The Master and the Slave - MILF version

Demotivational poster

LOL, don't get too excited! We are not doing 50 Shades of Badly Written Dom/sub stuff in here.


At one university where I was working, I saw an email come round from an eminent and notoriously grumpy Prof saying: "Can anyone explain to me what postmodern feminism is? It sounds like a load of b@ll0cks to me but I challenge you to convince me otherwise." Or words to that effect <snerk>.

I naturally was a little bit interested by this, being a postmodern feminist myself. (Er, in a casual flighty sort of way when not doing my serious work of scrubbing floors and tending to kittens, of course.) None of the eminent and notoriously grumpy postmodern feminist Prof.s picked up the flung glove so I went: "La la la, I will have a chat to you about it if you like."

Well dahlinks, I am quite good at handling grumpy old men (wink), as it were (wink). We got on nicely. I am not going to explain postmodern feminism here cuz that is a long story. I am going to tell you about Feminist Standpoint Theory cuz it may shed some light on Baronial behaviours.

Hegel with some students (all 'he's -
he he he LOL)

The reason I am telling you about this grumpy old Prof is that I also explained Feminist Standpoint Theory to him, and I said: "It draws on Hegel's concept of the Master/Slave dialectic." "Ohhhh!" he said in huge relief. "Hegel." It was like, thank God for that. It was all thought up by a grumpy old white man after all. ROFLOL!

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr.
from Wikipedia.

Now, Henry Louis Gates Jr. says, when white writers refer to white philosophers' ideas, they are signifiying the work. When a black person does it they are accused of COPYING and not thinking for themselves at all at all. Gates argues, No, they are parodying: Signifyin(g) on the signifying, as in The Signifying Monkey. 

The grumpy old Prof took it that this bunch of ditzy wimmin just COPIED their idea off of Hegel and he was greatly relieved to hear that.

So what was Hegel's great idea that these women copied.

Hegel argues that in a relationship of power (and cuz we are postmodern, right? we know that all relationships are all about power) there is the Master, who was willing to die rather than be enslaved, and the Slave, who went: "Oh wimpy wimpy me! I would rather live," so he gets enslaved. Mmmm ... we do not have the input here of the millions of actual slaves who did die in the disgusting inhuman conditions of the Atlantic passage from Africa to America so let's put that one to one side.

The Master has power. He is all like, Ha ha! you do things how I want them done cuz I am the Master here. (They are all 'he' in Hegel of course .) In order for the Slave to do it in the way the Master wants, the Slave has to know what it is the Master wants. So the Master knows what he wants, and the Slave knows what he - the Slave - wants (but he isn't going to get it). And the Slave also has to know what the Master wants cuz otherwise he is dead meat, he failed to do the ribeye steak just so like the Master likes it and did not even make proper chips (that's fries to our American friends) to go with it, he made mashed potato cuz he thought that would be healthier and it is but it is not what the Master wanted.

Geddit?

From this blog.

The feminists saw this dialectic and thought there was something in it. (A dialectic is a sort of relationship, my dear. It is like ooh there is this thing: the thesis, and there is something else: the antithesis, and you put them together to fight it out then you get the synthesis when you stick together all the bloody limbs that are left over at the end of the fight.) The feminists said: Hmmm, this is interesting. The Master has power while the Slave has more knowledge. The Slave knows his situation and he also knows the Master's situation. What a dilemma.

From NaturePlanetInfo

What the Standpoint Theory Feminists suggest is that if you are going to do a study on gender relations it is no use to ask a lot of men, cuz they will just say: "What? What? Why is my effing ribeye steak done rare when I like it medium?" OK, LOL, what seriously happens is something called the God Trick. Men do a study and they are like: Oh, I am like God, hovering above the lowly objects of the study. Ommmmm, womennnnn, let's see - they are like little ants scurrying around below me. Men do not understand what is going on at all at all cuz they take it totally for granted that there will be a ribeye steak done medium when they go home, they don't include in the study that women are running about doing all this stuff to keep them comfortable - what what? that is just wallpaper, man! I am not going to include that in my serious study which shows women are a bunch of ditzs who lose all their employability while scuzzing about the house doing nothing.

Women are the ones who know how it all works, they are in the standpoint (geddit?) of the Slave. If you want a good study on gender relations ask women. They have knowledge both of what they need and what the man needs, even if they can't use this knowledge to get power. That is the trick. How can knowledge be turned into power? cuz in this instance it is not power.

So-o-o, this is the thing that is happening in my home - in spite of the fact that the Baron frequently protests his feminist credentials and I have to be quite careful not to say things at academic parties like, "Yeah, one time we moved house - he was away at a conference! And I was jolly glad cuz it meant he paid for professional removal people to pack up the house instead of insisting he help me do it in a totally useless way."

Roger Stowell likes The 
chocolate pudding so 
much he cooks it himself! 
Gasp! (And eats it all.)

In my house, the Baron goes around saying: "Woe is me, I work so ha-a-ard." He looks like a kicked puppy if the supper is not something he likes because I thought we would have something Piglet and I like to eat. Yah yah, I know everything he likes to eat! When I first met him I made sure of him by cooking him his favourite meat and a chocolate pudding so delicious that it is guaranteed to make men fall in love with you even if you have four eyes protruding from your head on tentacles. The Baron sometimes comes plaintively along going, "Is there a clean shirt around?" (but not very often cuz there always is one). He is like really pained and surprised if things do not automatically happen how he likes them to be. And he is always going, "What would you like to do, what would you like to watch, what would you like me to buy?" cuz he has no knowledge of what I need.

For a long time I was not acksherly sure how I like things to be cuz I was so fixed on sorting out the Baron and the Piglet. Then there was a time I was 'ill'. The docs said (I mean the medical docs, cuz I am just a PhD although if you want me to look at your leg, I am willing - wink) that I did have a virus but it shouldn't be making me so tired. Yet I could not get out of bed cuz my legs gave way under me if I did. I had to lie about, reading and cruising the internet while I thought about publishing my stories and that was when I remembered that I like to write and flirt.

And now that's what I do .