes just a click away. You’re welcome!

I wrote the post directly below in 2014. Lots have changed since then. And not.

Can Women Really “Have It All”?

Is argument what the Yalies are afraid of?

Can We Argue?

Is what we are seeing daily not pure Kabuki?

War. Peace. Kabuki. Fallacy.

Standing in the same spot. Here is a close-up, glad you took a second look. Like a Misty Grey Lady. DTLA Photo Credit: Ric Leczel

Thanks for being here,

Ric