Tag Archives: women’s liberation

The Past 150 Years: Looking Backwards

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Abigail

The Past 150 years: Looking Backwards I’ve said, and I believe, that our lives are the true stories of who we are – something we find out as we try out the deeds that appear to express who we are … 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, bigotry, books, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, 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, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, nineteenth-century, novels, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", aestheticism, Alfred Lord Tennyson's Locksley Hall, anthropologists, Arthur Schopenhauer, auto-fiction, Bloomsbury circle, Charles Beaudelaire, Charles Darwin, chronological narratives, civilizational guilt, communism, concept of equality, cultural self-confidence, cultural self-doubt, cultural skepticism, cynicism, dark romanticism, demagogic power, denunciation competitions, disillusionment, enhanced status, fascism, flattering men, Frederich Nietzsche, global communications, God's eye view, good and evil, healthy conscience, human community, improved rights, J. K. Huysmans, keys to world history, living dialectically, living meaningfully, lost generation, lycanthropy, manipulative men, memoir, meta-narratives, moral rank-pulling, narrative view, Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey, penis envy, reductive views, repression as seductor's weapon, righteousness, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, role of religion, saving the planet, self-corrective life, self-righteousness, Sigmund Freud, spoiling the story, suffragettes, suspending judgement, the feminine in culture, the human epic, totalitarian movements, true stories, value judgments, values as objective, values as subjective, Victorian beliefs, weakened traditions, women on the defensive, women's socialization, women's liberation | 2 Comments

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Abigail

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir Talk about a Power Couple! He is responsible for the 20th-century French Existentialist claims that life is absurd, God nonexistent, we create our identities and the values we give to our projects. And she? … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, literature, love, male power, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged acculturation, anti-nature, arbitrary life projects, aristocratic pretensions, École normale supérieure, beauty and ugliness, bourgeois values, Carol Seymour-Jones’ A Dangerous Liason, character formation, compensatory piety, constructed identity, contingency, cosmetic values, created identities, dowry, escaping poverty, everything is permitted, existential misjudgments, false aristocracy, female chastity, female nature, feminine submission, French aestheticism, French existentialism, God’s non-existence, good-looking Frenchmen, gratuitous act, human nature, human nothingness, inherited wealth, intellectuals and culture, invented identities, invented values, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, lookism, making the best of circumstances, mariage de raison, marital failure, marrying for class, marrying for money, Merleau-Ponty, necessity and contingency, normaliens, Power couple, Sartre’s family, second wave feminism, self-invention, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, social class, social enchantment, social power, submissive womanhood, the Big Questions, the for-itself, the in-itself, the ugly kid, verbal brilliance, wealth and privilege, without God, womanizing husband, women's liberation, words as weapons | 1 Comment

Androgyny?

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Abigail

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 | 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 | Leave a comment

Overheard at the Café

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Abigail

Overheard at the Café Among the rewards of my composing this column at the café where I’m what the French call an habituée, is that I get to overhear scenes from other people’s real lives. The café meets my need to … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, 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, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged advice to a stranger, bad company, behind her back, café life, café seclusion, Carl Sandburg’s Cool Tombs, covering one’s tracks, divorce, divorce and status, eavesdropping, feminism and biology, feminism and culture, feminism and history, fidelity, French cafes, gossip, habituée, happy endings, male protector, marital complaints, my wife doesn’t understand me, painful truths, personal dignity, personal happiness, personal love, private conversation, rabbinic dictum, romantic story, scenes from life, scenes overheard, seducers approach, seduction, single woman, social costs, social disadvantage, social outranking, social ranking, social safety, solitary woman, the library of life, the lottery of life, the official story, tragic romance, woman without a man, women's liberation, worldly honors, writers in cafés, writing a column | Leave a comment

The Feminine Force

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Abigail

The Feminine Force Some years ago, I met a young woman artist, a painter of very large canvasses, who had married a young Moroccan in order to give him a way to live and work in New York City. I … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged #metoo, 19th century philosophy, 19th-century literature, a woman's interest, anti-feminist, Arab youth, asymmetry of sexes, biological imperatives, Bullying, Cleopatra, co-education, conflicts in feminism, conformism, danger of rape, deceptive charm, dissent, equal representation, erotic ideal, ethical duty, expressing one's charm, fear of dissent, Feminine Force, Femininity, Feminism, free spirit, frustration, future of Russia, gallantry, gallantry in men, getting pregnant, handsome hero, Henry James's The Bostonians, ideal situation, imprinted by intimacy, Julius Caesar, lifting morale, Lionel Trilling, love worthiness, manipulativeness, Mark Antony, marriage for green card, masculine force, mastering the space, meaning of life, meeting mother, men's protectiveness, Michael Artzibashev's Sanine, Moroccan youth, mutual love, mysteries of eros, New York City, nihilist, obligation to be happy, original work, ostracism, peer pressure, personal fulfillment, post-Civil War, power of volition, protection of women, reading one's mind, reading the best, reciprocal commitment, relaxing resistance, resisting pressure, revising the canon, Richard Lovelace's To Lucasta Going to the Wars, rule breaker, Russian novels, self-actualization, self-surrender, sisterhood, social safety, Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life, Submission, surrendering one's will, Tel Aviv, the canon, the erotic, theoretical discussions, undocumented immigrant, what counts as consent, will power, women and STD, women in Islam, women students, women's charm, women's first intimacy, women's impregnability, women's liberation, women's seducibility, women's self-protection, women's vulnerabilities, yin and yang | Leave a comment

Is Virtue Rewarded?

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Abigail

Is Virtue Rewarded? The other day, Jerry brought me a book for nighttime reading titled Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. It’s an 18th century classic by Samuel Richardson but that’s not why he gave it to me. He knows I like … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, 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, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 18th century novel, advice columns, attractiveness, being uptight, boorish, bourgeois, bourgeois norms, bourgeois values, Bullying, cattiness, conformism, Da Vinci, Dante's Beatrice, dental cavities, dentistry, early feminism, epater le bourgeois, epistolary novel, eroding values, following fads, frigid, Glamour magazine, gossip magazines, great teeth, hairdressers, happy ending, heroine's virtue, ideality, images of ideality, improving lives, keeping up with the Joneses, knight's purpose, knights in armor, Leo Bronstein, loveliness, manipulative, Marquis de Sade, men and women, middle class values, Mona Lisa, mystery lady, Oppressed v Oppressors, pop culture, pop therapy, porn, pushed around, repairing the world, romantic, S&M, Sade's bio, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, sex and ideas, sex on the brain, stifling thought, the feminine, the new normal, vanilla sex, vicarious courage, vicarious sex, virtue's reward, Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, wanting to please, whips and chains, women's empowerment, women's liberation, women's magazines, women's movement | Leave a comment

“Where Are We Now?”

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Abigail

“Where Are We Now?” Since my last column, I’ve been preoccupied with the long-shot nomination of me, by a kind colleague, to give the John Dewey lecture at the American Philosophical Association. That’s the lecture underscoring the link between the … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, motherhood, nineteenth-century, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Destry Rides Again", "Here be dragons", "the boys in the back room", "the girls in the back room", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Feminism Without Contradictions", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Getting Past Marx and Freud", Absolute Spirit, American Philosophical Association, amoral impulses, Analytic philosophy, Anglo-American Philosophy, APA, Australian philosophy, Authenticity, background assumptions, British Idealism, cartography, college orientation, conceptual clarity, conceptual muddles, conceptual obscurity, Continental philosophy, cultural paradigms, dance hall singers, David Stove, doctrine of the unconscious, empiricism, falsifiability, feminine flattery, Feminism, Freud, human liberation, human motivation, ideal languages, ideology, induction, inhibitions, jargon, John Dewey Lectures, liberation, logical empiricism, logical positivism, manipulation, Marlene Dietrich, men's liberation, militant feminism, Mind Control, Nietzsche, nineteenth-century philosophy, ordinary language philosophy, originality, philosophical explanation, philosophical maps, philosophy of science, privacy, programming, psychic layers, rape, reductionism, Schopenhauer, scientific paradigms, sensory experience, sex differences, social contructs, theoretical entities, traditional woman, twentieth century philosophy, women's liberation, work and life, zones of silence | Leave a comment

“Cynicism”

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Abigail

“Cynicism” The other day a young woman I know, an artist and philosopher who picks up a dollar working at the cafe I frequent, said to me that some of the people she meets act so deplorably that she’s getting … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "don't sweat the small stuff", absurdity, anomie, anxiety, apathy, arbitrariness, bad arguments, bad people, civilizational purposes, creativity, crisis, cynicism, disappointment, displacement, ennui, expectations, fairy tales, Faith, fear, Femininity, globalism, hatred, heartbreak, humankind, identity, insulation, introspection, meaninglessness, memoir, misanthropy, misology, motivation, normality, official story, personal narrative, philosophic crisis, projection, pseudo-profundities, purpose, reason, repression, self review, sensitivity, social construction, Socrates, stipulative meanings, tenderness, The Phaedo, The Princess and the Pea, tough-minded, toughness, truth, women's liberation, youth | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: women’s liberation

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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