MeerderWörter’s Comments (group member since Jan 08, 2016)

MeerderWörter’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

My dad studied physics, and yes, sometimes he likes to point it out again. Btw, he told me about Lise Meitner and stressed the point how important she was.

I don't know if this is the right place to put it, but the content of the video should alarm us all.
Twitter only takes down 40% of the content that is being reported. But watch it yourself, it's scary:
https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/895...

David wrote: "This is for MeerderWörter
I have to disagree. Without the radical side, nothing can get done. The radicals are the ones who bring attention to a problem, be that attention for good or ill. For ins..."

I see what you mean with the "radical side", and I agree with you. I tho, was speaking of a certain kind of feminists, and their label is actually radical feminism. You might want to look that term up, and I know one thing for sure: I cannot agree less with their view on what causes all the problems in the gender struggle. Because in my view they are pretty narrow-minded, and just fight a small proportion of the actual problem.

Lil wrote: "I just want to say how much I enjoy being a part of this group. (I'm a relatively new member, this is my second book). It has opened me up to reading books that I wouldn't normally have picked off ..."

Welcome to OurSHAREDShelf!

We grow in strength the more people we have - the more our beliefs are challenged and our knowledge is increased, the more powerful we are. Together we are a current, but a current consists of many drops of water.
Contribute as much as you want, it is really appreciated.

Keith wrote: "The seven tenants are the cornerstone of feminism and OSS. None is more important than an other and all are interconnected.

For all that, I keep coming back to "listen to what others have to say"...."

Wow, they really are from around the world, and do important work.
And I agree with you, Keith, that speech is amazing! But I think the speech in which she nailed it all was the one in front of the UN in September 2014 (and she showed quite a few of the tenants when doing so)



Ashna wrote: "Keith wrote: "The seven tenants are the cornerstone of feminism and OSS. None is more important than an other and all are interconnected.

For all that, I keep coming back to "listen to what others..."

Keep us updated, I'd love to hear about it. And that quote is awesome! Yes, we do have a voice, and we might as well use it!

Meelie wrote: "Hey Meerder!!

Whilst this is (an amazing!!) book review, we're popping this over to Book Suggestions. Is this something you were wanting to add to the OSS book shelf?

Thanks!

Meelie"

Of course pop it over to Book Suggestions! I was writing this at 5 in the morning, nearly pulling an all nighter. My brain wasn't the best working anymore.

If you'd add it, this would make my day. It's the one book with the one main character I could relate to the most, out of all the books I've ever read. And it shows, women are more diverse than at first thought.
I wanna read it all over again!

XOXY
Meerder

My dear OSS family!

I know I should be in bed since at least three hours, but this book simply didn't let me sleep. (It's 5:30 am now, Mum won't be happy about this). I've read this 328 pages book in English plus Author's note plus Acknowledgements in less than 36 hours, no, I didn't read it, I ploughed through it.

I've always heard the discussions about representation, and I could never totally get them. I knew it was important, but only now do I really get it. I never had a problem when a boy was in the lead role, because for me it was always clear that I can do the same things he does. Only now, that I've read a story about my kind that has touched me like no other story has before, do I understand it. Now I know that I can do anything, and only biology and society set my limits. And these limits can be pushed.

"When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend.
But a visit to the doctor throws everything she thought she knew about her perfect life into question. Kristin discovers that she is intersex, which means that tho she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts".
Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?
Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl or something in between.

This book achieved something only one book ever did before - it made me shed tears. Only Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides could achieve this before (when I read books I curse and am angry, but I'm really not a crier). With Kristin, I could relate so much, that it sometimes frightened me, and then, no two intersex stories are alike, because no two humans are alike. This book is a rollercoaster-story to read really, because it deals with the feelings of a person that has been betrayed, in maybe one of the most fundamental ways they could be; it deals with the question: Am I a boy or a girl? It shows how awkward suddenly everything is, from a normal word like woman, to having to choose between man and woman, and what if oneself is neither? Or is oneself really neither?

I love how accurate the story is, and that real-life examples have been included in the storyline in a way that really fits it. I can't find one tiny thing that I think this book is not right in, because in the way it was told, Kristin could literally walk the streets of New York, and none of us would notice it.

A book about trust, betrayal, finding oneself, starting anew and friendhip, it is the best book I have read this year, maybe the best book I have ever read.

To my dear intersex family:
If you like to read fiction, then you should read this book! It might not be the best to read when you just found out, because there are quite a few paragraphs in it that might be triggering if we still deal with all the troubles there are for a small amount of time. But when you somewhat settled, my family, then this book is perfect.
It made me shed tears, it made me laugh at jokes maybe only we truly understand, and, as I said, it maybe is the best book I have so far read in my life.

Now, I can only say thank you, my OurSharedShelf family!

XOXY
Meerder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt7be...

Transgender Cyclist Kristen Worley Settles Human Rights Application;)

Finally, things are in the move. It's a bit short-sighted to only use testosterone as a means to sort competitors into men and women. It really is.

Lauren wrote: "When I am playing soccer sometimes the boys never pass to me. It is really annoying. They start passing to us when they cannot see anyone else."

That sucks.

Gerd wrote: "Couldn't recall her name but then Barb Taub's blog came to my aid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Me...

A scientist who played a key role in developing the theoretics for nuclear fisson."

Ah, my dad is so fond of his colleague (he studied theoretical physics, and sometimes jokes that Merkel is by definition a colleague of him;) )

EDIT: Why did I never learn about her in school, I went to a high school specializing in nature sciences.

Susi wrote: "Thanks for your perspectives, everyone. I agree, there are definitely positive feminist messages in the movie. I guess what worries me a little about all the hype of this movie as a feminist triump..."

THIS is a really good quote.

I agree with Ashna, Gerd and Winston, that movie is really cool in many ways.

Benarji wrote: "@emma if a woman feels to be helped by a man is being a feminist, that's wrong. For more normal cases, it is known as ego. Everybody needs help. Being strong doesn't mean doing everything on your o..."

Well, it's not like she didn't rely on others. The thing is, she was capable of fighting her own way, without having to rely on others. She didn't need to be saved by a man, that's the point.

Yes, I consider it pretty feminist, and to be honest, she lived on Themyscira (maybe the i and the y need to switch places, but never mind that), how could she have known snow? Also, I just came to the idea that she was born with all the knowledge of all the languages, not that she had to learn them.

James wrote: "David wrote: "Her reply was "Die. Kill yourself and make the world better for women everywhere." I was eleven at the time. "

Wow...just wow."

Radical feminists suck!

David wrote: "I'm probably going to catch hell for this, but I feel it is necessary for statistical purposes, if nothing else, to assign obvious sex to a newborn. This is not to say the child should be raised wi..."

Emma wrote: "For statistical purposes, couldn't their be a third option of gender that children could be assigned at birth? Such as intersex?"

I've given all of this a little more thought yesterday night (a night owl reading None of the Above I was;) ) and I came, for myself to the following situation:
We're talking about sex here, not gender, first thing. And I agree, at first sight it might be a good idea to assign everyone a sex at birth. Problem is, 1 in 2000 infants is born with genitalia that cannot really assigned a sex at birth, because it is too much in-between male and female. Now, we could assign them intersex, couldn't we? But then, this is somewhat a forced outing, and in the societies that we live today, where intersex is still such a difficult issue, I'd rather not have someone outed, without them even knowing. With something so personal, it should always lie with the individual themselves, to decide if, and if, who to tell.

Tricky question, tricky, tricky.

Something that just came to my mind:

"It's easier to dig a hole than build a pole"
~treatment of intersex people when it comes to genital surgery, it's pretty disgusting to think about it, that way

I'm throwing in a question here:
Do you think it is sexist when you are assigned no sex at birth at all?
Is that sexist or not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elbqE...

These are the seven tenants of feminism that OSS embodies. What do you folks think of it?

Samantha wrote: "Damn, I'm a bit bummed I didn't read The Handmaid's Tale when it was Emma's pick. I'm curious to see what the next month will bring. :)"

You can still read it, it's not like we have a reading order or such.

Debbie wrote: "However, i am still very impressed and I am trying to understand why does the History seem to recall Sophie better than her brother (who started the movement) ? Do you have any clue about that ?"

I have no clue about that, but maybe it is because she was a woman? But then, most people that we now know of that were in the resistance (at least the ones I know about), were men, so maybe it's because she shines brighter between all those men? I really have no idea.
Hans said in the court:"Today you hang us and tomorrow you will be it".

No, I haven't seen that movie, but I've read a biography about Sophie Scholl, which was quite impressive.

I'm always glad when I can serve this group.

Ana Paula wrote: "So many good comments have been already added to this thread, I can only contribute with my personal experience.

My first career (and my school degree) was Advertising - incidentally, a choice he..."

Thank you for sharing with us Ana Paula. You raised a very important point in my opinion, which is that not ALL women are the same, we differ very much. The important thing is to recognise this and listen to one another and see how we can help each other, but first the privileged ones need to listen to the not privileged ones, and then act, not the other way around. You brought up the struggle of class, and again, I think this is really important, because we tend to think always of the people of our own demographic, and of course it is important to do that as women, but we need to do more than that, we need to look beyond what we know, and I think to share your perspective, to be honest, I am grateful about it, because it gives me another chance to broaden my understanding of and my fight for feminism.

Some books ring true to oneself more than others, but what I am really grateful for in this group is that it is diverse in its chosen books, yeah, quite a bit.