Blog de Agersomnia - Agersomnia's Blog: septiembre 2007

miércoles, septiembre 19, 2007

Talk like a pirate, mate! Ahoy!!

lunes, septiembre 17, 2007

The Vagina Monologues

A wonderful play, really.

Eve Ensler wrote the first draft in 1996, after 200 women were interviewed about their views on sex, relationships, and violence against women. Not it is an internationally recognized play, that has won several prizes and has even been produced into a TV version by HBO.

It has survived extensive critizism by different groups: conservatives, feminists, and pro equitative-rights ones. In the US, it has been seen as contradictory that its so open against violent relationships, that it's possitive about a "good rape" from an older woman to an underage girl, and that it lacks much support for harmonious, possitive heterosexual relationships. If you ask me, it's a play for women, about women and their sexuality. Men are not at the center of the stage, nor are the subject of the play.

There is only one possitive presence of a man in the monologues: a vagina fan. The rest... are either gone, or plain bad guys. Violent men, rapists, soldiers from Bosnia or some other place. This is because of the feminist focus of the monologues, that's clear. But the question would be: is that necessary for the empowerment of women, or that might be too much, and instead of searching for balance it goes to the extreme of portraying men as a whole bunch of useless beings? What's the objective, and is it getting to it?

I, for my part, didn't feel it was too much. It has been after I came back home, and read the critics over the web that these issues seemed to "pop" in my head. All I can say is: I consider myself quite sure of myself, of my sexuality, and of my stand for what you could call "gender egalitarian" views. It did not offend me by itself, but there are pieces that raise such answers like the classic "all men are the same", in essence the same as hearing a bunch of men saying "all women are the same". Fortunately, it happens just a couple of times... and in general, that is not the attitude promoted by the play.

What would you say if I told you 9 out of 10 acts of violence are directed to a woman. And of course, of those 9, most are caused by a man. That certainly gives a good reason to demand justice, and to be angry. and to try and do something about it.

Technorati Tags: ensler, vagina, monologues, monologos, feminism, gender, violence

sábado, septiembre 15, 2007

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Demográficas del Agersomnia

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Amazing Record: 634 failed assasination attempts

Who could survive such amount of human effort?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. That's for real: 634 failed attempts at murder against a single person, all organized by a single group. It's a Guiness record I wouldn't like to have (i.e.: to piss of so many gentlemen that they truly wish you dead like that) but I wouldn't mind having the survival skills of such character.

Still "out of the loop"? Unable to guess? Then click to read the full story

You probably have the answer already. He likes smoking cigars, beards, and dressing in military outfits: Fidel Castro. That also makes him the political, social and/or religious leader most hounded by in history: Harry Potter prosecution lasted seventeen years, with a murder attempt every year for the last seven (and he is a fictional character). Rasputin endured poison, being shot a couple of times, being used as a punching bag, and then freezing and drowning did the job. And I mean, one thing is having the Roman Empire after you and being unable to last more than 30-something, specially if you belive you are fullfilling the will of God with your death. Or having the bad and ugly People's Republic of China after you, being the spiritual leader of Tibet and Buddhists alike (China is happy with the Tibet and long ago they stopped bombarding places where the Dalai Lama was). Nelson Mandela wasn't murdered, but was jailed; that's how he got away alive. Gandhi did was murdered, and didn't last enough to see his 81th birthday, as Fidel has already on August 13th.

And the organizing party for the blunt, graceless, overtly imaginative, sometimes silly and always flawed assesination attempts? The CIA... and the mob, and who knows how many freelancing dudes. And all with some degree of authorizaton by the US goverment. Everything from explosive mollusks and cigars, poisoned wines and foods, frag granades at baseball games, femmes fatales, tuberculosis-coated diving suits, snipers, mortars, and bombs.

And how do you call that? Noam Chomsky would surely call it US state terrorism. I feel the same, but when Castro dies peacefully at his bed, out of cancer or some other illness, I'll call it futility.