Hello World! I’m starting a new post as Nigel–the eponymous Nigel of feminism. Why there was a “notmy nigel” blog previously but was deleted by the WordPress editors, is unknown to me. I’d prefer that name, since it’s more universally known, but……
Not My Nigel (from http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/faq-what-do-you-mean-by-not-my-nigel-feminist-abbreviationsjargon/) “Not my Nigel” is shorthand for a common defensive reaction of many women to feminist observations and explanations of widespread sexist activity and sexist motivations, which is that while certainly some other men are oppressively sexist, their particular partners/sons/fathers/brothers couldn’t possibly be part of the problem
- i.e. “Not my Nigel! He’d never do anything like that”
or more invidiously
- “well sure, my Nigel says/does that but he doesn’t mean any harm by it”.
(The feminist response is that truly one has no idea what sexist activities one’s Nigel engages in when performing manliness to impress other men (you think all those gropers and harassers tell their wives/mothers/sisters what they do?) and that not meaning any harm because “boys will be boys” is exactly the root of the problem.)“
Well, I am Nigel. I’m just a middle-aged guy married to a feminist, who believes he understands the general concept and paradigm of “patriarchy”, but realizes that it’s impossible to see that paradigm from outside it–and hence is necessarily controlled by the memetic rules of that paradigm. That is, how can a man, especially, ever understand the full power patriarchal memes display to women? Or how his own language is controlled by patriarchal language? And, while he might think he is “nice”, “kind”, “pro-female”, etc.–how would he know?
I hope that future entries will further explicate the groping (uh-oh–is this a patriarchial-laden word?) understanding of anti-patriarchy. Especially since it seems impossible to escape it without inventing your own language, a la Mary Daly. More later, while I try to manage this blog.
