[perfect neutron In Comrade Keith White's article on…]
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perfect neutron In Comrade Keith White's article on Helen Keller (SP 204) there appeared a very dubious sentence:
«With the decline of the IWW in the early 1920s Helen Keller's socialist . writing becomes much less sharp and increasingly mixed in with religion. She was, of course, well into her forties by that time."
It is the last line that concerns me. Is it intended to suggest that because of her age (and what is "well into" 40s?) it is more understandable that she should become increasingly interested in religion at the expense of socialism?
If so, it seems to be dangerously near • a particularly insidious form of sexist caricature.
This is the notion that women at 40 are well past their susceptible to mysticism. or religion.
I've never seen such an argument used to excuse the degenerate political failings of male political figures who are well past forty.
The bizarre assumption that being over 40 is some sort of handicap is simply not applied to men. For them it is seen as developed "maturity"
It is only applied to women, whose intellect as a result of pernicious sexism, is regarded in the same way as the question of their sexuality: at forty they are supposedly "past it", = and able to look forward only to churchgoing or being a graceful granny!
I hope Comrade Keith White did not intend the comment in this way as those of our readers "well into 40" could be justifiably irritated by it.
Yours, AMS