Why does Catherine Deveny get her crap published in The Age?

[Glockmeister]

heteronormative

wtf

i agree

[bubble sunglasses]

heteronormative

wtf

i agree

   i think wiki still exists

[Glockmeister]

heteronormative

wtf

i agree

   i think wiki still exists

nah, it magically disappeared when you used that word

[Velox]

Finally! A thread where I can express my dislike of deveny. Reading her columns always makes me angry

[costargh]

   which piece was about debutantes?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/this-is-one-ball-that-should-be-dropped/2008/03/04/1204402450848.html?page=fullpage

I could have sworn that earlier on in the year I posted my letter I sent in to the age in response to this article.
Anyway I did a search of my outbox and found my response. It's not exactly the most insightful response but some my points I think are still pretty valid.
Sent on March 7

Catherine Deveny’s views on Debutante balls (Opinion 5/3) and the response it provoked (Letters, 7/3) reminds us all that their will always be a few stone-age feminists who fail to see the modern day role of such traditional events. Debutante balls have manifested from their traditional “meat market” stereotypes into a pleasant celebration of adolescence.

Having partnered a wonderful young “woman” last year, I am happy to say that I have taken part in a Debutante ball. Such close association with the opposite sex naturally deepens your understanding of humanity and it is ridiculous to suggest that association with the Deb is “demeaning”. Equally, is it ridiculous to suggest that young women are “reduced” to “sex objects based on looks”. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Socialising is at the heart of the Debutante ball and whether we choose to dress up formally for a day is our decision.  Our society has changed. No longer are Debutante Balls a place to gender stereotype and moreso, they are no longer what history has painted them to be; a dreary rite of passage for a woman ready to be married off.

Maybe the problem that people have with Debutante balls stems from their own misconceptions. It is not the general society that has a problem with gender stereotypes; it is the individuals who relish every opportunity to point out that men are from Mars and that women are from Venus that continue to heighten animosity between genders.

Costa

[Eriny]

^ It is a good response. But I think the history is still important to some extent, at least it was for me. I didn't want to participate in something that have demeaned women in the past for a very long time, I wanted to create something new that didn't have all of those underlying meanings which I found to be problematic (I was involved in the anti-deb in high school). Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that people can choose to go to the deb and apply their own new meanings to it, I just found it too difficult a thought. And the way it was carried on about at my school made me feel as though feminism hadn't really moved on a great deal. And it was also really freaking expensive...

I think I discovered that men and women weren't that different not through forced activities like the deb, but through just casually hanging out with them. I think the formalities of the deb might be more likely to reinforce the difference than just regular interaction, because the deb makes one feel as though being around guys is something different and something to celebrate. It isn't really, I mean hanging out with guys is great, it's just that it ought to be commonplace and not always bogged down in crazy formalities.

[costargh]

The good thing about the deb however is that guys and girls are forced to interact. No doubt there are many people at each school who pretty much only socialise with their own gender. Eg. the blokey guys who hang around in big groups and barely talk to girls, and many girls who are scared or whatnot to talk to guys.

I've never has this problem so for me it wasn't so much about this. But I had the greatest time dancing and it was so enjoyable. No one at my school viewed it in its historical form and no one really ever thought about it in the way that the author has.

To me, it's like if a business used to make fur clothes but then after considering their morals and the direction of the company, the company changed into an anti-fur and animal loving company. The ethics of this company have (presumably) changed and you can see that lots of negatively viewed issues no longer haunt this company. Now, do you still choose to hold a grudge against them because of what the company used to represent?; a fur loving, animal hating company? Or do you take it upon yourself to distance the past from the present?

I know what I'd do... (if I happened to have a vagina and was an animal activist)