There’s an interesting piece over on Collectors Weekly about those anti-Suffragette postcards I sometimes use to illustrate my posts here. (Thanks to Jezebel for the link; I’m not exactly a regular reader of Collectors Weekly.) Lisa Hix puts the cards in context, offering a sort of mini-history of the suffragette movement in the process, and notes that the cards present some of the often contradictory “arguments” still used against feminism today.
Suffragettes were drawn as conniving coquettes, ugly, mean spinsters or, worse, ugly, mean wives who left their families helpless as they attended town-hall meetings. Scenes of women politicians showed them hatching diabolical plots to undermine and emasculate men further. …
“Married Suffragettes were depicted as nagging wives, that was a common one, and the wife was always big, and the husband tiny and puny,” [historian June] Purvis says. “Or, if they were single, Suffragettes were depicted as very ugly women with big feet, protruding teeth, hair pulled back in a bun, and glasses. They were depicted as quite mannish and unattractive so that no man would want to marry them.”
That all sounds a bit familiar, huh?
Here’s are some classic portrayals of Suffragettes as ugly spinsters:
And one depicting Suffragettes as attractive women using their sexual wiles to control men:
Other postcards depicted Suffragettes as children, often whiny babies:
Manosphere dudes are similarly fond of depicting feminists, and women in general, as flighty, irresponsible children.
For more anti-Suffragette postcards, see:
Catherine H. Palczewski’s Suffrage Postcard Archive
June Purvis’ BBC History slideshow
The Woman Suffrage Memorabilia site
This feature on Brain Pickings
And this giant gallery assembled by the misogynistic antifeminist who calls himself Patriactionary.
Thanks, Mr. Patriactionary, for reminding us how completely backwards you guys are. Not that we really needed reminding.
Gender transposition is the oldest game in the world where reductio ad absurdum is concerned. It is NOT, however, the only one: Flavor and condiment transposition (sugar and salt being two universally used white chrystalline powders) can be another
CassandraSays, implement the transposition of the salt and sugar in your household. Maybe it is only a popular prejudice that you were so ignorantly brainwashed by, CassandraSays, that persuades you to put salt in a salt shaker and sugar in. For 24 hours, why not reverse the two, and let everyone know how pleased you are with results?
Put two teaspoons of salt on top of your cereal tomorrow morning, and don’t forget to add a spot of salt for your tea this afternooon. When preparing rice or pasta, a pinch of sugar goes well with a dash of pepper, or if potatos are your fancy, don’t forget to enjoy sprinkling sugar on them before enjoying them.
After a mere 24 hours of this lunacy, you would be more than happy to return to tradtional ways regarding the usage and enjoyment of sugar and salt. I also think that most people would be happy to return to traditional ways regarding gender issues.
Don’t let your narrow and repetitive prejudices get in the way of possible innovation. Flavors (and the containers which hold them) are simply, like gender specificity and sex role identity, are simply socially conditioned prejudices!
Have fun!
Okay, Meller, let’s try it. We’ll substitute different seasonings. We’ll also try different gender roles. If someone likes the new way, zie keeps doing it. If zie doesn’t like it, then zie goes back to the old way.
I’ll try salt instead of sugar, wearing jeans, and having a job. Salt for sugar is gross, so I won’t keep doing that. Jeans are comfy, so I’ll keep doing that. And having a job keeps me occupied and gives me lots of money, so I’ll keep doing that.
TL;DR: Meller thinks that, if something is usually done one way, you should never ever try it a different way, because that would be bad. Real-world logic says you don’t know until you try.
Anyone got any great unusual spice innovations that you figured out?
@katz
Not strictly a spice innovation, but have you tried roughly two dashes of salt in Coca-Cola or on watermelon? All the rage in Japan, apparently. I’m not mad about it on the watermelon but Coke’s improved infinitely.
Nah, with fruit, it’s all about the chili. Chili mango, chili strawberry…all so delicious!
One of my neighbours makes a mean chilli jam ….
Besides, Meller doesn’t know what reduction ad absurdum means. The oldest reduction argument would presumably Zeno’s argument against the possibility of movement, which hasn’t got anything to do with gender rules. Besides, a reduction ad absurdum argument functions like this:
You want to prove P.
Assume, for the sake of argument, the truth of not-P.
Show that not-P implies something straight-out contradictory or at least terribly absurd.
That means not-P can’t be true.
Ergo, P.
It seems from his post that Meller thinks it means:
You want to prove P.
Assume, for the sake of argument, the truth of some position that COULD possibly, given further assumptions, be considered analogous to not-P. Let’s call this position Q.
Show that believing Q would lead to bad consequences in real life.
Conclude that we shouldn’t believe Q.
Conclude, completely illogically, that P.
Gah, I apparently kept writing reduction instead of reductio. Whatever, point still stands, Meller has got it all wrong.
Oh man, I love this topic!
I went through a phase where I experimented with cinnamon as a savory spice. I had a few failures, but I still add a dash of cinnamon to homemade spaghetti sauce (especially the kielbasa sauce).
Some mornings, I like peanut butter and a drizzle of sriracha on my English muffins.
And it’s not a spice swap per se, but while we’re talking about swapping sweet and savory, I’ve discovered that instant oatmeal with butter, pepper and Parmesan cheese is a nice change from the usual sugary toppings.
All this is reminding me that I have a recipe for basil cookies that I have yet to try, and a promising salted rosemary shortbread that just needs a little tweaking…
There’s a restaurant in Jacksonville Beach that does a breakfast sandwich like that! They also add onions, cucumber, and a drizzle of honey. They call it a Thai-style bagel. It’s crazy kind of good.
Also, Meller may have inspired me with the pinch of sugar on potatoes or rice. I may have to try a pot of either just to see what happens.
Well, sushi rice is sweetened, so it might not be terrible. And I’ve had sweetened rice-based side dishes before. I’m not sure that just sugar on rice will have much to offer, but let us know how it goes!
I think it’s the idea of sugar + pepper that got my foodie gears turning. Black pepper ice cream is very good, so maybe potatoes with butter and pepper and hint of sweet would be tasty. Or rice with sugar and some red pepper flakes. Or black pepper rice pudding – which sounds like it might be the fairest of them all, but that’s more a dash of savory with lots of sweet instead of full-on savory with a pinch of sugar.
Anyway, I’ll give it a shot. If it’s terrible, so be it. I can always hide the mistakes in a casserole or something.
There’s a maple company in Vermont that sells shakers of “maple pepper”: maple sugar, black pepper, and salt. I never developed the taste for it, but I often saw it in restaurants and, indeed, I’ve seen people put it on their potatoes.
Jackass, heal thy self.
Meller: Why would women think voting is bad for them?
They are half the population. Men, such as yourself, who want the absolute power you think they should cede to men, hate them.
You think they are property. To be handed from father to husband, or turned out at the local whorehouse for any man who needs to get his rocks off.
You think a woman who speaks up deserves to be beaten, and if she speaks up too much, and gets killed; we have to understand what made that poor man kill her.
Women should be “corrected” with “love and kindness”, but if that doesn’t work a touch of the lash can be, with great regret, used; as needed.
And now you are on about salt for sugar? Ah… you haven’t discovered how cuddly hedghogs are, nor yet come to terms with how a soft and fluffy kitten can have claws and teeth; you are trying to be clever.
Sadly it doesn’t suit you. Sugar on potatoes can be tasty, so too can a sweet soup of carrots and honey. Honey-mustards are amazingly popular. I like salt and butter on my oatmeal. I like salt on my watermelon (and have been eating it that way for close on 40 years now). Pepper and Balsamic on strawberries… YUM.
But voting, voting isn’t like that. People are people; as the Founding Fathers (you remember them; you used to talk about them all the time), said, “no taxation without representation”.
Slavery being a moral wrong… Oh, shit, you don’t think so. What with Gor and the “Houses of Pleasure” and all.
Question: If one is working, for a master, and that master is taking all of one’s labors; and the fruits thereof, isn’t that taxation? Shouldn’t those people be represented?
Sure they should, and women work. Even if it’s in one of your brothels. So women deserve the vote. If you don’t like it, leave. I am sure there are places you can find the Libertarian Paradise, and you will win them over to the purest of its forms, and finally attain The Mellertopia.
Sadly I managed to get myself moderated.
English Teacher Rant on Exquisite Dipshit’s Pathetic Attempt to use argument by analogy: i.e. DKM’s comparison of gender roles to sugar/salt:
FOr one thing ED, here’s what happens if people don’t get enough salt: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_happens_if_you_don't_eat_salt
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080221111715AANFTZy
Also too much salt, very very very bad.
NOw, what happens if people don’t get sugar: more complex, because you’re talking about refined sugar.
http://www.livestrong.com/sugar-in-your-diet/
So switching them, including the amounts, is an absolutely ridiculous idea–there are physiological reasons and presumably biochemical issues going on (SO not a scientist).
Gender roles? Not so much.
I wear pants a lot (I wear skirts or plain line dresses when it’s very hot–TEXAS–or when I’m doing a queer theory talk–love to mess with those minds).
Nobody is going to die from me in pants, or me in a dress.
So trying to argue that the two categories (salt and sugar) are culturally constructed like gender roles (masculine and feminine)…..or, even, trying to argue that putting one condiment in a shaker designed for the other (?????????? which maybe you were trying to do–really crap writing, as usual), means that condiments are socially constructed is crap argumentation by really bad analogy.
TL;DR: as usual, you FAIL to make a point that any reasonable human being could attend to without falling over laughing liek a big laughing hilariously convulsed with snickering thing.
Speaking of sugar and such, one of the Things I’ve been dealing with the last month or so is a diagnosis of diabetes II (my A1C number is not horribly high–8.6 I think, though I don’t have my notes!), and my PA thinks that diet and exercise are the ticket to reducing it, along with a prescription for metformin (lowering blood sugar levels).
So, we’ve been moving back to what we were on a few years back–the diabetic diet (diet in the sense of overall healthier/better eating, not “go on stupid pineapple and cottagecheese regimen to lose weight and then gain it all back and more later on”).
And as we work out the mechanics of doing the best practices (strict portion control, a balance of protein, carbs, fruit, dairy), more cooking with fresh or frozen ingredients to avoid the processed foods, etc. etc., we’ve realized that this lifestyle shift has added a minimum of ten hours to our workload every week–about five hours each–above and beyond what we were doing for shopping, cooking, eating, disheashing.
Two-three hours to plan the week’s menus. Extra time shopping to find the right ingredients (and reading labels more and more). Much extra cooking, and about double the dishwashing.
And I keep remembering Silly Owly Troll claiming that cooking is cooking, and that it takes the same amount of time to shop and cook no matter how many you’re cooking for. Our family size hasn’t changed–but the workload has because of the effort needed to create the lifestyle that will add years to our lives.
It’s working–besides losing 8 pounds the first month (some additional exercise helps), which is a major thing for improving how my system processes glucose–the food is delicious (the number of specialized cookbooks for diabetic diets these days is amazing–including dessert and slow cooker ones). I never felt deprived, and have not had a chocolate binge (my main addiction). But good grief, the time it takes–OTOH, this has given me a good reason to work with with my dept. head to get out of some of the more ridiculously burdensome service responsibilities I have (which I volunteered for, BUT pre-diabetes).
You know, you can put a pinch of salt in coffee and it will cut back the bitterness a bit.
Chibigodzilla: I did not know that!
As a child, my brother and I were given buckets of coarse salt and encouraged to go salt the slugs that infested the camping place we had on the Washington coast.
They shrivelled up.
Too bad we cannot develop an anti-troll salt ingredient!
Nope, it’s just you and a few other dinosaurs. Most of us are very happy with the current state of affairs!
Speaking of which, eyeliner on men? One of my personal favorite subversions of old-fashioned ideas about gender. Note to stupid people (like Meller), though – do not attempt to taste the eyeliner (or any other makeup, other than Sugar’s lip glosses), that is not what it is for.
Also, salted caramel? Excellent idea. I know a place that makes salted caramel cupcakes and macarons, and both are delicious.
On spice/condiment innovations that not everyone will have tried – Tibetan butter tea with salt (bocha) is awesome. Yes, I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it’s the most warming and satisfying thing ever on a really cold day.
http://www.threetastes.com/blog/blog_files/buttertea.php
(PS – If anyone wants to try making bocha, I’d recommend using Pu-erh if you can get it, since you need a really intense, hearty tea to stand up to the butter and salt.)
I’m just a big fan of cayenne as a sweet spice. If you’ve never made Mexican hot chocolate by adding a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne to regular cocoa, you’re missing out (my specialty is to then add a splash of Triple Sec).
And chocolate or cocoa powder as a savory spice! Mole may be the most brilliant food innovation of all time!
Cassandra, have you tried the Vosges (I probably slaughtered the spelling of the brand) chocolate bars with caramel and Hawaiian sea salt? OMG, it’s heaven in your mouth.
Oh yeah, Perla’s here has a butterscotch pot de creme with sea salt that is amazing. The salt comes in its own little dish, so you can add as much or as little as you want.
I see Meller wants us all to try out his new flavor of troll: Reasoning with Seasoning.
What do you think? Personally, I find it rather bland.
The other suggestions on this thread, however, are definitely worth a try.