Tag Archives: women’s friendships

Under the Chariot Wheels

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Abigail

Of late, I’ve begun to read certain well-regarded women writers. I started with Sylvia Plath and now it’s Joan Didion. Earlier in my reading life, I had stayed away from these writers, fearing that they were whiners after all – … 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 God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, 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, 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, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Feminism Without Contradictions, academic feminists, anomie, antiwomen bigotry, authenticity and feminism, changing public opinion, consciousness-raising group, construction workers’ catcalling, copouts of feminism, differences denied, dying spouse, exploitation of women, fashionable authors, feelings aren’t facts, feminism and American politics, feminism and chivalry, feminism and cultural politics, feminism and political incorrectness, feminism and rape, feminism and womanly sympathy, feminism’s denial of difference, feminism’s repressions, feminist complaints, feminist diagnostic, feminist disappointments, feminist infighting, feminist motivation, feminist pioneers, feminist theory and real women, feminists on TV talk shows, Gnosticism and feminism, Hollywood screenwriters, honor your mother, human motivation, Joan Didion, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunn, Joan Didion on feminism, Joan Didion’s The White Album, Juanita Broaddrick, manipulating guilt, marital callousness, marital indifference, movie reviewers, movie-making processes, MS magazine, narcissist, philosophy and feminism, rape accusation, second-wave feminists, self-indulgence, sense of entitlement, social intelligence, sophisticated woman writers, spinsters, Sylvia Plath, the beauty myth, the male gaze, The Monist feminism issue, trail-blazing women, understanding men, Upper East Side discussion group, utopian feminism, vulnerability repressed, what women know, women and social intelligence, women as victims, women understanding men, women’s autonomy, women’s depth experiences, women’s friendships, world-weary anomie | 2 Comments

Seismic Shifts

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Abigail

While I was getting ready to write this column, several earth-shakings were rattling around me. For instance, I’ve just spoken by phone with a dear friend. She is facing the moment when the medical team has run out of Things … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, 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, 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, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, 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, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged accepting the dynamics of life, American-Jewish Vacation from History, anti-Judaism, awareness of God's presence, brooding over broken friendship, changes in life orientation, changes in one's story, changes in self-awareness, changes in self-concept, classless conduct, classlessness, control freak, counteracting the need to control, curing broken friendship, dumping a woman-friend, emotional shifts, end-of-life decisions, extremism normalized, faith in the prospects of life, from the horse's mouth, getting dumped by a friend, hospice care, intensification of perception, Jews not a race, letting go of broken friendship, letting go of control, new American anti-semitism, noticing the beauty of nature, repairing broken friendship, riding with a loose reign, rolling with the punches, sanity of horses, seeing the world as new, self tolerance, self-shielded from God's presence, sense of self, shielding self from God, showing no class, the beauty of nature, tolerance for one's own life rhythm, tolerance for one's own nature, trust in the future, unfriending, victimizers relabeled as victims, windows of perception, women dumping women, women unfriending women, women's friendships ending, women’s friendships | 4 Comments

The Price of Living One’s Philosophy

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Abigail

At our Torah Study class this week, we took up the concluding portion of the Book of Exodus. Mostly it deals with instructions for constructing the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). That’s the portable temple housing the famous box (the Ark … 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, book reviews, 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, 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, institutional power, 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, motherhood, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, 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 academic groupthink, academic politics, Arc of the Covenant, Attention Deficit Disorder, Authenticity, becoming a woman, being a woman, Book of Exodus, bridge of words, bridge to nowhere, bringing gifts to the Mishkan, competitive feminists, cultural impact, defending one’s worldview, delusive victories, demystifying philosophic terms, discussion leader, early days in the feminist movement, early experiences in the feminist movement, engineering with words, exploitive relationships, femininity as social construct, feminism and philosophy, feminist establishment, feminist theory, from nowhere to nowhere, groupthink, harmful victories, healing through our stories, influence of philosophy, intellectual credibility, Intellectual fashion, intellectual trends, inverting social reality, ivory tower philosophy, Jacques Derrida, language of philosophy, life lessons in novels, living inside one’s worldview, living one’s philosophy, manipulative victims, mariage de raison, marriage of reason, meaning what you say, Mishkan, not the official story, nothing outside the text, novels and women, one size fits all, opportunistic marriage, overcoming disabilities, Paris garbage strike and the postmoderns, Parisian postmoderns, Park Ave penthouse feminists, pas de hors-texte, philosophical jargon, philosophy and history, playing the victim card, portable temple, pulling moral rank, Pyrrhic verbal victories, Rabbi Sigal Brier, real life analogies to Biblical stories, revolutions and hypocrisy, sacred femininity, sacrificial gift, saying what you mean, sexual stereotyping, sincerity and philosophy, sisterhood is powerful, speaking philosophically, straight talking, straight talking in academe, supportive husband, teaching inner city kids, Ten Commandments, Tent of Meeting, the influence of philosophers, the last shall be first, the philosopher and the man on horseback, the philosophic establishment, the philosophic life, Torah Study, trading up, true stories that heal, two stone tablets, unbalanced marriage, universal claims about men and women, utopian slogans, verbal tour de force, verbal triumphs, view from nowhere, woman as social construct, woman’s destiny, woman’s lot, women against women, women’s competitiveness, women’s friendships, women’s liberation, write only what you have lived, yin and yang | 2 Comments

Tag Archives: women’s friendships

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