Aaron has been surfing and thinking. Hey. Here are some links:

1) Another air rage story, because I am fascinated by the idea that airlines bring out in us something that we repress in other contexts. This is the same thing, I think, as "Falling Down," as the postal worker, as the violence in offices. Something about the dehumanizing nature of airports, offices, of systems which put people in small spaces and expect them not to do anything, which turn them into mental machines abstracted from their bodies, and put them into some abstract system which is illogical. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/11/30/ruckus.aboard.02/index.html

2) But really, I am thinking more about relationships. Air Rage is just one of those memes that I try to notice when it pops up again and again. For example, the company that invented the virtual pet Tagomitchi (or whatever it is), now has virtual girlfriends: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40369,00.html

What about people who have their Everquest characters marry other Everquest characters? That's, say, two hours an evening you're spending with your virtual spouse. Should a spouse be upset about that? Do we now need a back-formation like "snail-mail"? real-girlfriend? offline-spouse? snail-girlfriend? What if I have two virtual girlfriends? Am I obligated to tell them about each other?

3) Women and the politics of the body: what is empowerment? Is it a woman who develops a web page about her vagina? No pictures, no pornography, nothing offensive. Purely educational-- she educates herself and shares that information with her audience She feels empowered, and so do at least some of her readers. Rebekah Jude, of rebekah.org, says it's one of her fave sites, and feels empowered by it. But would you be empowered by having a whole web page about your genitals, and having the whole world know about your personal relationship with your private parts? http://myvag.net/

What about this? Is this a resource for empowerment? Did you know it's run by a man? Does that knowledge change its empowering-ness in any way? This man is not a fetishist, and became interested in the subject of menstruation via his interest in gender studies and advertising history. However some of his most devoted readers are, indeed, men who happen to be menstruation fetishists. If it were started out of a sexual interest, even if it were non-pornographic, would it still be empowering? Where do you draw the line between celebration of the body and degredation of the body?
http://www.mum.org/

And this article. The practice it describes is odd, but it gives this particular group of women a greater degree of control over their bodies. It's easily related to traditional customs, and so doesn't incur great social opposition. It's certainly not what i'd consider empowering, but at the same time, if it gives the women more education and more control over what they want, I think that counts as empowerment. Or does it? http://www.fabulamag.com/bodies/bodies3.html

Does tradition empower or disenfranchise you? What about the Electoral College? That disempowers me, because as a resident of Massachussets, nobody campaigns for my vote-- MA just goes Democratic. Not, mind you that I dislike the direction of voting. It's that the probability of of any one voter, or group of voters, in MA mattering or having any relevance in a national election is less than that of Amazon turning a profit. The Dems can count on MA's votes, and therefore are free to ignore its concerns.

What are the sources of your power? of mine?

That's my thinkin' for the day.

Aaron Weber (electronic mail, December 5, 2000).

Editor's Note: If you have comments, please send them to Aaron Weber at chetohevia@yahoo.com or to george@loper.org, in which case the most representative will be posted on my web site with full attribution.