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oops. i just started telling about some dreams i've had, because they're all so weird and repetitive on a theme.
and i must confess, i do enjoy a good meme every now and again.
however, this dream is so sad. i feel like it calls out to every woman who feels trapped between a life of struggles and poverty, or "manning up" and joining and becoming part of a patriarchal society.
thanks for sharing this nightmare of sorts, and making us realize that there's a long way to go.
This dream is so, so true. Is it bad that I find it hilarious?
No! I'm glad you think it's hilarious! Steve and I have been laughing about this dream for *years*.
There's just not a lot of money to be made in feminism. Robin Morgan once said that when she would tour she would stay at the various houses of host feminists and, because everything was feminist and egalitarian, she'd eat vegan meals with lots of brown rice, then she'd have to do dishes, then she'd have to sleep on the floor, where she may or may not have to turn down some eager young female fan who wanted to sleep with her. After a few years she said she wanted nothing more than a filet mignon and a night at the Ritz.
But that's not all! There's also feminist infighting, and if you do something that makes one feminist happy, you piss off two more, and *none* of the anti-feminists support you, of course. Oh, and women don't make as much money, so they don't have as much to spend on your business as men do.
I could go on for *days* about how much subtext is in this damned dream.
Yup. And the thinking you're getting in with allies, that you don't have to explain yourself anymore, and getting a "fuck off, tool" instead. And the complaining about the moldy broken concrete instead of just picking up together and going after the beautiful twilit houses. Which of course is never as easy as it sounds, either.
Seriously, the more I read this, the more I giggle.
...or the expectation that feminism (or The Feminists, that mysterious cabal) is going to solve all your problems for you, rather than giving you the ideas and the tools that enable you to solve your own, and the disillusionment that comes with that....
oh whew! Cuz I laughed too. Oh boy did I ever. Ya know, this could be like one of those cult films that lives forever as people deconstruct it in a million different ways.
I didn't think it was funny. I thought it was sad. I figured the reason why the Feminist Acres was not taken care of was because they were too busy fighting "bigger battles". This is exactly what the anti-feminists have against us working outside the home - because society falls apart. They KNOW women make a HUGE contribution to society - they just want to be the ones to define women.
I think the people who knew me before I opened the store - who were around when I was designing it - are the people who are going to find it funny, like Krup and Morrigan.
I literally spent all my money - and a lot of the bank's too - on a store for feminist and feminist friendly women. What's incredible to me is that I only had *one* anxiety dream about it.
Oh, wow. I love your writing enough that I actually read your dream, though I never read dreams or memes.
It was lovely writing. But I didn't laugh. It was too naked, and it depressed me. And this is why I don't participate in the boards anymore.
Someday I'll find the humor again . . .
And my missing sense of humor, in itself, belongs in Feminist Acres, doesn't it?
You know what I got out of this dream? The key is the fetid, overflowing public toilet. A toilet that, no matter how badly you had to pee, you wouldn't be able to wrangle it. A toilet that stifled your bladder's urge to void...so that you could wake up and pee in your own non-overflowing toilet, rather than wetting the bed, which you'd risk if Feminist Acres had a clean toilet.
Is it just me and Mr. Tangerine who have the unsuitable-toilet dream?
Unsuitable Toilet is a very popular dream. Its variations include Overflowing Toilet and In Plain Sight Toilet.
Your dream makes my stomach hurt.
I'm a feminist, and when I married my all-time favorite feminist, I got to move into her beautiful Victorian house...
...which unfortunately isn't fixed up quite as nicely as we'd like.
Oh, well -- win some, lose some.
Hmmm. I haven't inflicted a dream on anyone since the first of the year and before that July....Maybe it is time again.
I used to have the classroom dreams until recently. Right after my being locked up for a bipolar episode, they just stopped coming alongside the airport going nowhere dreams. They never interested me much except that they caused me a great deal of anxiety.
Many of my dreams feature black people, who aren't antagonistic but often quite friendly. I also have dreams where I walk out of one scene into another quite different one -- like turning a corner in a supermarket and finding myself on a windswept hill.
Yeah, I am going to have to inflict my dreams on people again.
I am suddenly wraught with an urge to go read "Gate To Womens Country" again.
I loved that book.
Oh my god, I never thought about the toilet! I bet I did have to pee when I was asleep, and dreamed about that nasty toilet. That's awesome!
Steve loves the part about the unattainable blue houses (blue for boys!), and he thinks "feminist acres" came from the game of Life, where at the end you retire to "Millionaire Acres" behind the big gate. I used to love "Life" when I was a kid. We toyed around with the idea of making a feminist game of Life - "You are a Social Worker! Your salary is $20k a year, and you'll always be in a one-room apartment with six cats!" or "You are a college professor! You make $40k, but it takes you twice as long as your male peers to make tenure!"
But we figured nobody would buy it.
I remember laughing to the point of tears when you told me about Feminist Acres a while back. I agree with those who find it sad -- I think seeing it typed up in black & white (or black & sage green) presents the stark reality of how much this applies to feminism.
I react to this stuff the way I do most things -- I have to laugh, because laughing is more fun than crying.
If only my job weren't Feminist Acres, too. *grin*
I never knew that other people had the Unsuitable Toilet dream until recently.
ROFL.
It's an intentional community. No, it's a ghetto. Wait...no, it's intentional community. No, it's ghetto. then again, it's intentional. and on the third hand, does the gate keep people out out or in?
At any rate, you're a pillar of the community. So you're more than welcome, but then again, it's All Your Fault. 
And what else would it be called but Feminist Acres? There are SO many layers to this dream, there could be a semester's worth of material on it.
I always dream of shopping. I hate shopping irl.
strange, I laughed last night - mostly because of the history as you said, but when I went to sleep I did end up crying because it is true on way too many levels.
But the "you're a fucking tool" still does make me snicker.
While Overflowing Toilet and In Plain Sight Toilet (also known as Missing Door Toilet or Why Won't These People Leave Toilet) are important, Krupskaya forgot the High Toilet and Crap-Spattered Seat Toilet variations. With all these dreams, it's amazing I don't wake up at 4 a.m. to pee.
A sub-genre of Crap-Spattered-Seat Toilet, I've noticed, is the Full-Of-Used-Tampons-Smeary-Seat Toilet, usually found when Dream-I realize I've just started my period and don't have anything with me, and when Real-Life-I am within a day or two of getting my period.
I know I'm providing more analysis of toilet dreams than of the Feminist Acres dream, but the FA dream is almost too much. It's like a chocolate mousse in a chocolate shell with white chocolate shavings on it, dusted with cocoa and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Beautiful and terrible, and I hesitate to dive in, lest it consume me.
That was a sad dream.
I have often had the splattered, disgusting, unsuitable toilet dream, too. Mine often segues into splattered disgusting public shower dream. I hate those.
One of my issues is that I have short hair, don't wear much women's clothing (it's uncomfortable!) and am sometimes mistaken for a man when I go into women's restroom. (I don't think I look like a man, nor do the majority of people think I look like a man.) Anyway, I had a dream once that I walked into a bathroom and was greeted with, "This is the women's bathroom!!!" My reply was to lift my shirt and scream, "Look, I am a woman!!" I felt so good when I woke up.
Or the toilet that you clean and clean and clean and it never gets clean enough to use?
Or maybe that's just me.
I didn't know the Unsuitable Toilet dream was so popular either. I have it all the time -- not usually a dirty toilet, but one that's always around the next corner and/or too public, no door, in a slightly threatening place like a state hospital.
Flea, what that dream was was brilliant. I'd like to buy your subconscious a beer. And yeah, to understand it, it helps to have done time in a nonprofit or two.
Thank you for posting this!
The thing that struck me about this dream (btw, I'm new the blog, it's great!) is the way that progressives and feminist progressives, in particular, tend to work in shitty and inefficient environments that make everything they do so much less effective. And they convince themselves they LIKE it. Tank top woman was so defensive about her surroundings. Even if Feminist Acres was made with beautiful ideals, they're not getting anywhere because they have a broken toilet! Feminists/progressives need operation costs. They have to start accepting that they deserve the Victorian houses.
Funny I stumbled across your post talking about this dream of urs
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