9. THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE ON PEAK OIL
Some peak oilers think street lights are a waste, and should be eliminated. I couldn't help but think how this would come into conflict with, for example, on-campus feminists who want to *increase* the number of street lights as a countermeasure against rape and sexual assault.
Peak oil has a strong male bias. They want to get back to basics and eliminate wasteful electrical appliances. Guys: you may not need that appliance, but how does your wife/girlfriend/mother, who actually uses it, feel about getting rid of it?"
It reminds me of the program "Frontier House" which I saw on public TV. In that program, a number of modern families were selected to go back and live on the land in Frontier style for a summer. No make-up, no conveniences, no energy other than that available to the pioneers (wood and kerosene, I believe). You can read about the program here:
Source
Anyway, the eye-opener about that series was how hard the women's work was in those days. They were washing dishes/clothes, fetching water, cooking, sewing, milking, cleaning-up non-stop from dawn to dusk everyday. It was totally exhausting and monotonous and they complained about it. The men, on the other hand, were outside chopping wood all day and building, and generally enjoyed it and had a favorable view of the whole experience.
That's part of the male bias of peak oil. Men think it's fun to rough it and go back to nature, and shoot guns in a Mad Max scenario. It's like playing cowboys and indians. Women, on the other hand, don't like it, because they can see themselves in the backdrop of this male fantasy, getting raped or rubbing their fingers to the bone on a washboard.
So my point is this: It may very well be that an energy surplus is a precondition of emancipating women from household slavery. So when we lose that surplus, how are you men going to explain the need for drudgery to your women? They may *demand* that you fix the problem by finding more energy, not by rationalizing how important it is for them to be a drudge again.
posted by JD @ 3:22 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
As usual JD gets everything ass-backwards. Peak oil is not some gig men are foisting on women, its a geological reality men AND women will have to get used to. How they do that is up to them, but gender politics wont stop oil depletion any more than they stop the sun coming up.
I'll leave aside the hilarious aspects of this man claiming to provide THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE ON PEAK OIL via street lighting and clothes washing.
"As usual, JD gets everything ass backwards" -- just the sort of superlative BS that makes me sick of the doomer types of PO.com. He never said that PO would be a non-issue for men, just that there would be unique issues that women would have to worry about (the washing comment notwithstanding, as I think society has advanced socially where the man would have to help with those chores as well :) )
And why, exactly, would the drudge stuff belong to women only? Hello, it is not "pioneer house." It's the 21st century and both sexes will have to shift the daily drudge. We'll still find ways to make the living worthwhile.
Liam... I agree.
I am pretty upset that our governments are not talking about peak oil enough or developing "Plan B"... and I'm a bloke.
I like my washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, TV and beer and pizza.
I like watching the Space Shuttle shoot off into space, or watching advances in nano-tech. I am a peaknik. But I am not a doomer... even though I fear the Mad Max scenario. There's nothing fun in starving to death! So I campaign for public awareness of the DOE, CHEVRON and EXXON BACKED REALITIES of peak oil. As I've said before, the Queensland Labor Government have a peak oil taskforce running, and it will be very interesting to hear what they have to say. (You can hear the Labor member running the taskforce, Andrew McNamara, on a JJJ radio podcast on the home page at www.eclipsenow.org )
To those sick peakniks that are sitting on the Titanic, urging on the iceberg... this is not some exciting action movie where all the bad guys get taken out and only the good guys are left standing! If you find yourself actually urging peak oil on... take a deep breath and try and regain your human compassion for your loved ones... (if you have any).
Yes I am resolved to the Greater Depression that is coming. Yes it's going to be nasty and probably begin when the airlines go bankrupt.
But Mad Max? There's a vast difference between the Greater Depression and Mad Max. Do you think people WANT to see civilization, law and order and food supplies shatter?
well said!
you're a piece of shit jd
Post a Comment
<< Home