Stress and Gender

I've got a cold. I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the pile of feminist and gender theory that has invaded my head. I'm getting smarter every day I think, but the more I read, the more I realize I don't know. A strange conundrum, indeed.

For instance, I was at "Housing Works" today, a really great not-for-profit used bookstore/cafe. The proceeds go to homeless people with HIV and AIDS. So I feel almost obligated to buy stuff. And buy I did. Because I feel like reading Hegel last semester wasn't enough, I purchased a copy of his Reason in History, forgetting that Hegel pisses me off. Actually, he doesn't piss me off. He just reminds me, again, of how much I don't know.

I also bought a copy of Rousseau's Confessions. Light summer reading. I continued with Butler's Gender Trouble while I was there. She's amazing. In fact, I think I love her. In the book, she basically calls for a shattering of the category of gender. Which is something I'm trying to do. Actually, I'd like to use the shattering of gender and sex and categories as a way to get to a dismantling of identity in general.

And I get to try to do this with words. I don't have to leave my desk. Have I mentioned that I've begun work on my thesis? The papers I'm working on -- well, I'm not really working on them at the moment so much as I'm reading too much, which is what is overwhelming me -- will all be in my thesis. So that's good.

School is over in five weeks. I don't know where I'll be living yet. That's a little stressful. Ok, notice the time. I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago. I am officially back to a "regular" sleeping pattern.