tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post1071392947322965426..comments2024-01-08T00:08:53.008+00:00Comments on ombhurbhuva: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmanombhurbhuvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-42552881789886707322013-05-27T23:33:46.534+01:002013-05-27T23:33:46.534+01:00Gilman wrote:
How about idiots? They are no g...Gilman wrote:<br /><br /> How about idiots? They are no good to themselves or to anyone<br /><br /> else, and they are, on the contrary, an injury . . . . We talk of “the<br /><br /> sanctity of human life[,]” and we are right. Human life is sacred,<br /><br /> far too sacred to be allowed to fall into hideous degeneracy. If we<br /><br /> had proper regard for human life we should take instant measures<br /><br /> to check supply of the feeble-minded and defective persons.148<br /><br />By the early 1920s, Gilman was routinely advocating for eugenic causes,<br /><br />particularly for laws against interracial mixing, in major American<br /><br />magazines. (end quote from EUGENIC FEMINISM: MENTAL HYGIENE, THE<br />WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR<br /> EUGENIC LEGAL REFORM, 1900-1935 by<br /> MARY ZIEGLER*<br /><br /><br />Gilman was not to know where this would lead in the Nazi dispensation. Perhaps the greater rate of abortion amongst African American is an indication of a continued agenda in the U.S. Some people in that community feel that this is the caseombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-19337781173590512262013-05-27T19:11:26.879+01:002013-05-27T19:11:26.879+01:00The last time this sort of thing was in the news w...The last time this sort of thing was in the news was when The Bell Curve was ringing alarms. Eugenics is making a comeback. I refuse to extrapolate from supposed scientific data to policy recommendations, and I am suspicious of the data, but it is amusing (in a grim sort of way) to see how quickly the camps change their stripes depending on whether the "science" matches their preferences. skholiasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05410057905377189336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-17790715591534638412013-05-27T07:55:33.166+01:002013-05-27T07:55:33.166+01:00John:
It appears to be a matter of study shopping ...John:<br />It appears to be a matter of study shopping but the common factor is the seeming stupidity of those races that swarm in a perilous fashion. They are also dangerous and volatile and demented attacks like the one in Woolwich in England are exemplary whereas British Nationalists stabbing someone with a turban is ordinary thuggery and not a headline. ombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-33393250397730005962013-05-27T01:40:13.719+01:002013-05-27T01:40:13.719+01:00I was under the same impression. The Flynn effect ...I was under the same impression. The Flynn effect shows about a 3 point per decade gain in IQ scores, with increases being larger at the lower end of the distribution where the supposedly stupid fertile immigrant women would cluster. ktismaticshttp://ktismatics.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-65165646248062868472013-05-26T20:13:18.004+01:002013-05-26T20:13:18.004+01:00 John:
I was under the impression that I.Q. was ... John:<br />I was under the impression that I.Q. was actually on the rise, that somehow we were all getting smarter or at least getting better at the tests. Only the “lesser breeds without the law” were dropping behind according to some who take a racial view of intelligence. I believe you. I was looking at a register of shops and trades from 1870 from my very small town, hardly 15,000 pop. At that time. The numbers of crafts and trades that were practised was extraordinary. Now all work is designed to be as dummy-proof as possible . Use it or lose it may apply to the intelligence as well. ombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-41215956735873676032013-05-26T18:47:51.491+01:002013-05-26T18:47:51.491+01:00I was hoping that a contemptuous Mrs. Danvers woul...I was hoping that a contemptuous Mrs. Danvers would not step out of the shadows to reveal that I am not Rebecca... <br /><br />Thumbs up from me also on Wide Sargasso Sea. You know, there is a neo-reactionary (neo-fascist) movement out there asserting that on genetic grounds certain races or genders or nationalities are more violent, more stupid, less ambitious, perhaps also more prone to insanity, ultimately more deserving of being under the thumb of Mr. Rochester and the superior gene pool that spawned him. The neo-reacties are pointing smugly to a recent study indicating that, based on historical data on reaction times and the statistical correlation of reaction time to general intelligence, the average IQ in the West has declined 14 points over the past 150 years. The author attributes this drop to a dilution of the gene pool: intelligent (white Western European) women have fewer children compared to less intelligent immigrant women.ktismaticshttp://ktismatics.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-63053550020507170432013-05-26T18:03:12.169+01:002013-05-26T18:03:12.169+01:00Sorry about that John, once you read something ...Sorry about that John, once you read something 'as' it seems to stay 'as'. And thanks.<br /><br />Skh.:<i>The Wide Sarragossa Sea</i> is a really good novel, quite short, her best work I think. It's a while since I read it but it's mostly about the time in Jamaica and the various traumatic events that perhaps exacerbated a natural propensity or so Rochester came to think. <br /><br />I wasn't aware of the fuss about the D.S.M. until I googled it. Do they really think shyness is a clinical condition?ombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-91166032513369191582013-05-26T15:59:05.984+01:002013-05-26T15:59:05.984+01:00I think you mixed up who had just commented and wh...I think you mixed up who had just commented and who was about to. Or maybe you had already read what I'm typing here. Anyway, it's interesting to re-read TYW in light of the recent kerfuffle over the DSM-V. When I first read this story back in my too-cool 20's, I did not appreciate its art, the, ahem, creepy way it insinuates its madness; and the wretched spectacle of the kind-hearted and patronizing "help" of the strong male eventually fainting away. <br /><br />Om., or ktismatics -- either of you read Rhys' <i>Wide Sargasso Sea</i>? (I haven't).skholiasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05410057905377189336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-61385239174730142062013-05-24T19:04:01.046+01:002013-05-24T19:04:01.046+01:00Thanks Skholiast. Put upon Jane seems to attract ...Thanks Skholiast. Put upon Jane seems to attract a lot of movies. I couldn't possibly comment on why that might be the case, the second wives fear of the 'attic' must play a part. She who must be burnt out!ombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7781646534201708629.post-6958039746185349452013-05-23T22:05:28.710+01:002013-05-23T22:05:28.710+01:00A superb treatment. Coincidentally last night we b...A superb treatment. Coincidentally last night we began watching what I presume is still the latest cinematic adaptation of Jane Eyre -- it's quite good.ktismaticshttp://ktismatics.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com