Talent, Skill, Popularity, and Misogyny: A Feminist Critique

[Kionon]

AMVGuide, the whole "put it in your pipe and smoke it" was just a generic idiom. It didn't mean you specifically. I was really addressing everyone who believes that human biology is entirely dimorphic and that differences in chromosomes and sexual characteristics are exceedingly rare. They're not exceedingly rare. They're not even that uncommon.

Each individual chromosomal difference or hormonal development difference is, in and of itself, a small percentage of the population, but if you look at all possible differences together, you actually find a fairly significant portion of people who are better seen not as 100% male or 100% female, but some mix of the two, even if it's something like 10%/90% or 70%/30%. In many cases the genes don't even have the final say; there are men walking around right now with two X chromosomes, and they don't even know it. On the other hand, some genes can cause serious, serious physical differences which are obvious to everyone. And a great many people are somewhere in between with "hints" or "evidence" of some non-dimorphic development.

As I recently discussed with another editor in a private conversation: hormones are not to be trifled with. If they are out of balance, bad things can happen. Not just mentally, but physically as well. But hormones don't change one's gender. Children usually know their gender, regardless of which gender that happens to be, by about five or six years old, and this is long before they get the flush of hormones that accompanies puberty. It's also known that intentionally unbalancing someone's hormones will make them feel much worse, while balancing someone's hormones will make them feel better. Trying to change someone's gender by messing around with hormones is BAD JUJU. You can only try to bring hormones into balance vis a vis the already constructed gender.

I definitely believe (in fact, I have empirical proof) that hormone balances affect our moods, our actions, our thought patterns, and our perceptions, but it doesn't seem to affect our gender. You can't induce "female identity" by tossing in more estrogen, and you can't induce "male identity" by tossing in more testosterone. All you'll do, if you give the wrong person the wrong hormones is cause to feel really, really, really terrible. That said, I am in agreement that hormone balances can indeed (and I think I said this) affect how we create art.

[AMVGuide]

Oh for sure. I don't want to give the wrong impression that people should take Testosterone or Estrogen supplements; but rather to be aware of it's influence on feelings of aggression, shyness, dominance, submission, etc...

Not to say there are defined links between emotions and certain hormone balances; yet I think most people are aware that there are correlations. Now, the neat thing is people can achieve better hormone balance through natural means like: exercise, sleep, diet, recreational sports-- even a massage can do wonders to work stagnant hormones out of various lymph nodes in the body.

After these type of activities, hormone balance is all shook up; and it can shake up your ideas too --for any creative work-- like writing, music, or... even AMVs

[Kionon]

Not to say there are defined links between emotions and certain hormone balances; yet I think most people are aware that there are correlations.

We can (and do) have empirical evidence of direct causation for specific individuals. There are quite a few individuals in the various AMV communities (most of them probably women) who have seen relief from both mental and physical issues by bringing their hormones into balance. I'm one of them, of course, but I'd bet I'm not the only in this thread, let alone on the forums or on the Org in general.

But now we're sort of talking in circles, as fascinating as this stuff is to me personally; your point stands in direct contrast to both Beo and Castor: hormone differences do affect creativity, and that means AMVs. It isn't where I was going with the original essay, of course, but it's a valid observation for General AMV, no matter what the naysayers say.

Naysayers gonna nay.

[AMVGuide]

hmm... I wouldn't quite say my view is in contrast to anyone's viewpoint:
After all, what is balance for one person, is imbalance for another.

[Otohiko]

After some consideration, I'm moving the thread to general discussion, since it's not directly about AMV-making but rather about community/social issues that are more appropriate here.

[post-it]

about bloody time; self contentedness has no value beyond 4 years old! THx

[dreamawake]

tl;dr

applying this theory to everything under the sun exposes it to be complete balderdash

good work

this.

[seasons]

tl;dr

applying this theory to everything under the sun exposes it to be complete balderdash

good work

this.

thanks for playing, better luck next time

[JaddziaDax]

Thing is, to me as well, the theory does seem to come off really ridiculous when you apply it to everything and all situations. Sometimes it's not patriarchy to blame. Sometimes it's just lack of social skills.

[Kitsuner]

Thing is, to me as well, the theory does seem to come off really ridiculous when you apply it to everything and all situations. Sometimes it's not patriarchy to blame. Sometimes it's just lack of social skills.

Don't start awkward-shaming now~