I recently began reading "Are Men Necessary?" by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. In the first couple of chapters, she muses whether 1970's feminism was all a bust, what with young women today returning to the fashion of taking their husbands' last names, and things like that.
The women of my age she interviews consider the feminism of their mothers' generation too harsh and humorless, and wonder if some of the feminine mystique has been lost by women trying to climb the corporate ladder and split the check.
I understand where they are coming from, as it is an argument I have had with my mother before. "What's wrong with being a housewife?" I would say. "Maybe women are meant to nurture their young and cultivate a nice household. Maybe working too hard is a strain on the family."
And indeed, women of my generation often saw our mothers stretched thin by working 50 hour work weeks and coming home to make dinner. How wonderful, then, to have the day to yourself to run errands, and perhaps a whole hour or two to plan a nice dinner?
I was raised as a feminist, but I first began noticing these anti-feminist tendencies in myself after college. I remember seeing a Colorado Rockies baseball player's wife on TV, and being so impressed with her perfect body and expensive blond hair and nails. I wanted to become that, to cultivate a perfect femininity in myself to attract a testosterone-laden, tall mate--for life. I loved, and still love, to study the art of being a woman--knowing what color purse is in this season, knowing what herbs support the reproductive system, having as many perfumes as possible available on my shelf to choose from. I think this gets at the crux of what women my age are seeking, we want to be softer women than our mothers were allowed to be. We want to be able to slow down, and iron linens, and have leisure time.
My mother recently attended law school, and she saw a major trend to a return to pre-feminism days among the students. She talked to many 24 and 25-year-olds whose plan was to get a law degree, get a husband, spend 20 years raising children, and then return to the work force with their two-decades-old law degree, and no work experience.
And this, she pointed out, was naive. Employers will much prefer to employ young people just out of law school, or people who have 20 years experience in the workforce.
Which brings me to my mother's point. Even if you do decide to take the homemaker route, you'd best have something to fall back on. Because you don't know if that lawyer or baseball player husband of yours will leave you once your boobs start sagging. Especially if you are attracting mates in your twenties primarily with your looks, and primarily with the intention of marrying rich.
1970's feminism was not a bust, then, but something we twenty-somethings had best pay attention to. As my mom pointed out, being a housewife was not romantic for everyone in the 1950's. Some of them were beaten, some of them had children that were beaten, and some had alcohol or drug-addicted husbands. And they couldn't go anywhere because they had no way of supporting themselves.
So we've got to realize that the big feminism wave has made homemaking a choice for us, and we'd better be damn well appreciative. We still might not earn as much as men, but we can get to college, we can get in the office, and with the right resourcefulness, we can get the corner office. And then we can brush it all aside and decide to become a soccer mom.
But if you do decide to become a soccer mom, have a backup plan, says my mom, and says me. Take computer classes, network, and read the paper. Work part-time. Improve your skill set.
Because you never know what the future holds.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Richest Women
I was watching an entertainment channel recently, and they did a special on the richest women in the entertainment industry. You would think they'd all be beautiful actresses, and indeed, there were such people as Jennifer Anniston, the Olsen twins, and Julia Roberts.
But do you know who the top three richest women are? Women who got by on their brains and business sense--not their looks. They are:
3: Martha Stewart
2: J.K. Rowling
1: Oprah Winfrey
These women still have money-making potential after 35. Yes!
But do you know who the top three richest women are? Women who got by on their brains and business sense--not their looks. They are:
3: Martha Stewart
2: J.K. Rowling
1: Oprah Winfrey
These women still have money-making potential after 35. Yes!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Cloverfield
My boyfriend and I went to Redbox the other day, and because there was nothing else, we rented Cloverfield.
I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, which is another New-York-gets-destroyed-and-evacuated film.
The whole thing is filmed Blair Witch style, in a home movie camera. In the beginning, a young guy is assigned the task of filming a going away party for his friend, though he doesn't want to. He goes around filming people, focusing from time to time on a girl he thinks is hot, and all the peoples' conversations give the viewer just enough information to become sympathetic to the main characters. You almost forget catastrophe is coming, and then BOOM! an earthquake-like noise completely changes the tone of the film.
What was really cool was that the scenes cut in and out, mid-sentence, exactly as home movies are when you make them. And the character holding the video camera manages to maintain a funny, if annoying character throughout his filming, representing exactly that friend you have that doesn't understand when it's time to stop talking, because, for God's sake, people are dying.
The only thing that really pulls the movie back into the camp category is that some of the characters should have died right away instead of sustaining their unbelievable injuries. If you're impaled on a pole, my guess is you can't get up and walk around.
I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, which is another New-York-gets-destroyed-and-evacuated film.
The whole thing is filmed Blair Witch style, in a home movie camera. In the beginning, a young guy is assigned the task of filming a going away party for his friend, though he doesn't want to. He goes around filming people, focusing from time to time on a girl he thinks is hot, and all the peoples' conversations give the viewer just enough information to become sympathetic to the main characters. You almost forget catastrophe is coming, and then BOOM! an earthquake-like noise completely changes the tone of the film.
What was really cool was that the scenes cut in and out, mid-sentence, exactly as home movies are when you make them. And the character holding the video camera manages to maintain a funny, if annoying character throughout his filming, representing exactly that friend you have that doesn't understand when it's time to stop talking, because, for God's sake, people are dying.
The only thing that really pulls the movie back into the camp category is that some of the characters should have died right away instead of sustaining their unbelievable injuries. If you're impaled on a pole, my guess is you can't get up and walk around.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Before Sunrise
That is one of my favorite movies, because Julie Delpy's leading role is one of the most believable characters I've ever seen.
Most movies portray women as either virginal and aloof (Casablanca) or superhuman and independent (There's Something About Mary). In these movies, the men are the ones who make mistakes, who need help, and the women are angelic figures there to help out. The men are the characters who usually change.
In Before Sunrise, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke play equally complex characters, who commit equal mistakes in their past relationships, who are drawn to each other equally.
Julie Delpy is beautiful, of course, but not in the sense of the male ideal. She wears flat shoes, little make-up, and a plain dress, something much more attainable for the average young woman.
She buys Ethan Hawke a drink (women never pay in the movies, but it often happens in life) because he is traveling and only 23 years old, so he doesn't have much money. This is a true homage to Gen X reality.
It is partly due to the portrayal of this character that I find Richard Linklater, the director, so respectable. He paid women their due in this movie, creating a character that was neither a sexpot nor pathetic, but somewhere in between.
Most movies portray women as either virginal and aloof (Casablanca) or superhuman and independent (There's Something About Mary). In these movies, the men are the ones who make mistakes, who need help, and the women are angelic figures there to help out. The men are the characters who usually change.
In Before Sunrise, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke play equally complex characters, who commit equal mistakes in their past relationships, who are drawn to each other equally.
Julie Delpy is beautiful, of course, but not in the sense of the male ideal. She wears flat shoes, little make-up, and a plain dress, something much more attainable for the average young woman.
She buys Ethan Hawke a drink (women never pay in the movies, but it often happens in life) because he is traveling and only 23 years old, so he doesn't have much money. This is a true homage to Gen X reality.
It is partly due to the portrayal of this character that I find Richard Linklater, the director, so respectable. He paid women their due in this movie, creating a character that was neither a sexpot nor pathetic, but somewhere in between.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Meditation and evolution
I have a theory that meditation is an evolutionary step.
For one thing, with meditation, you are slowing down your brain and examining your actual process of thinking, which puts you in control of whatever impulses you were born with as a descendant of an ape. The more practiced you become with it, the less likely you are to give in to anger, and the more developed is your sense of compassion. If everyone meditated a lot, there might be no war, and war would become a brutish thing of the past.
For another, people who become very serious about meditation become monks and nuns, and often don't have children. This helps with the population problem. The more people who devote their time to meditation, the less resources are used.
Thirdly, in psychic theory and some Eastern religions that use meditation, beings float in and out of lifetimes, each time gaining more knowledge and compassion, with the ultimate goal of achieving Nirvana, or a state of heavenly perfection. At that point you don't have to come into a life to suffer anymore. If you subscribe to this theory then you are trying to be the best person you can be in this lifetime, ultimately bringing the human race a step towards positivity.
Finally, meditation puts you in touch with alternate states of consciousness, which may be necessary to develop further inventions and, I believe, to possibly communicate with alien forms of intelligent life. Meditation helps people have out of body experiences and get in touch with their sixth sense, which is nothing more than perception science is not yet able to define.
For one thing, with meditation, you are slowing down your brain and examining your actual process of thinking, which puts you in control of whatever impulses you were born with as a descendant of an ape. The more practiced you become with it, the less likely you are to give in to anger, and the more developed is your sense of compassion. If everyone meditated a lot, there might be no war, and war would become a brutish thing of the past.
For another, people who become very serious about meditation become monks and nuns, and often don't have children. This helps with the population problem. The more people who devote their time to meditation, the less resources are used.
Thirdly, in psychic theory and some Eastern religions that use meditation, beings float in and out of lifetimes, each time gaining more knowledge and compassion, with the ultimate goal of achieving Nirvana, or a state of heavenly perfection. At that point you don't have to come into a life to suffer anymore. If you subscribe to this theory then you are trying to be the best person you can be in this lifetime, ultimately bringing the human race a step towards positivity.
Finally, meditation puts you in touch with alternate states of consciousness, which may be necessary to develop further inventions and, I believe, to possibly communicate with alien forms of intelligent life. Meditation helps people have out of body experiences and get in touch with their sixth sense, which is nothing more than perception science is not yet able to define.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
The Hidden Messages in Water
The Hidden Messages in Water
I just picked up this book, the New York Times bestseller and featured in that movie What the Bleep? That movie left something to be desired, but the book is great.
A Japanese scientist took photos of water from mountain springs, and found that it formed crystals. Water from the tap forms no crystals.
He found that water exposed to the words "thank you" form lovely crystals, but water exposed to the word "Satan" forms an ugly, curdled pattern. Same for angry words.
His point is that because human beings are 70 percent water, we are directly affected on a physical level by what we say to each other.
A nice message about giving each other pats on the back.
I just picked up this book, the New York Times bestseller and featured in that movie What the Bleep? That movie left something to be desired, but the book is great.
A Japanese scientist took photos of water from mountain springs, and found that it formed crystals. Water from the tap forms no crystals.
He found that water exposed to the words "thank you" form lovely crystals, but water exposed to the word "Satan" forms an ugly, curdled pattern. Same for angry words.
His point is that because human beings are 70 percent water, we are directly affected on a physical level by what we say to each other.
A nice message about giving each other pats on the back.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Tesla
Tesla
I joined a blog group on Myspace called Tesla Tech.
At Burning Man in the year 2000, I saw a man use Tesla Technology by jumping up between a bolt of electricity between two Tesla coils, wearing a metal suit, and having the electricity hit him.
Apparently Tesla invented a source of free energy in the early part of the 20th century, which would not use nonrenewable resources. But his idea was shut down because nobody could make money off of it.
I'm having trouble believing that his idea actually works. Why are there no blueprints we can replicate? Can someone elaborate?
I joined a blog group on Myspace called Tesla Tech.
At Burning Man in the year 2000, I saw a man use Tesla Technology by jumping up between a bolt of electricity between two Tesla coils, wearing a metal suit, and having the electricity hit him.
Apparently Tesla invented a source of free energy in the early part of the 20th century, which would not use nonrenewable resources. But his idea was shut down because nobody could make money off of it.
I'm having trouble believing that his idea actually works. Why are there no blueprints we can replicate? Can someone elaborate?
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