The review of Inglourious Basterds was spot-on. The film was great, and Shoshannah's role in it was an unexpected but delightful surprise (since she didn't appear in the trailer). I'm a sucker for QT's movies though =]

Regarding the Male Privilege piece, I have to say that I too found welcome company in gay male culture and the wider spectrum of what "male" constituted then I ever did in the macho culture which often defines conventional heterosexuality. I'm glad I wasn't alone in that! :)

Let me first say that it's a brilliant article and I don't want to take anything away from it. But I do take a few liberties that I'd like to point out, if I may.

My beef with liberal equality is not that it is too confusing but rather that we seem to be in the process of defining the rules. The problem is that we're all not on the same page yet, even amongst ourselves, and there's no set standard to go by. As such it requires both men and women to be extra dextrous, very nearly shape-shifters, and quite adaptable to our environment. That's fine and well for people who are wise enough, perceptive enough, educated enough, and intelligent enough, but when we leave the orbit of Planet Middle Class Intelligentsia, then we run into some major issues with class disparities and only those adapt at learning how to code switch can maneuver with ease. I see all sorts of very compelling pieces like this one that point out all the ways we ought to act within ourselves, but I see few articles that explain how to conduct ourselves among those who do not necessarily share our own assumptions and biases.

Perhaps my ideal woman isn't necessarily of the same social class as I, but if we're not exposed to the same general paradigm and knowledge base, then either we'll never meet, or I won't know how to speak to her and nothing will happen at all. Even so, since I firmly believe there is no such thing as "the one" maybe there's some woman out there who is of my same intellectual persuasion and class background who would be an ideal fit for me just the same, but still I am always uncomfortable when I realize how much class distinctions limited us and restrains our decisions.

I do know that any change worth having requires pain and sacrifice and I openly call for it. In his article, I think the author was talking about romantic pairing between men and women, but I'll expand it out to include purely sexual relationships. Again, I actively encourage the kind of progress we are making aiming for full equality between the sexes, but at times, however, the degree of friction it creates almost encourages me to compartmentalize whole segments of myself and my personality. If I am purely aiming for a sexual partner, then I end up using only a fraction of my full, richer personality to do so. What happens is that I end up only utilizing parts of my personality in spite of my own best intentions. In that situation, I rarely have the ability to be a complete person with any woman unless I am in the presence of someone with whom I have a tremendous amount in common and I automatically think of her as more than just a sexual partner. Maybe this limiting of self is inevitable with us all because while we might have one relationship partner, we are animals driven by the urge to procreate and complete compatibility is not necessarily important in that circumstance.

The article does a good job outlining and justifying the need for complete compatibility based on mutual love and respect, eventually culminating in a long-distance relationship if not marriage. But what it seems to imply is that this is all we ought to strive for, and that our purely sexual encounters ought to be with those as evenly matched with us as possible. I wonder if true equality will give me the ability to be discerning enough to find a random sexual encounter with someone who I might end up loving or wanting to date, or if there's any harm whatsoever in sleeping with someone who isn't a thing in the world like you.

That cook book looks like exactly what I need right now. I've been vegetarian for a while now but suddenly feel like I don't know what to cook.

re: male privilege article

I thought Kay's previous-previous article on the "man-child" was very interesting.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_single_young_men.html

And I'd just like to say---why is it the woman's responsility to make men into adults??? Maybe guys are finally realizing that they need to do it themselves.

I just wrote about what marriage means for different genders in ideological terms:

http://clarissasbox.blogspot.com/2009/09/marriage.html