OK, I just want to start this with a disclaimer. I don't usually agree with anything that Kathleen Parker has to say. She annoys me, but it annoys me even more when I agree with her. She's like Ann Coulter light. So having said all of this, I found myself nodding vigorously at her article last week. Unfortunately. Anyway, take a look and we will discuss:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/larry_summers_the_thought_poli.html
OK, so do I think what Lawrence Summers said is the worst kind of sexism? Of course I do. Blaming what one perceives as an inadequacy in women on genetics, as though men are somehow superior to women as a God-given truth, is just SO wrong. It's the easy way out of what is a more complex problem of educational differences between boys and girls. We should be more focused on how to get young girls more interested in Science and Mathematics, and not dismiss the lack of women in these fields of study as gender differences. For the president of an Ivy League school to say this in public was probably a huge mistake on his part. This is where my opinion differs from Ms. Parker. Now, much to my consternation comes the part where I agree with her.
Summers should never have been forced from his job for expressing his opinion, and he should not have been "uninvited" to speak at the University of California Board of Regents bimonthly board meeting. The last time I checked, both Harvard and UofC were in the United States of America. Therefore, expressing an opinion, even an unpopular one, should not be grounds for banishment. If we allow the left to censor speech in this way, then they shouldn't be surprised or affronted if the right wants to do the same. And then, where does it stop? No one, on either side, will be able to say anything without fear of reprisal.
Only the most purposely hateful speech should be called into question, and I don't think Summers was being overtly sexist in his remarks. So now, I find myself in the infelicitous position of being of the same mind as Kathleen Parker. And that makes me mad at my own "side", if you will. I think that when the left is so outspoken and defensive about something so inconsequential, it makes it hard to take them serious when they are trying to make a point about something serious.
So, I guess I can't wrap my thought up in a neat little bow this week. I'm irritated at the left, because they made me agree with Parker. I'm irritated at the right, for many reasons too numerous to mention. I'm irritated with the "thought police". So, I guess as a conclusion, I am just irritated.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Blog 4
Because I can't help myself, I watched the Emmy Awards last night. They were awful, but it would take me the rest of the day to say why, so I'll move on to my point. For two hours before the show, I had the Pre-award shows on while I cooked dinner and did some homework. You know these shows, where we find out "Who are you wearing?" and get the opinion of some random "style maven" about how much the dress that so and so is wearing sucks. I really watch the Pre-show to see how everybody looks in those skin tight, unforgiving, uber-expensive haute couture dresses. And then my mom and I verbal eviscerate anyone who doesn't measure up.
Now, I am not exactly a supermodel, in fact I am fat. I know that people cringe when they hear the word, but the truth is I'm not "plus sized", or "zaftig", or any of the other cutesy euphemisms for it. No, I am fat. Deal with it, I am. So, why do I feel OK with talking about how some actress I don't even know looks puffy or lumpy in her Emmy dress? Maybe, it's because when you see a not quite perfect looking body on the red carpet, it stands out like a sore thumb. Last night, I kept seeing Aida Turturro, not because I was looking for her, but because I couldn't miss her. In a sea of size zeros, she was like a visual reminder of what normal people look like. It was almost jarring, like somehow she was ruining the fairy tale for me. And shame on me for thinking such a thing!
So, maybe my mental evaluation of actresses' figures is an indictment about how I really feel about my own body. Or maybe I have been brain washed by all those trashy tabloids I read into thinking that the only socially acceptable way to look is like a skeleton. Whatever it is, I am going to try and be a little more aware of it in the future. This does not mean I will stop making nasty little asides to my mother about so and so's saggy butt, but I will try to do it more out of my natural innate meanness and not because I have been taught by society to think that size zero is the only form of beauty.
Now, I am not exactly a supermodel, in fact I am fat. I know that people cringe when they hear the word, but the truth is I'm not "plus sized", or "zaftig", or any of the other cutesy euphemisms for it. No, I am fat. Deal with it, I am. So, why do I feel OK with talking about how some actress I don't even know looks puffy or lumpy in her Emmy dress? Maybe, it's because when you see a not quite perfect looking body on the red carpet, it stands out like a sore thumb. Last night, I kept seeing Aida Turturro, not because I was looking for her, but because I couldn't miss her. In a sea of size zeros, she was like a visual reminder of what normal people look like. It was almost jarring, like somehow she was ruining the fairy tale for me. And shame on me for thinking such a thing!
So, maybe my mental evaluation of actresses' figures is an indictment about how I really feel about my own body. Or maybe I have been brain washed by all those trashy tabloids I read into thinking that the only socially acceptable way to look is like a skeleton. Whatever it is, I am going to try and be a little more aware of it in the future. This does not mean I will stop making nasty little asides to my mother about so and so's saggy butt, but I will try to do it more out of my natural innate meanness and not because I have been taught by society to think that size zero is the only form of beauty.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Blog 3
I have 6 nieces and nephews (3 of each) so far. By the grace of God, they are all healthy and happy, and I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to watch them develop into little individuals. Right now their biggest problems in life are who’s going to feed them and when the next diaper change is coming. But, someday life is going to get more complicated. The oldest of the 6 is 10 and ½ (because that half is SO important at that age). He is just starting to see that the world outside of your home is not always as hospitable as the world inside of your home. Compound this reality with the fact that he is biracial, (which is not actually an accurate term. His mother is biracial and his father is Caucasian, and I don’t think that the English language has caught up with these realities yet. A topic for another day, perhaps?)and you can image that his world is becoming a lot more complicated. But, is parents are doing a pretty good job of helping him through. I wonder, though, how would we all react if he, or one of the other children, announced that they were gay.
There isn’t any member of my immediate family who doesn’t know and love someone who is gay. One of my best friends, a former coworker and friend of my mother, etc, all gay and all accepted by us all. But, what if it was a member of the family; would we be as seemingly liberal and open minded then? Do your views change when it’s someone this close to you? I would like to think that we wouldn’t even care, that a member of our family is just a member of our family, sexuality be damned! I can’t be sure that this is true, though. Unless they are deep in the closet, I can’t think of anyone even in our extended family who is gay, so we have no construct on which to base our reactions.
We try and protect the children from the cold, cruel outside world by loving them and accepting them for who they are. So, since a many people in the outside world would not accept them if they were gay, could we put aside any unconscious prejudices that we have to love them just the same as we did before they came out. I certainly hope so. There is enough hate in the world to go around, without having to deal with it from your own family.
There isn’t any member of my immediate family who doesn’t know and love someone who is gay. One of my best friends, a former coworker and friend of my mother, etc, all gay and all accepted by us all. But, what if it was a member of the family; would we be as seemingly liberal and open minded then? Do your views change when it’s someone this close to you? I would like to think that we wouldn’t even care, that a member of our family is just a member of our family, sexuality be damned! I can’t be sure that this is true, though. Unless they are deep in the closet, I can’t think of anyone even in our extended family who is gay, so we have no construct on which to base our reactions.
We try and protect the children from the cold, cruel outside world by loving them and accepting them for who they are. So, since a many people in the outside world would not accept them if they were gay, could we put aside any unconscious prejudices that we have to love them just the same as we did before they came out. I certainly hope so. There is enough hate in the world to go around, without having to deal with it from your own family.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Blog 2
Every year I buy the really big fall issue of Vogue. You know the one; it's like 900 pages and looks more like a dictionary than a magazine. Now, I can't afford one single thing in Vogue, even the stuff in the occasional ad for Gap are out of my unemployed, single, full time student budget. So, why do I torture myself every year with this ginormous, completely out of my reach wish book on steroids? Because some day I want to have money, and when I do I want to know what to buy! I drool over the Blahniks, whine about the Prada, and covet the Armani, telling myself that "Someday, I can have these". But, what if I can't? Will my life be less complete without the trappings of femininity and privilege as presented to me in the glossy pages of Vogue? As much as I want to say that I am beyond such consumerism, I actually do think that I will die unhappy if I don't ever own a Louis Vuitton purse or Christian Louboutin pumps.
So, call me shallow, call me materialistic, whatever. But, when you grow up "government cheese poor" (as my family likes to call it), you learn to suppress your desires for anything other than the absolute necessities of life, like food, and a roof over your head. Everything else is extraneous. I remember in high school, all I wanted in the whole world was a pair of Doc Marten boots. Even though they were only $100, I knew that I could never have them. So, I stopped wanting anything. But then, I grew up and realized that if you stop desiring anything, then you are going to lose your ambition to accomplish anything. So, I buy my Vogue and circle the stuff I really like. It keeps me working toward a goal. I will finish college, I will go to Grad School, I will get tenure, if for no other reason than I really want over priced couture.
So, call me shallow, call me materialistic, whatever. But, when you grow up "government cheese poor" (as my family likes to call it), you learn to suppress your desires for anything other than the absolute necessities of life, like food, and a roof over your head. Everything else is extraneous. I remember in high school, all I wanted in the whole world was a pair of Doc Marten boots. Even though they were only $100, I knew that I could never have them. So, I stopped wanting anything. But then, I grew up and realized that if you stop desiring anything, then you are going to lose your ambition to accomplish anything. So, I buy my Vogue and circle the stuff I really like. It keeps me working toward a goal. I will finish college, I will go to Grad School, I will get tenure, if for no other reason than I really want over priced couture.
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