Enough with the winter.

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand the divide to "female" and "male" crafts (no matter what Yak says :lol:

Not to be too big a wise ass, but anthropologists do.

Different cultures have the various jobs involved in daily life assigned differently, but there's always that division based on sex. And everybody involved pretty much likes it that way because stuff like that helps keep their culture intact.

You could call it, "Maintaining the world."

Nobody is faced with having to re-invent the world in every encounter.

The idea that we are under some obligation to tear the whole world of human relationships apart and re-invent everything in it is not one that came from the cultural tradition we inherited. It has -- demonstrably -- been imposed on people from outside it, as it was imposed on the Russians in 1917.

The heartbreaking part is watching it play out, knowing that its motivating force is the idealism and trust of (kindly do not take umbrage at the term) the good-hearted but naive among us (a goodly supply of which we have never lacked).

Any f*cking numb-nut can grind away at some corporate job until he/she/it/they achieve some managerial status. This impresses only people who have never done that, and consequently don't realise how freaking lame it is to go around using a job title or an academic/professional degree as a substitute for a personal identity.

Identity is inborn. Nobody else in the whole world can be you. And you cannot possibly ever be somebody else. Yet the world is full of people trying to do that by adopting roles as if they were identities.

They often come to find, in late-night moments of quiet reflection, that their pursuit of a job title and a life of dissipation has swindled them out of a spouse and a family -- an authentic -- organic -- identity that endures.

And that nobody will really miss them when they retire or are fired. Life will go on there with another empty suit in the office chair they used to occupy.

That's what I think, at any rate. To the extent that anybody cares (if any).

:face:

 

[beetlejazz]

Uh, I don't believe that easing out some norms around men's crafts/jobs/whatever and those of women would necessarily land us to barracks communism. Talk about a slippery slope argument. This view is not born of naivete, but the opposite - knowing too many people who don't fit the gender-puzzle-piece-place allotted to them. Assuming that as long as women knit and men carve wood world will be an idyl it never were, on the other hand, sounds somewhat naive to me.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think so.

As it turns out, Giuseppi Guarneri del Gesu's wife, Katerina (and whoever the helper in the shop was, if they had one) probably made "his" greatest violins, after his death.

Nobody says (at least I don't) that a gifted individual can't be a rule unto herself. Ginette Neveau ranks among the greatest violinists who ever lived (i.e., people who used the violin to play the music. Not the other way around).

My beef with your approach -- like that of revolutionaries everywhere -- is that you're depending on logic to comprehend, and then re-arrange, life. But life doesn't operate along logical lines.

24% of your hair may have grown on company time. But that doesn't mean you can get it cut on company time.

:face:

 

[beetlejazz]

I'm not a revolutionary. I just think there's a lot of silly stuff assumed that wouldn't need to be assumed - not because it clashed with my rationality, but because it clashes with my experience of how little these assumptions may have to do with real people, and how damaging and frustrating they might be to many of these real people. No top-down idealistic constructions there. Of course you can tell me now that I'm too young to talk about experience, but truth to be told, I've always been in the habit of keeping my eyes open, which, I think, is not always a given.

 

[somedumbjerk]

It's a bit like for me learning the basics of repairing a bicycle - it's an independence thing. It's good to have a wide variety of skills.

everyone should learn simple bike repair. i did it professionally for 6 years. some of the greatest moments were when i taught womens clinics. how to fix a flat, safety checks and simple repairs on the road to get them rolling again. there is nothing like when a new woman rider gets empowered by learning to fix her own flat. they ride further, faster and with more confidence. i'm calling it right now, women cycling is the next yoga. and i am stoked about it!

 

[monbla256]

Uh, I don't believe that easing out some norms around men's crafts/jobs/whatever and those of women would necessarily land us to barracks communism. Talk about a slippery slope argument. This view is not born of naivete, but the opposite - knowing too many people who don't fit the gender-puzzle-piece-place allotted to them. Assuming that as long as women knit and men carve wood world will be an idyl it never were, on the other hand, sounds somewhat naive to me.

BINGO!! You've paraphrased a lot of what's driving things here in the US. CHANGE, it's the ONLY constant in the world, and the one that's hardest for a lot of folks to deal with!

 

[Anonymous]

No. I'm not out to "win the discussion."

Mrs. Yak does all our car stuff. Oil, fluids, tires . . . even drives nearly everyplace we go (except in the worst winter weather). She was frustrated, growing up, because her dad thought playing with car stuff wasn't for girls ; now she's making up for lost time. And loving it.

I don't think he was even so invested into the sex role business as he was concerned that people would perceive her as a tomboy, and that would work against her.

What I think you're missing in this is that sex roles are comfortable places people occupy while they're getting to know other people. They're especially comfortable boundaries -- easily invoked and inarguable in force. Social lubricants, you could call them, that smooth out unknown, potential discords.

Nobody says you can't step out a bit as you get comfortable with whoever.

It has been my experience that women in public and those same women in private, assured that they're appreciated, are radically different. Anthropologists from some other planet, studying them, would find it difficult to believe they were the same creatures.

:face:

 

[Slartibartfast]

It's actually been relatively mild round here the past couple of mornings. The thermometer on my deck reads -10°F (-23°C), which is still cold and no noubt, but for the past few weeks it's been nearer -20°F (-28°C) and a few days were a bit colder than that. I know this is no great news for other cold spots around the world, but for the California Sierras its been an effin cold January! (late December too).

Kaj Zackrisson & Sverre Lillequist make some great hats, still hand knit by the boys.
They started with crochet hats for friends and the business took off from there.

http://www.kaskofsweden.com/

http://www.freerideworldtour.com/kaj-zackrisson-sverre-liliequist.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSWsZnVZtcs

 

[somedumbjerk]

No. I'm not out to "win the discussion."

Mrs. Yak does all our car stuff. Oil, fluids, tires . . . even drives nearly everyplace we go (except in the worst winter weather). She was frustrated, growing up, because her dad thought playing with car stuff wasn't for girls ; now she's making up for lost time. And loving it.

I don't think he was even so invested into the sex role business as he was concerned that people would perceive her as a tomboy, and that would work against her.

What I think you're missing in this is that sex roles are comfortable places people occupy while they're getting to know other people. They're especially comfortable boundaries -- easily invoked and inarguable in force. Social lubricants, you could call them, that smooth out unknown, potential discords.

Nobody says you can't step out a bit as you get comfortable with whoever.

It has been my experience that women in public and those same women in private, assured that they're appreciated, are radically different. Anthropologists from some other planet, studying them, would find it difficult to believe they were the same creatures.

:face:

at risk of oversimplifying your statement, i've always found it fascinating how a woman laughs in public, versus alone or when she doesn't feel like she's being watched. a woman truly laughing, fully comfortable and at ease, is one of the most beautiful things ever. y'all some complex creatures. sorry not very articulate as of late but i think you catch my meaning.

 

[beetlejazz]

Ditto with the laughter-thing but from the other side! It's curious because it's a thought I've entertained for a few years now. I find it incredibly attractive when a man laughs, and I mean, really laughs - be it resounding, bending his head back with the length of his throat showing cakle, or curling up to hold his stomach near to tears, or a red-faced, hysterics bordering giggle. I just love to behold it, especially if I'm the one who has made him laugh. But sadly not that many men can let go of themselves that way, I wonder if it's the pesky old story where men tell jokes and women laugh, or is it "in the genes" (a very dangerous path nevertheless popular among the armchair-psycho-evolutionists of the internet era). Well whatever it is, I love it when a man is able to laugh with ease.

 

[beetlejazz]

CHANGE, it's the ONLY constant in the world, and the one that's hardest for a lot of folks to deal with!

I believe so too. It must be a very basically human thing - people invent stuff, and the stuff people invent changes the everyday-world we live in, the change spreading slowly but surely everywhere. We are socio-technological animals, which breeds constant change. Some things change fast, some things slowly, some we claim won't change, well that's possible, but from this miniscule window we look at the world it requires quite the wild assumptions to claim that WE KNOW that this-and-this thing is immune to change. It might be. Or it might not be, the "unchanging" being something almost but not quite it, or even something completely else.

 

[Anonymous]

A happy woman is a beautiful woman.

:face:

 

[beetlejazz]

Social lubricants, you could call them, that smooth out unknown, potential discords.

And so we glide effortlessly past other people, thoroughly and comfortably lubricated, until we reach the comfort of our homes, where we cry: Oh! Nothing feels real! All my life I have felt I lived among mannequin dolls. The world of humans is a prison, a circus act. I feel no attachment to anyone, it's all oiled teflon with nothing to grasp, or to grasp me.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

Men feel that they are more logical than emotional, and that overall women are more emotional. Women do things that befuddle men whereas the actions of men, even if undesirable, are much more easily understood by women. The millennia reign of patriarchy has only loosened in in the last 50 years. Sadly, during its reign not only the power but the efficacy of women was seriously curtailed. Whatever it is that men value most is unknown, but a women is usually most concerned with her children. She is devoted to them and her happiness is measured by theirs. Unfortunately, men have taken advantage of the maternal instinct and fashioned from it a cult of domesticity. "We will go out into the world while you tend the home. We are capable; you are the householder." If the boundaries of affection and interdependence ever enlarge beyond the family to the community, it will be women who will push them to be so. Women are more knowledgeable about its needs while men want to organize it and profit from it.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

It's been pretty mild here in Niagara (ensconced between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie). Luckily we had some cold weather in December. I say luckily because I am surrounded by wineries and most have substantial ice wine crops, and under our rules you have to have sustained temperatures for a period of time at -8 C or colder in order for the wine to be legally labelled "ice wine", and for most of my neighbours it was cold enough to complete their harvests. Been crazy warm here since the end of December though. I won't be selling the snow plow quite yet however.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, men have taken advantage of the maternal instinct

And women have never taken advantage of that other one in men . . . :evil:

:face:

 

[George Kaplan]

Dang! The last time I checked in here, this thread was about the weather in Finland. :scratch:

 

[lowflyingpenguin]

Serious wind chill here tonight...

-42 C

Our dogs aren't happy...

 

[Slide]

Perfect Louisiana winter night here. 53 degrees and a clear night with little to no wind. Absolutely beautiful!

 

[gravel]

Freezing fog. Come on fog what are you doing? Four days straight!