Enough with the crying already, people. When I wrote the post the other day about people making a big deal of Hillary crying, I had no idea it would continue for several more days. Really, isn't there other news out there? Good grief.
I will say though, the whole issue raises a few points that I have seen reiterated in the blogosphere lately. Let's call it the anti-Virginia Slim phenomenon. Blondie posted her take on the book Don't Be That Girl. I'm not sure how this book stacks up against others in its niche (Amazon suggests comparable titles like Man Magnet and Why You're Still Single), but books like these aren't new--they've just become increasingly better marketed and more flashy. I loved Blondie's take on the book and her own list of types of guys.
I remember when I was about 21 the dating book du jour was The Rules. This book is a creepy reminder of my early 20s when I hated myself enough as it was. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn't trying to land a husband. Even if I was, I'm pretty sure the rules portrayed in the book wouldn't have helped me net the kind of guy I wanted or needed.
Which also reminds me of a post Dorothy wrote the other day. Which pretty much scared the bejeezus out of me. Purity balls aren't a new idea to me, but that Dorothy wrote about them juxtaposed with Hillary crying on TV seemed to bring a couple of ideas up with alarming synchronicity (and I don't mean in a good Police kind of way). What I mean by this is the disturbing double standard that exists for men and women (and yes, there are other double standards out there that are equally disturbing, but those are for another day, Cranial Midget).
Why don't we care when Mitt Romney cries? (other than that he's a creepy dude we'd rather not think about) Why do we feel the need to "preserve" our girls for marriage? The whole idea of having an intact hymen freaks me out so much I can't even go there. But I will. I think one of the weirdest things I heard when I was a self-loathing adolescent was from one of my friends who said her mom wouldn't let her use tampons because "those are for married women." Huh?!
I guess my point here about Hillary and dating rules and purity balls is that despite all the progress women have made, we still haven't figured out what to do with them. Are we feeble or are we strong, because by God, no one (including some women) knows what to do with us if we show both faces.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I didn't think about the juxtaposition of my purity ball post and the Clinton campaign while I was doing it, but they do go together for me. I've been criticized a lot for saying I would vote for Hillary in part due to gender, but as long as things like purity balls still exist, we're kidding ourselves if we think there aren't patriarchal elements to our society. From a very high level, women won't come to the table as long as people in power with money believe women are somehow weaker or should be protected. I firmly believe that until a woman runs the country, shit like that will keep happening.
She could be a better candidate, but she doesn't suck. I'm sure she was just exhausted when she "cried." Bush just cried in Afghanistan, and I didn't think he was a pussy. I think he's an idiot, but not because he cried. But that anyone could think women needed that sort of 18th century protection today to me cries out for us to break that barrier any way we can. We're fooling ourselves as women if we think we've achieved equal status without equal representation in business and politics (which we DON'T have). Until we have equal representation, I don't feel we can afford to sit back and wait for perfection. We have to let someone go first. It may be many years before we get another chance. I hope the next woman is also a minority so the media won't make us out to be choosing white over black.
WOW. Can't let it go.
There are currently 16 female Senators and 8 female governors.
There is ONE black Senator and ONE black governor.
If you are going to use inequality and a desire to level the playing field as your major criteria, then to NOT support Obama is doing the same thing to blacks that men have done to women. Very uncool.
We have a lot further to go to make up for the deficit we created for blacks in this country than the deficit for women.
The chances are better that an American black male will go to prison than graduate from college.
IS is THAT bad for women? Not even close.
And talk about a deficit in equal representation!
Until we demand equal representation for those who are LEAST represented, none of the rest of us should expect it.
Blacks have a lot further to go - and it is likely to be even longer before they get another chance.
Post a Comment