https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-apocalypse-myths/
"Right now, with over a third of the world on some sort of lockdown,
with the entire world going through some version of the same crisis at
once, we are suddenly frantic to touch one another. It seems more
important to reconnect with friends. It seems more important than ever
to be sweet and silly. We all know someone who’s stuck in a house by
themselves, trying not to go bonkers. We all know someone who’s stuck in
a house with someone awful, trying to survive the hotboxing of an
already toxic relationship. And many of us, by now, know someone who’s sick.
Shit-hits-the-fan escapism—a big part of the alt-right imaginary—never
predicted this. I have lurked in countless stagnant ideological internet
back alleys where young men excitedly talk about the coming end of
civilization, where men can be real men again, and women will need
protectors. How inconvenient, then, that when this world-inverting
crisis finally showed up, we weren't given an enemy we could fight with
our hands (wash your hands).
The end of the world has never been quite so simple a mythos for women,
likely because most of us know that when social structures crack and
shatter, what happens isn’t an instant reversion to muscular
state-of-naturism. What happens is that women and carers of all genders
quietly exhaust themselves filling in the gaps, trying to save as many
people as possible from physical and mental collapse. The people on the
front line are not fighters. They are healers and carers. The very
people whose work is rarely paid in proportion to its importance are the
ones we really need when the dung hits the Dyson. Nurses, doctors,
cleaners, drivers. Emotional and domestic labor have never been part of
the grand story men have told themselves about the destiny of the
species—not even when they imagine its grave."
Via
libramoon@pluspora.com.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
