Email Abbie!
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"I would like to open this site for conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. I can be wrong as often as right, so specific advice will be avoided. What will be sought is light on how best to frame the situation of women, considered as a highly interesting problematic. What kind of hand have we been dealt, as women, and how can we best play it?
Comments are warmly encouraged on any post at any point."
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Category Archives: Sexuality
Touching Up Roots
Touching Up Roots Today, for the first time in my life, I’ve tried – with the help of the kit I sent for – to color my own hair. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ll come out looking like … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abraham and Sarah, Abraham’s bluff, ancestral roots, being a single woman, biblical couples, biblical eros, biblical ungallantry, Book of Numbers, coloring one’s hair, competing with God, cultural roots, demanding your rights, divine man/woman partnership, divine-human partnership, face-to-face lovemaking, father-daughter relation, feminism and Judaism, feminist protest, fight with my name on it, fighting human nature, fighting nature, fighting till I lose, fighting till I win, filial piety, God and romantic life, gray hair, Hebrew Bible, Henry M. Rosenthal, home hair color, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish roots, Judaism and women, letting nature take its course, Lot’s daughters, Lot’s guests, men rescuing women, monogamous passion, not my fight, passion for God, personal God, problematic biblical sources, Song of Songs, the Bible and women, the Bible's woman problem, the Pentateuch, the Torah, Thomas Cahill’s The Gift of the Jews, Torah Study, touching up roots, trial by ordeal, virtual bible study, woman’s coping strategies, women in peril, women of the Bible, women rescuing men
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Comprehending the Fate of Women
Comprehending the Fate of Women Alfred de Muset, the romantic French writer, wrote a play with the title, On ne badine pas avec l’amour, or in English, One Doesn’t Kid Around with Love. The heroine of this play speaks a … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 19th century novels, abusing women, actual v theoretical women, Alfred de Muset’s On ne badine pas avec l’amour, biological imperative, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", contraception and liberation, default position of women, defensive aggressiveness of women, desire and conquest, dynamic equilibrium of the sexes, educating women, egoistic weakness, egoistic willfulness, feminine power, groupthink, he had his way, le sort des femmes, male and female asymmetry, male dominance, male ego, male force, male self-command, masculine confusions, masculine nature, masculine will, modern clothes and liberation, Mr. Rochester, natural aggression, novelistic coincidences, perils of Jane Eyre, persuasive power, power-of-yielding, predicaments of women, protective love, public feminist, refrigerators and women, right to own property, right to vote, romantic French literature, self-sovereignty of women, self-supporting women, technology and women’s liberation, the fate of women, the private lives of public feminists, toxic masculinity, trust between women, unmanliness, vulnerability, what do women want?, women friends, women's vulnerability, women’s contingent freedom, women’s dignity
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The Personal Meets the Political
The Personal Meets the Political I’m still reading A Dangerous Liaison, the book by Carole Seymour-Jones, about the great twentieth-century power couple, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. In my previous blog on them, I focused on the inconsistency between … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged absolute certainty, absolute doubt, Albert Camus, Alfonse Dreyfus, anarchy and tyranny, Bianca Bienenfeld, bohemian freedom, Carole Seymour-Jones’ A Dangerous Liason, Claude Lanzmann’s The Patagonian Hare, communist party line, dazzling career, decadent Parisian intellectuals, defining the modern world, existentialist hero, existentialist morality, for-itself v in-itself, French intellectuals, French Resistance, Hegel’s phenomenology of spirit, Holocaust awareness, Holocaust survivors, intellectual careerism, intellectual power, intellectual PR, intellectual self-advertisement, Jean-Paul Sartre, Lanzmann’s Shoah, libertine Gnosticism, libertinism and despotism, living one’s philosophy, man/woman asymmetries, meaning of life, myths of French Resistance, Nazi genocide, occupied France, official story, opinion shaper, personal self-invention, philosophic inconsistency, philosophic life, post-modern skepticism, Power couple, private and public philosophy, rounding up Jews, seducing students, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, the Dreyfus Case, the personal is the political, yellow star
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It’s August and My Shrink is in the Hamptons!
It’s August and My Shrink is in the Hamptons! There was a time in Manhattan when virtually everyone I knew was in Freud-based therapy. So people would have trouble getting through August, because that was when their shrinks were vacationing … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, bureaucracy, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, nineteenth-century, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Philosophic Foundations of Feminism", August in Manhattan, bad arguments, counterculture, do your own thing, Dora and Freud, Edward Erwin, Freud and women, Freud-based therapy, Freud’s “Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria”, Freud’s case studies, Freud’s life, Freudian diagnosis, hysteria, life validation, Manhattan, nonjudgmental, Norman Lebrecht’s “Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World 1847-1947”, philosophical assumptions, philosophy at Stony Brook, poetic verdict, psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic cures, quack cures, quackery, SUNY at Stony Brook, the “Wolf Man”, the Hamptons
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It’s Our Twentieth!
It’s Our Twentieth! January 20th, 2020, is our twentieth anniversary and, over the past few days, we’ve been talking about what it all means. In our first year, when I still lived in New York and Jerry in Washington D.C., … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a fish without a bicycle, a woman without a man, Abraham and Sarah, biblical flawed people, biblical models, Biblical narrative, biblical prototypes, biblical romance, Charlotte Bronte, collegial advisors, commuting marriage, consulting experts, delusions, girlhood daydreams, gnostic lovers, grave of Heloise and Abelard, Heloise and Abelard, identity markers, institutional role, Isaac and Rebecca, it’s a miracle, Jacob and Rachel, joint life, letting be, life together, love and work, love as knowledge, madness of love, medieval troubadours, mutual support, neutral vantage point, new beginnings, partnership, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Reader I married him, reciprocity, requirements of marriage, reshaping one’s life, risking identity, romantic feeling, sanity markers, shared space, shared time, social dignity, social status, story of God and humankind, taking a chance, teamwork, the bachelor life, the good fight, the rose clings ‘round the briar, Tristan and Iseult, view from nowhere, wedding anniversary, winning know how, with love all things are possible
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The Body Problem
The Body Problem Some years back, a path-breaking feminist book was published bearing the title, Our Bodies/Our Selves. It included black and white photos of stuff that I was not liberated enough to inspect too closely. I would have titled … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Health, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, life and death struggle, Love, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Our Bodies/Our Selves", American Academy of Religion, Art Student’s League of NYC, befriending one’s body, being and doing, bodily ordeal, body problems, Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Chesed, Chinese aesthetics, distinguished academic panel, double vision, Dr. Mark Bussell, exhausted sleep, exhaustion, experimental treatment, eye muscle surgery, feminist book, getting still, gluten-free, ground-breaking book, human connections, improved mobility, in resources, Jerry L. Martin ed. Theology Without Walls: The Trans-Religious Imperative, Jewish compassion, kneecap fracture, leg immobilizer, life review, Loma Linda Neuropathic Therapy Center, mind/body problem, moving through life, nature’s rhythm, nature’s time table, neuropathy, neuropathy treatments, one’s own best friend, path-breaking book, philosophical papers, primordial wariness, professional activities, quieting down, realism, Reform temple, rehab exercises, retrospection, rhythm of things, San Diego, social occasion, spirit of life, stormy relationships, surgery, tenderness, the body’s self, the walking art, theological history, Theology Without Walls, TWW contributors, Tzedek, walking handicap, wife as consort, women’s health
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Lost Innocence and Tanya Tucker
Lost Innocence and Tanya Tucker Tanya Tucker hasn’t put out a country album in 17 years. While she’s been… wherever she’s been… country music has changed and now resembles rock ‘n roll. There’s a heavy, percussive roar behind virtually every … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Journalism, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 19th century German philosophers, 19th century Romanticism, a real woman, Appalachian music, Arthur Schopenhauer, CMT videos, country album, country gospel, country hits, country music, country music v rock ’n’ roll, country songwriters, cowboy heroes, feminine survival, Friedrich Nietzsche, goodness and badness, integrity and wickedness, ISIS rapist, ISIS survivor, Ken Burns’s Country Music, lasting lust, Leo Bronstein, loss of innocence, love v lust, loving one’s life, old time virtue and vice, philosopher of art, rape victims, sex and ideas, Sigmund Freud, storytelling songs, surviving lost innocence, Tanya Tucker, Tanya Tucker's While I'm Livin', the good of being bad, the singer’s gift, the youth market, trauma and art, truth-telling woman, victims condemnation, Willie Nelson, Willie Nelson’s The Last Man Standing, worldwide country music fans
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Time and Me
Time and Me When I was a little girl, I didn’t worry about Time at all. I pretended I was a deer and roved the forests. I pretended I was a boy raised by wolves and roamed the jungle. Back … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Existentialism, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, Identity, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Renaissance, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged actualization and time, adolescence, adolescent boys, believing the unbelievable, book illustration, childhood’s end, coming of age, coquetry, coquetry in Europe, filling time, Flirting, flirting in America, future, getting your work done, growing pains, growing up in America, here today gone tomorrow, hypothetical and actual, imaginary worlds, intentionality, John Tenniel, knowing what’s real, knowing who one is, learning one’s purpose, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, life lessons, life regrets, life vocation, life’s work, Michelangelo, nostalgia, one’s calling, past, present, realization and time, running out of time, sufficient unto the day, teenage angst, temporality, the coming of reason, the lens of time, the real and the imaginary, Time, time and purpose, time flies, time of childhood, time’s wingéd chariot, to last and get your work done, wallflower, women friends, young girls in bloom
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