Two recent books by American journalists have blown air on the dying coals of the long-sidelined debate over marriage, partnership, the sheer amount of work involved in the whole business, and whether it’s worth it for women who value their personal autonomy over the vanishing amount of security offered by coupledom.
.. I am quite content with the fact that my work, my politics, my community and my books are just as important to me as anyone I happen to be dating. I love babies, but not enough to make the work, the pain, the worry and the lost opportunities involved worth it for me – not right now, and maybe not ever. I live in a commune, I date multiple people, and I’m focused on my career.
.. I’ve made the same choice that men my age have been able to make for centuries without being scolded by society, or even having to think about it too much – and in and of itself, that’s not radical. The possibility of millions of women making the same decision, en masse, however, is an entirely more threatening prospect.
.. Emotional and domestic labour is work, and women have been putting up with terrible working conditions for far too long.
.. Study after study has shown that it is men, not women, who benefit most from marriage and long-term partnership. Men who marry are, on the whole, healthier and happier than single men. Married women, by contrast, were no better off than their single counterparts. Men who divorced are twice as likely to want to get married again, whereas women, who are more often wanted out of the whole business.
.. If women reject marriage and partnership en masse, the economic and social functioning of modern society will be shaken to its core. It has already been shaken. Capitalism has managed to incorporate the mass entrance of women into the traditionally male workplace by depressing wages, but the question of how households will be formed and children raised is still unsolved. Public anxiety over the low fertility rate among middle-class white women is matched only by the modern hysteria about working-class, black and migrant women having “too many” babies – the attempts by neoconservatives to bully, threaten and cajole wealthy white women back to the kitchen and nursery are as much about racist panic as they are about reinstituting a social order which only ever worked for men.
.. women everywhere are simply going on strike, and it is a strike the like of which society has barely contemplated. It is distributed and dispersed, and the picket lines begin at the door of every household and the threshold of every human heart.
Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920
Dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, American men in the late nineteenth century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. One form of this new manly culture, developed out of the Protestant churches, was known as muscular Christianity. In this fascinating study, Clifford Putney details how Protestant leaders promoted competitive sports and physical education to create an ideal of Christian manliness.
MCC helps reduce tensions with LOST sheep
Now it’s worse. Syrians vie with Lebanese for seasonal and day labor jobs. Prices for everything are higher because of increased demand, but Syrians are more likely to get the support of nongovernmental organizations.
Not surprisingly, a number of Lebanese who were struggling to provide for their families before the Syrians arrived are more than a little annoyed that making a living is even harder now.
Why Are More Women Than Men on Instagram?
“Young women dominate Instagram and visual platforms in general. Instagram gives you the power to modify your appearance in a way that’s practically on par with makeup and other beauty products,” said Rachel Simmons, a gender researcher who has written extensively on teen girls, referring to the flattering tools that make photos look flawless.
.. Katrin Tiidenberg, sociologist and Internet scholar at Tallinn University, says more women may use Instagram because mothers, in particular, have historically been responsible for family photos in many cultures.
.. Tiidenberg says dates back to the 19th century, when upper class women took pictures of their family and friends and made elaborate albums that included paintings, drawings, and cutouts from photos.
.. This is where Instagram can veer into the territory of envy baiting and plays into the trap of chasing “effortless perfection”—a term coined by Duke University researchers in 2003 to capture the pressure women feel to be beautiful, in shape, popular, intelligent, and accomplished without any visible effort to put forth. In reality, of course, maintaining an enviable Instagram feed—perfectly staged vacation photos with the sun hitting you just so, or the ultimate flattering selfie that showcases your best side—does take a lot of work. Read: many snaps of the camera from different angles and then running them through the right filter.