5.10.12 Adam on Chelsea Lately, 3rd QUEENBERT SHOW

Well, there are several essays, books, and at least two college classes I took which point out the problematic nature of this approach when seeing it as a current reality rather than a future hope.

There's no real way to shortcut the discussion into a few paragraphs on a forum except that to say that for me, it ignores unconscious privilege, the fact that there are very real economic, social, and legal advantages and disadvantages, not to mention issues of personal safety tied to race, gender and sexual orientation that play out in the real world. For example "White Pride" and "Black Pride" in the real world meant two very very different things historically. One is associated with neo-nazi groups, the other with civil rights struggles.

As a woman, I can find it empowering not to solely define myself by my gender (and I usually don't, it's one part of my identity), but that doesn't mean that I'm not fully aware that there are disparities in men's and women's pay for equivalent work, or that the representation of women in the upper echelons of business, politics, or the arts is still woefully unbalanced. And I'll get to the polls in a hot minute as part of the League of Women Voters when someone tries to legislate about what I can do with my female body.

There are the labels others use to diminish you and the labels you adopt and embrace as part of your identity and to create power out of disempowerment.

To bring this back to the discussion, I bought Adele's album before Rolling in the Deep hit the radio. I've listened to it a couple of times and enjoyed it, but now it's mainly background music to dinners with my in-laws visiting, which kind of says it all.