Tag Archives: the eternal feminine
Where Are the Ex-Friends Now?
This is a week when I’ve been thinking about old friends who are, as it happens, ex-friends. Maybe it’s a special category of friendship. I’ve devoted a recent column to David, who was a valued philosophical colleague. Together we shared … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art of living, atheism, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, 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, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, 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
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Tagged a friend’s ghost, a life without distinction, a life without ideality, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, avoiding victimization, betraying expectations, betraying one’s heritage, beyond charisma, beyond charm, coming to manhood, communist party line, debts of honor, disappointing expectations, endangering one’s son, ex-friends, exploiting a friendship, fake spirituality, first love, forgetting one’s debts, funeral notice, gentleman who cheats at cards, honor and dishonor, idealizing and manipulation, intellectual trust, intellectual trustworthiness, life as a true story, mediocre philosophizing, message from beyond, misusing one’s charm, obit notices, old friends, painful self-repair, philosopher’s obit, philosophical adventures, philosophical colleague, philosophical exploration, philosophical fashions, philosophical ghost, playing the victim, politics of experience, pulling rank, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, regretting nothing, repairing one’s life, saving grace from the eternal feminine, selling one’s birthright, social predation, spoiling a life, spoiling one’s story, stern ghost, the eternal feminine, the eternal feminine leads us above, the Nothing nothings, thought experiment, timeline traduced, trading honor for security, trading integrity for security, unfettered thinking, uninspired paintings, utopian illusions, wasting one’s talent, women as victims, women idealized
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From the Horse’s Mouth
My latest ride at what I shall call The Metaphysical Stables has proved particularly gratifying. This time Legacy, the mid-sized, hairy dog, did not sit on my lap while I waited for Dusty to be saddled and bridled. One front … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, 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, 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, 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, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic revolutionary, aesthetics of anti-semitism, ambivalence toward Jews in literature, American anti-semites, American Zionists, animal communication, animal interpreter, anti-semitism as spiritual refusal, armchair radicalism, cafe marxism, cafe revolutionary, Camelot the musical, can’t fool your dog, coming to terms with parents, curing anti-semitism, daughter of a genius, dog as a good judge of character, double life, emotional intelligence in animals, escaping a parent’s shadow, ethical pretense, female as victim, finding the Right One, first love, grand passion, Henry M. Rosenthal, his and her perspectives, horse sense, horse sense vs psychotherapy, Jewish fathers and daughters in literature, Jews in English literature, knights and their ladies, le coup de foudre, living a contradiction, living in a parent’s shadow, love at first sight, men’s romantic suffering, outward success inward distress, Parisian intellectuals, Parisian Men of the Left, pretense of concern for the oppressed, professional success vs personal failure, public facade vs private suffering, recognizing a man of God, recovering from first love, redeeming femininity, refusal of the divine, refusal of the God of history, revisiting memories, romantic disappointment, romantic disillusionment, Romantic memory, seduced and abandoned, seductive idealization, seductive ploys, self judgment, spiritual ambivalence toward the Jews, spiritual refusal, talking one way living another, The 36 righteous, the eternal feminine, the horse’s mouth, the man’s viewpoint, the metaphysical stables, the stroke of lightning, theological insight, Thomas Altizer, time’s winged chariot, Tristan and Iseult, turning around of the soul, unintegrated life, unresolved romance, Walter Russell Mead’s The Ark of a Covenant: The United States Israel and the Fate of the Jewish People, womanly understanding, working through memories, worldly honors
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Afghan Hope
Afghan Hope Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the City University of New York. She is a veteran of many feminist combats, has blazed trails where colleagues feared to venture, and authored many brave, … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, immortality, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, motherhood, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, 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, 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, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Afghan wife, bohemian lovers, courtship, delusions of courtship, feminine action, feminist books, feminist combats, feminist heroes, feminist legal team, first love, first love's legacy, first love's significance, Holocaust rescue, honor killing experts, human rights, immortal politician, life-imprinting romance, losing one's rights, love transformed, Phyllis Chesler, Phyllis Chesler's An American Bride in Kabul, rescuing Afghan women, rescuing persecuted women, romantic courage, romantic trap, sex slavery activists, taking romance seriously, Taliban targets, the eternal feminine, trail blazing, welcome to Kabul, womanly victory, women without rights, young love, young sophisticates
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The Eternal Feminine
The Eternal Feminine The other night I had a dream where some medical expert was examining me for breast cancer. He seemed properly qualified to do this and the examination did not in the least bother me. Then I noticed … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, bureaucracy, childhood, 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, female power, femininity, feminism, films, 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, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, motherhood, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "femininity" misused, 92nd Street Y, American Philosophical Association, APA dinner, APA meeting, Be a woman!, belittling women, breast cancer, bullying women, city smarts, collegial dinner, conceptual misunderstandings, criminal skills, debasing women, defending a buddy, deference to woman, don't hit a girl, dream vision, feminine power, feminine yielding, femininity rightly used, feminism as male excuse, Feminism's unintended consequences, fighting dirty, ganging up, Goethe's Faust, groupthink, honoring women, idealizing women, invisibility as self-defense, male gallantry, male honor, Male Power, male protectiveness, man's strength v woman's strength, media representations of women's prowess, medical privacy, misreading women, misunderstanding feminism, misuses of language, New York City fireman, protective power, pseudo-feminists, real v imaginary combats, sexual predator, strategic use of prayer, suffragists, talk in code, the eternal feminine, unprotective males, women's privacy, women's rights, women's vulnerability, women’s dignity, yielding as power, yin and yang
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Androgyny?
Androgyny? “The Lure of Androgyny” is the title of an article I just read. It reports that the trend to downplay biological differences between the sexes is now world-wide. This is different from giving women equal opportunity. More like: THERE’S … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, books, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, motherhood, novels, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, 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, 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
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Tagged actors and actresses, androgyny, anti-male prejudice, athletes, biological female, biological male, blue jeans, censorship, crude men, cultural change, Dante's Beatrice, debased men, defending honor, defending women’s honor, Emmanuel Levinas, entertainment fields, equal opportunity, female vulnerability, feminine security, fire fighting, firefighter rescue, French philosophy, Freudian prohibitions, gender as social construct, Hamlet, hatred of men, high fashion designers, idealizing women, level playing field, Levinas’s “And God Created Woman”, life or death situation, magazine article, make love like a man, male bashing, male gallantry, male protectiveness, male trustworthiness, marital partnership, marital protection, Marriage, Mary Eberstadt’s “The Lure of Androgyny”, masculine protection, misandry, misogyny, Ophelia, overcoming inhibitions, parental role model, policewoman, political correctness, pop music, pressures on men, prizes for acting, protective fathers, redemptress, relations between the sexes. human to human v man to woman, respect for women, Richard Lovelace’s “To Lucasta on Going to the Wars”, sexual revolution, sexual tact, single mother, targeting weakness, the arts, the eternal feminine, The New York Review of Books, the victimized woman, theatre awards, toxic masculinity, trendy article, trust, truth in sports, unisex, unisex bathrooms, unisex designers, unisex outfits, unisex sports, winning the race, women athletes, women firefighters, women in the military, women's liberation, women’s self-defense, Woodstock, worldwide trends
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Beatrice in Modern Gear
Beatrice in Modern Gear “Thou “who, to bring my soul to Paradise, Didst leave the imprint of thy steps in hell …” So wrote Dante of Beatrice at the end of his Divine Comedy. “The eternal feminine leads us above.” … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, chivalry, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, medieval, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, 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, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 14th century, ancient v modern, Aristotelian worldview, Aristotle, bad faith, Beatrice, breakfast with philosophers, chivalry, contemporary novel, courtly love, Dante’s Divine Comedy, deathbed communication, deathbed vision, delusional attachments, delusive ideals, disenchantment, disillusionment, enabling, feminist worldview, Goethe's Faust, good advice, idealization of woman, inauthenticity, Inner world vs external world, intelligible world, Kipling’s Kim, love’s power, mechanistic view of nature, medieval poet, medieval politics, mind/body problem, modern physics, modern psychology, Modernity, noble ideals, outdated chivalry, primary v secondary qualities, purposive worldview, randomness in physics, sacrificial love, Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, Sartre’s cafe scene, saving one’s beloved, saving souls, scientific outlook, self-sacrifice, subjective v objective, teleology, the eternal feminine, the feminine ideal, therapeutic outlook, universal genius, your place or mine
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The Eternal Feminine
The Eternal Feminine Many years ago – it was our last evening in Paris – the first boy I loved told me that I had become, for him, “the eternal feminine.” Later I learned that his reference to Goethe’s … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, 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, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, novels, ontology, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "normal" woman, "normal" woman's life, 586 BC, Abraham and Sarah, Adam and Eve, Arch of Titus, biblical couples, boy/girl stuff, couples therapy, covenant renewal, Dara Horn's Eternal Life: A Novel, deathless heroine, debris of history, detritus of history, enthralling tale, eros of history, essence of history, eternal life, eternal people, evenings in Paris, false transcendence, feminist formulas, first love, First Temple, French seduction, God as Witness, Goethe's Faust, having children, heroine, honeymoon in Rome, idiosyncratic hermeneutics, immortal heroine, imprinting, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish continuity, Jewish girl, Jewish relation to time, Jewish survival, Jewish time, Jewish womanhood, John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale", living through it, living too long, love story, lovers, marital difficulties, marriageable girl, Mount Sinai, Mowgli, newly married, outlasting enemies, outliving one's children, outliving one's husband, outliving one's world, Outliving one’s time, Roman antiquities, Roman conquest, Romance, romantic difficulties, romantic novels, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, seductive formulas, sharing fate, significant other, surviving genocide, taking romance seriously, The Covenant, the eternal feminine, the generations, the human generations, the Jewish essence, the past as present, the romantic essence, the Ur-couples, Ur-stories, wild child, woman's life
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