Links & Bits for 7/8/11

The Mental Burden of a Lower-Class Background (Sociological Images)

I don’t feel ashamed of my background any more, because I’ve achieved enough proof of upper-middle-class success — a Ph.D., a tenure-track job, the knowledge that Brie is fancy cheese and not, as my grandma thought upon seeing it for the first time, fish bait — and some useful theories, like the idea of cultural capital, to help me make sense of what’s going on.*

What a Bastard The World Is: The Feminist Politics of Yoko Ono's Personal Song (The Curvature)

What does it mean for men and women to need each other when men cannot fully respect and women cannot wholly trust? What does it mean for women to love those who were never taught to see them as fully human? And what does it mean, too, for women who are oriented towards partnering with men to leave them behind, when these dynamics keep perpetuating themselves? Is that liberation? What can liberation mean in this context? Can there be true liberation if it is absent of love? Can there be true love if it is absent of liberation?

Sex, Scripts, & Single Ladies (The Crunk Feminist Collective)

Bottom line for me: the show is not great, but it does prompt some interesting questions about race, class, gender, and sisterhood, in addition to having a slew of foine—yes, foine—guest stars and an easy, breezy plot. I’ll be watching, with a crunk feminist critical lens of course, for now.

* I included a link to this article not because it's the most nuanced, but because I think there were some important points raised, though the author came off rather classist herself. I think there's a better article in here somewhere, with more insight -- maybe mentioning the ways we code switch to make ourselves more "acceptable" in middle-class society.

Ticket for one

A few years ago, just before my 32nd birthday I did something shocking: I went to a concert alone. Oh, and get this. It was in ANOTHER CITY. Crazy right? I mean, everyone knows women just don't do that. I should be thanking my lucky stars right now that I made it home unscathed, and am able to tell of my story.

/sarcasm

I like going to shows. I like having someone to go with; however, I really don't like dragging someone to see a band s/he doesn't like, or has no interest in. I'm not embarrassed to go solo.

I don't see a lot of singles at the shows I go to. As someone with a predilection for artists slightly outside her age group, most of the fans I see are older, married, maybe bringing a teenager or two. Sometimes there are (as a friend of mine put it) a few "older guys in the back," -- the inveterate kinds of fans who make it to five or six or ten shows. They go alone, and no one questions it.

Once inside the club, I staked a place in front and slightly off center (the best spot for photographing.) Some of the other fans chatted me up, asking where I was from. When I said I lived a few hours away, they asked who I came with.

"No one," I said. "Just me."

"Good for you."

Yes, good for me, as if I'd just announced that I placed fourth at the regional spelling bee, or finished that scarf I started back in 2002. Maybe I'm unusually naive, but I never expected that woman going to a concert alone was such a rare thing.