Anticipating Father's Day

Excerpt from a previous post  ~  

Purity Balls

A few days ago, I happened to see some new photos of fathers and daughters at purity balls by photographer David Magnusson from his book on the subject that will be available later this year. The portraits were featured on several online sites, but despite the “colorful” language of vulgarity in the commentary, this site shows more of the pictures in an easy-to-view format. Some of them look like the dads are getting ready to lead their girls off to the slaughter, or perhaps they were on their way to a funeral. Some of them actually remind me of a sick version of American Gothic, primarily because the poses don't look anything like ones that I find appropriate for fathers and daughters. I also can't get beyond why they all look so morbid in their expressions. ??? I'm also noted for my strong opinion about the depiction of such a ritual in Courageous, a Quiverfull Movement indoctrination film.

Tweet

More on Mistaking Metaphors for Maps and Territories: Why Patriarchy Misses the Point On Purity and Beyond

In the previous post, I mentioned an exchange I had with someone who stated that “the metaphor is not the map.” It came up in a discussion about how some in the artful side of science find solutions to problems, but not knowing everything about how they work, they “create” an explanation with little to know basis in fact. It's not honest to then teach these things to others as though their speculations or perhaps even their astute hypotheses are hard facts. I wrote to him to thank him for the axiom, and he told me about the original source.

The saying came from a scientist and philosopher named Alfred Korzybski who launched the study of how human understanding and the nervous system intersected, particularly concerning how language shapes our perceptions. He was a Polish-born Russian who served in World War I as an intelligence officer, but he became a citizen of the U.S. In 1940. (I'm certain that his experience expanded his interest in the subject.)

Tweet