First let me say that I had spent all of this time posting pictures of my flowers and my garden into a semi-interesting post to just have it go to hell.
This post, when I published it, was too much for the rest of my blog to handle it sent the whole thing to go all haywire.
I deleted it & decided to come back to it another time.
So for now, this is all I've got:
Am I the only person on the whole of the Earth that cannot stand the movie Grease?
I understand it has legions of devoted fans.
But I remember seeing it for the very first time at age 10 or 11 and found myself rolling my eyes, plugging my ears with my fingers, and generally relieved when it was over.
And I still feel that way today.
I don't get the big deal about this movie.
I don't know why it irks me so.
It just does.
Sorry to any of you out there that love this movie.
I apologize. We can still be friends just because I don't like it and you do...
I won't hold it against you ;)
I just don't get it is all. What it is about that movie?
And I feel like I'm the only one who feels that way.
Especially considering my gender.
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
7/2/07
5/31/07
Wide-Eyed Idealism
I've had a bug up my arse for the past few weeks about something.
To be quite honest, it had me so pissed of I couldn't speak about it.
I think I finally got enough distance from it to calm down a tad. However, this past weekend, a conversation brought it back to the front of me wee cranium.
What pissed me off so was a segment on the Today show about 'Alpha Moms'.
Really.
I mean...are you kidding me?
It went on to speak about how Alpha Moms are a new marketing target because they make big bucks and they have money to spend.
I'm sorry, but I feel a little queasy when I hear the words marketing target about any group.
Maybe this rubbed me the wrong way because, well, it's just wrong.
Maybe it rubbed me the wrong way because I'm not in that group.
Or maybe. Just maybe it rubbed me the wrong way because it's just another way to divide women and begin a whole other round of Mommy wars.
The conversation that got me thinking about all of this again was between my stepmother, Eileen, and I regarding how the whole feminist/women's movement seems to be falling apart.
I began a long-winded dissertation about how we have this long history of fighting each other and not being able to come together for the greater cause. If you look at the suffragettes, and all they fought for...the vote was won for us and then we fell apart.
And while there may have been pockets of forward-thinking women, it wasn't a movement anymore.
Then fast forward to WWII and women began to feel empowered again. And while we didn't organize, necessarily, to fight for our rights to work outside of the home once the GI's came back from fighting overseas, there again, was a pocket of forward-thinking women who
found new worth in these jobs and wanted to keep them.
If you move on to the next decade, women in the 50's had one role. Or were supposed to have one role. Homemaker. If you failed to do so, or you had any inclination of something else, you were one to be pitied.
And who was doing all the poo-pooing and nay-saying? Yes, the media. But mostly other women. Despite the fact that many of them, deep in their hearts, were longing for something else, as well. But it was not to be spoken of.
Then Betty Friedan opened the floor to discussion. There were the words, in black and white. That we can have more than just what our biology dictates. And the feminist movement began with that little book The Feminine Mystique and a little thing called The Pill.
And while the feminist movement made great strides there was huge in-fighting. We women could not come together for one common goal. While we all wanted the same things, we had to drag each other through the mud to do it. We had to separate ourselves. We had to fit in nice, tidy little compartments. Where likes went with likes - there were categories and subcategories of women.
What is curious to me is that how, a gender so great at nurturing and caring, at reaching out and feeling, can be so mean to each other.
Why is it that we have to take what makes us alike and use it against each other to separate ourselves from each other?
I refuse to participate in the whole fight regarding working moms vs. stay-at-home moms.
It's a ridiculous fight. It's a fight that should not even exist.
A mom is a mom.
A female is a female.
Bottom-line.
It really does burn me up and make my stomach turn to hear things like: Alpha Moms vs. Beta Moms (what is this Brave New World?), Mommy wars, The Feminine Mistake, marketing targets, The war between the Working Mom vs. The Stay-At-Home Mom.
We are falling for these sad, media/socially driven wars. We somehow forget to see them for what they really are. Splinters.
I feel lucky that in my blogging dealings, the women I have met are all so beautiful and supportive of each other.
And I would love if we could come together as a societal group so unified in just being women who want to be recognized because they are
women.
Who, at the deepest recesses of their minds and hearts, really do all want the same things.
**I ran into William again last night. I'll post about that later.
To be quite honest, it had me so pissed of I couldn't speak about it.
I think I finally got enough distance from it to calm down a tad. However, this past weekend, a conversation brought it back to the front of me wee cranium.
What pissed me off so was a segment on the Today show about 'Alpha Moms'.
Really.
I mean...are you kidding me?
It went on to speak about how Alpha Moms are a new marketing target because they make big bucks and they have money to spend.
I'm sorry, but I feel a little queasy when I hear the words marketing target about any group.
Maybe this rubbed me the wrong way because, well, it's just wrong.
Maybe it rubbed me the wrong way because I'm not in that group.
Or maybe. Just maybe it rubbed me the wrong way because it's just another way to divide women and begin a whole other round of Mommy wars.
The conversation that got me thinking about all of this again was between my stepmother, Eileen, and I regarding how the whole feminist/women's movement seems to be falling apart.
I began a long-winded dissertation about how we have this long history of fighting each other and not being able to come together for the greater cause. If you look at the suffragettes, and all they fought for...the vote was won for us and then we fell apart.
And while there may have been pockets of forward-thinking women, it wasn't a movement anymore.
Then fast forward to WWII and women began to feel empowered again. And while we didn't organize, necessarily, to fight for our rights to work outside of the home once the GI's came back from fighting overseas, there again, was a pocket of forward-thinking women who
found new worth in these jobs and wanted to keep them.
If you move on to the next decade, women in the 50's had one role. Or were supposed to have one role. Homemaker. If you failed to do so, or you had any inclination of something else, you were one to be pitied.
And who was doing all the poo-pooing and nay-saying? Yes, the media. But mostly other women. Despite the fact that many of them, deep in their hearts, were longing for something else, as well. But it was not to be spoken of.
Then Betty Friedan opened the floor to discussion. There were the words, in black and white. That we can have more than just what our biology dictates. And the feminist movement began with that little book The Feminine Mystique and a little thing called The Pill.
And while the feminist movement made great strides there was huge in-fighting. We women could not come together for one common goal. While we all wanted the same things, we had to drag each other through the mud to do it. We had to separate ourselves. We had to fit in nice, tidy little compartments. Where likes went with likes - there were categories and subcategories of women.
What is curious to me is that how, a gender so great at nurturing and caring, at reaching out and feeling, can be so mean to each other.
Why is it that we have to take what makes us alike and use it against each other to separate ourselves from each other?
I refuse to participate in the whole fight regarding working moms vs. stay-at-home moms.
It's a ridiculous fight. It's a fight that should not even exist.
A mom is a mom.
A female is a female.
Bottom-line.
It really does burn me up and make my stomach turn to hear things like: Alpha Moms vs. Beta Moms (what is this Brave New World?), Mommy wars, The Feminine Mistake, marketing targets, The war between the Working Mom vs. The Stay-At-Home Mom.
We are falling for these sad, media/socially driven wars. We somehow forget to see them for what they really are. Splinters.
I feel lucky that in my blogging dealings, the women I have met are all so beautiful and supportive of each other.
And I would love if we could come together as a societal group so unified in just being women who want to be recognized because they are
women.
Who, at the deepest recesses of their minds and hearts, really do all want the same things.
**I ran into William again last night. I'll post about that later.
1/12/07
This Just In....The Bottom Line
I have been slapped in the face the past few days with the following headline:"Hollywood's latest accessory: Babies."
WTF!?!
Maybe I'm too sensitive. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole-hill. But somehow, someway it seems beyond wrong and sickening to compare human life to an arm/neckful of bling, the latest designer bag or the latest designer shoes. I mean, really. C'mon. It was bad enough when the latest accessory for a celebrity to carry were dogs. But now we've debased life even further by this outrageous, stupid headline.
I guess what bothers me about this, and it bothers me on many, many levels is that a) it's true. and 2)this is what "we" think of human life. I've done a few posts on humanitarianism and trying to think about each other and where we all are in the grand scheme of things. But this is demoralizing and despicable. It has just confirmed all of my worst fears: That human life is no more important and is just as dispensible as Dior's Fall Fashion line. The fact that life is something that will last only a season - a minute thought for a minute second. It is in today and out tomorrow. An innocent, completely insecure, totally dependant-upon -others- for -survival human being is now, merely, a decorative ornament.
I guess what bothers me about this, and it bothers me on many, many levels is that a) it's true. and 2)this is what "we" think of human life. I've done a few posts on humanitarianism and trying to think about each other and where we all are in the grand scheme of things. But this is demoralizing and despicable. It has just confirmed all of my worst fears: That human life is no more important and is just as dispensible as Dior's Fall Fashion line. The fact that life is something that will last only a season - a minute thought for a minute second. It is in today and out tomorrow. An innocent, completely insecure, totally dependant-upon -others- for -survival human being is now, merely, a decorative ornament.
It is just that novel of an idea. A precious, human life.
I don't think this country can sink any lower.
Not only does it confirm all of my worst fears about our society, culture, country. But it confirms the worst fears for those people out there in the rest of the world and what they think about Americans as a whole.
Not only does it confirm all of my worst fears about our society, culture, country. But it confirms the worst fears for those people out there in the rest of the world and what they think about Americans as a whole.
And that my dear friends, is
the bottom line.
I can't even begin to wrap my mind around this. It's frightening, frightening stuff.
9/18/06
Natural Beauty
Few people are truly enthusiastic about what they do. Few people actually get to do what they love to do and what they are passionate about. And when you see someone who truly does love what they do, are living their dream and are beyond enthusiastic you have to stop and say, "Wow. Good on ya. That's wonderful and amazing."
I have felt a sadness that I can't describe upon hearing that Steve Irwin passed away. Bryan & I were watching the tribute to Steve Irwin on Animal Planet yesterday. And we both sat there shaking our heads and going, "Hm. I can't believe it. I still can't believe it. How unbelieveably sad." I feel bad for saying at one point, "Well, you knew with him, it was just a matter of time." How many people can die that way. Living every moment to the fullest while living their dream?
I don't usually get overly emotional when celebs die. But this was different. I feel for Terri, Bindi and Bob. I feel for Australia Zoo. I feel for all of his workmates. I feel for all of those animals who got used to Steve caring for them, fighting for them, and educating the world about them.
He leaves behind a legacy that will not be easy to fill, he leaves behind a family to try to pick up where he has left off, he leaves behind a zoo and the animals in it that won't know what to do without him, he leaves behind droves of fans that will miss hearing him yell, "Crickey! Take a look at this little beauty. Isn't she gorgeous?" And of course, "Crocs Rule!"
I felt that I had to post this to get it out. Soon, this will be 'old news'. And I had to acknowledge the sadness that I feel today - and everyday since I heard the news.
Steve, wherever you are, "YOU RULE!" and you'll be sadly missed.
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