Tag Archives: sexism

Five Coins in the Fountain

Posted on May 12, 2026 by Abigail

Before feminism, girls in America were expected to be “popular.” But exceptionally, in my high school, I got an exemption. So, what high school did I go to? At that time, it was generally thought both democratic and fair to … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, activities for college credit, anti-feminist bigotry, artistic vulnerability, brainwashing, breaking women’s silence, Bronx High School of Science, commodification of women, courtship and self-disguise, dreams of a wedding night, eligibility for gifted high schools, expected to be popular, extracurricular activities, fear of losing femininity, feminine vulnerability, femininity and innocence, femininity as a duty, femininity as a skill, femininity at risk, Feminism, feminist manifesto, gifted young painter, girls and good books, girls with good minds, girls you can’t fool, high school dreams, high school Literary Club, husbands controlling wives, imaginary fears, imaginary fears and real dangers, innocence lost, intellectual girls, intelligent unsentimental girls, intuitive sensitive women and vulnerability, intuitive young woman, losing innocence, marital brainwashing, marital domination and victimization, not forced to be popular, obligation to be feminine, old maid, originality vs femininity, path-breaking vs femininity, planning to be wonderful, poetic and romantic young woman, poetic young woman, popular girls, post-marital muddying of painter’s colors, prefeminist self-blame in women, public schools for the gifted, putting husband through grad school, reading good books, romance in Rome, romantic dreams, romantic hopes, Rome’s Fontana di Trevi, sexism, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, Stepford wives, surviving feminism, surviving pre-feminism, teenage ambitions, the art of womanhood, the freedom of wives, The High School of Music and Art, the silence of women, the vulnerability of being feminine, three coins in the fountain, true love and the Fountain of Trevi, wedding night disappointment, wedding night hopes, wedding night reproaches, wedding night virginity, wife as patient, wife of a young doctor, wifehood and mental health, willed vulnerability, wives and women’s liberation, wives hiding their beliefs, women and self-condemnation, women friends, women not shocked by life, women who live up to their promise, women’s post-marital erasure, women’s stories | 2 Comments

As Philosophy Goes …

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Abigail

I hold the view, borrowed from G. W. F. Hegel, the nineteenth-century’s primo philosopher of history, that philosophy plays an oversized role in shaping human events. So do earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, global warming periods, plagues and nasty fights over water … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, science, 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, terrorism, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic martyrdom, academic power struggles, American Philosophical Association, Ann Gary, APA’s Proceedings and Addresses, are people like machines, brainwashing, can machines replace people, can you live inside your philosophy, Catholic convert, cognitive psychology, communicating across difference, competition between underdogs, David Chalmers, Eleonore Stump, Epistemology, facial recognition, fallacy of scattershot condemnation, fashionable ideas, feminist philosophy, feminist quarrels, forced confessions, groupthink, Hegel, human knowledge vs AI, human suffering, human thinking and AI, Hypatia, idealized knowledge, Incommensurable Otherness, intellectual autobiography, Jennifer Nagel, John Dewey Lectures, Jonathan Schaffer, learning models, logical positivists, Mariana Ortega, mechanist materialism as worldview, medieval logic, metaphysics, mind/body problem, moral one-upmanship, opposition to women in philosophy, people compared to machines, philosophical account of ultimacy, philosophical fashions, philosophical friendship, philosophizing about human suffering, philosophy and nonquantifiable experience, philosophy and the future, philosophy and worldviews, philosophy as a profession, philosophy as a truth-seeking discipline, philosophy as cultural influence, philosophy as life-shaping, philosophy lectures, philosophy of history, philosophy transcends the tyranny of fashion, philosophy's political influence, physicalism, physicalism and reductionism, physicalist worldview, Plato's view of knowledge, prediction errors, primary and secondary qualities, primary qualities, pulling moral rank, Reign of Terror, right opinion vs knowledge in Plato, Saint Augustine, Salem witch trials, sexism, the politics of philosophy, theory of everything, thinking machines, Thomas Aquinas, true knowledge vs opinion, Vienna Circle, wisdom as true knowledge, wisdom knowledge vs everyday knowledge, women in philosophy | Leave a comment

“Thankfulness”

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Abigail

Abbie is unable to write a new column this week because she and her husband, Jerry Martin, are stuck in Denver, CO, where a succession of flights home have been canceled. She and Jerry were in Denver for a fascinating … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, alienation, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, faith, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, ideology, philosophy, psychology | Tagged anger, bad faith, blessings, candor, collective community, Committee of Public Safety, consensus, covenant, decorum, dissent, Foucault, French Revolution, gratitude, Hebrew Scripture, homophobia, honesty, ideality, inauthenticity, insensitivity, Islamophobia, Israel, kibbutz, Leviticus, Mount Sinai, personal sincerity, politeness, political correctness, popularity, prayer, racism, ritual, sacrifice, sexism, Thanksgiving, The Archaeological Method, The Terror, Thought Crimes, Torah Study, unity | Leave a comment

“Thankfulness”

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Abigail

“Thankfulness” The other day, in the Saturday morning Torah Study class at my Reform temple, we were studying the verses on the ancient temple cultus detailed – and I mean detailed – in the Book of Leviticus. My patience with these Memory … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, alienation, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, faith, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, ideology, philosophy, psychology | Tagged anger, bad faith, blessings, candor, collective community, Committee of Public Safety, consensus, convenant, decorum, dissent, Foucault, French Revolution, gratitude, Hebrew Scripture, homophobia, honesty, ideality, inauthenticity, insensitivity, Islamophobia, Israel, kibbutz, Leviticus, Mount Sinai, personal sincerity, politeness, Political Corrrectness, popularity, prayer, racism, ritual, sacrifice, sexism, Thanksgiving, The Archaeological Method, The Terror, Thought Crimes, Torah Study, unity | 2 Comments

Before Feminism – and After!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Abigail

Before Feminism – and After! Lately, I’ve been reading When Men Were the Only Models We Had, by Carolyn Heilbrun. It’s a memoir on coming of age as an intellectual woman before feminism. As a graduate student in Columbia University’s … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, 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, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, journalism, 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, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", anti-women jokes, bloodless social revolution, brilliant women, careerist, Carolyn Heilbrun’s When Men were the Only Models We Had, castrating females, Clifton Fadiman, Columbia class of 1925, Columbia University, Columbia University English Department, coming of age memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, control of women, coquetry, delightful women, divorced women, doctoral candidacy, documentary histories of feminism, economic dependence on men, electro-shock therapy, end of communism, exclusivist maleness, father-daughter relation, feminism and women’s health, feminism as humanism, filial piety, flight into convent, flight into religiosity, Frenchwomen, friends and lovers, good writing, graduate student, hemophilia of the future Tsar, Henry and Rachelle Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectual friendships, intellectual originality, intellectually alive, intelligence not enough, involuntary confinement, Jacques Barzun, jargon-free writing, killing motivation, Leo Bronstein, life of the mind, Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling correspondence, literary criticism, literary friendships, lobotomies, male academic dominance, male career models, male friendships, male intellectual models, male professional dominance, marital trouble, memoir, men in academe, mister right, negative vs. positive liberation, No Girls Allowed, over-sensitive, Phyllis Chesler’s The Politically Incorrect Feminist, pretentious writing, professional sovietologists, psychiatric abuse of dissenters, psychiatric abuse of women, punishment of dissenters, Reading Dostoevsky, reading Proust, reading Thomas Mann, Russian-accented English, sex discrimination, sexism, Sigmund Freud, the feminine mind, the feminist revolution, the masculine mind, the Pope in Warsaw, the Woman-principle, theoretical disparagement of women, understanding people, unpretentious writing, woman’s social power, womanly arts, womanly authority, womanly models, women as colleagues, women as friends, women graduate students, women’s dependence on men, women’s health, women’s need for men, women’s social dependence on men | Leave a comment

Anger

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Abigail

Anger At one of the numberless administrative hearings held during my seven-year job fight, the opposing counsel asked me, with an insinuating sidewise smile, “Are you very angry at the people who fired you?” I glanced down the long table … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, 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, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, 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, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 17th century metaphysics, 17th century philosophy, a woman's anger, academic colleagues, academic hearings, academic politics, academic reinstatement, academic sexism, academic tenure, administrative hearings, anger, anger as truthful, anger management, Arbitration, bad guys, combat of life, dealing with anger, deliberate injury, determinism, drama of life, free will, freedom, Gandhi and non-violence, God as Substance, God as Witness, God is a Person, God's love, hard to be a person, healthy anger, impersonal God, interpersonal dynamics, interpersonal skills, job fight, laws of history, laws of nature, Mahatma, martial arts of social life, merited anger, metaphysical system, overcoming anger, personal choice, personal God, persons as objects, professional hell, promise breaking, real life dramas, reclaiming your power, resentment, revenge-seekers, Right and Wrong, risks of life, satyagraha, self-definition, sexism, sidestepping anger, soul force, Spinoza, Spinoza's Ethics, Spinozistic remedy, substance attributes and modes, tenure fight, Ultimate Action, Ultimate Causality, understanding as power, Unqualified Power, Western films | 2 Comments

“Thankfulness”

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Abigail

Posted in academe, action, alienation, culture, desire, erotic life, faith, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, ideology, philosophy, psychology | Tagged anger, bad faith, blessings, candor, collective community, Committee of Public Safety, consensus, convenant, decorum, dissent, Foucault, French Revolution, gratitude, Hebrew Scripture, homophobia, honesty, ideality, inauthenticity, insensitivity, Islamophobia, Israel, kibbutz, Leviticus, Mount Sinai, personal sincerity, politeness, Political Corrrectness, popularity, prayer, racism, ritual, sacrifice, sexism, Thanksgiving, The Archaeological Method, The Terror, Thought Crimes, Torah Study, unity | 2 Comments

Tag Archives: sexism

“Thankfulness”

“Thankfulness”

“Thankfulness”

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