Just... creepy.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Labor is hard work. Forcing women to labor against their will - is slavery.
"I'm not afraid of storms,
for I'm learning to sail my ship."
-Louisa May Alcott
"No person is your friend who demands your silence." -Alice Walker
"I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it." - Voltairine de Cleyre
"The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed." -Edna O'Brien
"The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind." -Mary Ritter Beard
"They sicken of the calm that know the storm." -Dorothy Parker
"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine." -Rita Rudner
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." -Amelia Earhart
"Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." -Grace Hansen
"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex." -Katharine Hepburn
"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads." -Erica Jong
"I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life." -Margareth II, Queen of Denmark:
"I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single thing." -Dorothy Parker
"You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you." -Mary Tyler Moore
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." -Anais Nin
"No more tears now; I will think about revenge." -Mary, Queen of Scots
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Muriel Strode
"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." -Rebecca West:
"If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression." -Toni Morrison
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." -Delores Ibarruri
"Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow." -Maria Mitchell
"This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes." -Hannah Arendt
"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it." -Toni Morrison
"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say." -Ingrid Bergman
"We know that we can do what men can do, but we still don't know that men can do what women can do. That's absolutely crucial. We can't go on doing two jobs." -Gertrude Stein
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." -Gloria Steinem
"It's all make believe, isn't it?" -Marilyn Monroe
"I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman." — Virginia Woolf
"I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body." -Elayne Boosler
"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'" -Clare Boothe Luce
"Soon they'll be telling you you can't be Batman, Shakespeare, President, or God. Little fat baby, going on schoolgirl, you can be anyone, but it won't be easy." -Marilyn Hacker
"We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters." -Gloria Steinem
"Remember our heritage is our power; we can know ourselves and our capacities by seeing that other women have been strong." -Judy Chicago
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there." -Indira Gandhi
"I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it." - Alanis Morissette
"Nothing will work unless you do." -Maya Angelou
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." -Cheris Kramare and Paula Treichler
You pack the guns. I'll make the pancakes.
Fictions (free)
FICTIONS (PURCHASE)
God's War (January 2011)
Infidel (December 2011)
Forthcoming
Year's Best SF 12
Disclaimer
This is my personal blog, and the opinions expressed here are solely, completely, and absolutely my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any past, present, or future employer, business partner, contact, or associate.
Recent Comments
Followers
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass. "
- Maya Angelou
- Maya Angelou
Sites of Interest
Blog Archive
- ► 2009 (218)
- ► 2008 (643)
- ► 2007 (660)
- ► 2006 (435)
- ▼ 2005 (903)
Blogs I Read
Labor is hard work. Forcing women to labor against their will - is slavery.
"I'm not afraid of storms,
for I'm learning to sail my ship."
-Louisa May Alcott
"No person is your friend who demands your silence." -Alice Walker
"I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it." - Voltairine de Cleyre
"The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed." -Edna O'Brien
"The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind." -Mary Ritter Beard
"They sicken of the calm that know the storm." -Dorothy Parker
"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine." -Rita Rudner
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." -Amelia Earhart
"Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." -Grace Hansen
"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex." -Katharine Hepburn
"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads." -Erica Jong
"I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life." -Margareth II, Queen of Denmark:
"I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single thing." -Dorothy Parker
"You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you." -Mary Tyler Moore
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." -Anais Nin
"No more tears now; I will think about revenge." -Mary, Queen of Scots
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Muriel Strode
"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." -Rebecca West:
"If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression." -Toni Morrison
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." -Delores Ibarruri
"Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow." -Maria Mitchell
"This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes." -Hannah Arendt
"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it." -Toni Morrison
"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say." -Ingrid Bergman
"We know that we can do what men can do, but we still don't know that men can do what women can do. That's absolutely crucial. We can't go on doing two jobs." -Gertrude Stein
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." -Gloria Steinem
"It's all make believe, isn't it?" -Marilyn Monroe
"I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman." — Virginia Woolf
"I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body." -Elayne Boosler
"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'" -Clare Boothe Luce
"Soon they'll be telling you you can't be Batman, Shakespeare, President, or God. Little fat baby, going on schoolgirl, you can be anyone, but it won't be easy." -Marilyn Hacker
"We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters." -Gloria Steinem
"Remember our heritage is our power; we can know ourselves and our capacities by seeing that other women have been strong." -Judy Chicago
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there." -Indira Gandhi
"I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it." - Alanis Morissette
"Nothing will work unless you do." -Maya Angelou
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." -Cheris Kramare and Paula Treichler
5 comments so far. What are your thoughts?
Sort of, and with a morbid fascination. But it occurs to me that the work necessary to maintain women in that comatose state as mere incubators isn't nearly as cost-efficient to the patriarchy as having us walking around taking care of ourselves and taking care of *them*, so wide-scale applications do not worry me. Just ugly occasional uses.
Mind you, if brain-dead women can be used to carry pregnancies like that, they should totally repell the laws that forbid the harvesting of sperm from comatose males.
Posted by Ide Cyan
I'm a little creeped out by the fact that keeping the body of a woman alive so that her husband, the child's father, can carry out what he believed were his wife's wishes, creeps you out to that extent.
An earlier article on the same topic:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=vn20050617065651438C497820
"I hate seeing her on those darned machines, and I hate using her as a husk, a carrying case, because she herself is worth so much more," Torres said in an interview in USA Today newspaper. "But Susan really wanted this baby..."
...
"There's not a glimmer of doubt in my mind that this is what she would have wanted," Torres said. "Any chance at all to save the baby, and Susan would have said 'Let's go for it'."
You know, yeah, it's possible that he's a patriarchal bastard who just wants to pass his seed one one more time, and darn that woman for having cancer in the first place, but I don't see anything in that story that makes that version more likely than "Susan would have wanted to do this. Susan would have thought it was worth it." Yeah, it'd be great to have quotes from Susan herself saying as much, but not many 26-year-old people have those talks, and if they do, they don't always write that stuff down. They should, no doubt, but they don't.
So... no. No, it doesn't creep me out. It makes me sad that a woman died (that's what I'm reading between the lines on their "no comment" stuff regarding the woman), but she really died quite some time ago, and her husband was using her body to do something that he believed she would want. And it makes me a little sad that your initial reaction to this was to decide that the husband was doing something evil and creepy.
I mean, the Damsel and I had some vague talks along these lines, but nothing formal. If something had happened to her and I were faced with that kind of decision, I'd be flying blind, trying to guess what she'd want to do if she could tell me. Knowing what she'd already gone through for us to have a child, I'd probably have decided she wanted me to try to help the baby survive, doing whatever I could with the blessing of whatever part of the Damsel still remained.
And apparently, then, I'd be a patriarchal creep by your standards.
Posted by Patrick
Patrick, yea, the reason I'm so weirded by this one is that yes, I understood him saying it was his wife's wishes, but it still creeped me out. I found it really, really creepy, the idea that my body would be held in stasis so a kid could grow in it. But yea, it's her wishes, soooo...
It's the gray conflict that creeps me out more than anything. I don't want to be creeped out because it's what she wanted, but damn, I'm really creeped out. It freaks me out on a more general level, that image.
Also, the more I post, the more I seem to piss off you and Brendan. I'm not sure if this is an issue of me getting more militant, or you guys reading what my expected opinion into things must be and feeling attacked.
Dunno.
Posted by Kameron Hurley
There's no denying the fact that growing a child in a dead woman's body is creepy. It's life-affirming and even pulling joy from pain in a twisted way -- but, yes, ew.
However, lots of things about living in squishy organic bodies are creepy or gross or both. How about the fact that a man can still father a child twenty minutes after he dies? Also creepy. And gross.
I guess what I'm saying here is that I see your point, Patrick -- but Kameron, where you're coming from is also perfectly clear.
Posted by Katharine
I'd imagine the reason this is so creepy is that we've all been exposed to sci-fi stories in one way or another that involve alien entities taking over and sucking the life out of a human body. When the woman is alive and reveling in the joy of her growing child, it's one thing. When the woman is dead and only being kept alive so the baby can feed off of her, it's something different, because the woman's consciousness is no longer taking part in that otherwise happy experience.
Posted by BLR
Post a Comment