That "wimp woman" meme

Tam at View from the Porch isn't amused at the "I cry more than you think" meme for "I am woman".

She is woman, hear her bleat.

Sorry, the meme's listing doesn't sound actually femininely oriented.

Most of it sounds like most folk I know, of various genders and persuasions, at various, usually private or distressed, times.

My understanding is that the workplace in general is a male-created, artificial environment meant to take as much advantage of workers/employees/managers/etc. as possible, for the best profit of the executives/owners. That is, modified slavery, without regard or interest in the well-being of the worker, the worker's family, and an explicit bar to letting life's traumas and responsibilities intrude into the company's race to revenue.

So how is it that measuring the aspects of a person that delineates "woman" is measured in her ability to participate in an artificial, manipulated environment just as subserviently as a man?

The major distinctions between men and women fall mostly in the realms of procreation, of creating and raising children. For the rest, distinctions of gender are learned from examples of cultural limits and expectations.

Wafting poetic about various cultural artifacts of "men's work" and "equal pay for equal submission to exploitation" are as pointless as "But the master hit me with the whip harder than he/she hit you!".

There are many people that have found ways in their lives to get around, or to exploit ("Hey! I'm a woman! I strip for a living!") their experiences and capabilities ("Why, yes I can mow the lawn before supper!") Others that haven't found the examples and opportunities to overcome obstacles to what they want should be encouraged and nurtured. Unfair rules ("But, officer, the road was clear from here to Kingdom come, and the posted speed of 15 MPH makes no sense here in rural Utah!") should be changed.

And mostly, the underlying assumption that meeting someone else's expectations will achieve happiness or virtue has to be challenged. Vigorously, frequently challenged.

European votes - suicide or apathy?

“Europe’s voters don’t know they’re committing suicide — or don’t care.”

Rachel Lucas wrote about Europe’s voters don’t know they’re committing suicide — or don’t care. She quotes the National Observer Online article Europe, R.I.P., by Arthur Herman dated May 7, 2012.

. . Maybe, or probably not, and America won’t wake up either, and we’re all doomed.

I don't like the assumption that changing the course of Greece and France in their quest for self-control, for economic prosperity, and for resolution to the lingering debt problems is a bad thing. The disaster used to plunder Greece, euphemistically called "austerity", is nothing of the kind. And it hasn't helped Greece, only the self-serving banks and international entities that fear their fortunes are at risk.

It is going to take something different to turn things around. Debts can be repudiated -- what could be the harm, when the world already knows that most of the debts in question are already forfeit. The government can nationalize the assets owned by non-Greeks -- recovering their utilities and infrastructure plundered by the vultures in previous go-rounds. And Greece can decide to stop being a nation. They could decide to petition the UK, France, Germany, the US, China, Austria, Italy, Turkey -- almost anyone -- to become a territory or state within another entity, and hand over the problems to someone else.

Whatever the direction that Greece, and France, too, take, it needn't be the death of the nation. This election might end the multi-national corporate interest monopoly on control in Europe, but that isn't the same thing as suicide for Greece. Banks, international investors, and various multi-government constructs might be abandoned, but that doesn't mean that the Greeks and French should care -- the citizens of Greece and France weren't benefiting anyway, only the major financial institutions.

Governments and major financiers and banks have been playing money games to buy votes, and instituting rot in modern society. The games have to end; maybe they will, in Greece and maybe France.

Advvertising vs. politics

There I was, taking an Advertising Specialties Institute survey on Zoomerang.com.

What type of promotional product would you most like to receive from the list below?

You know? I can't think I want to promote either Mittens or B.Hussein. Not even for a nice shirt or ball cap.