The first soap opera I remember watching Guiding Light is getting canceled. I am not surprised in the slightest, but it is a sign of the times. There is a sustained loss of interest in the genre lately due to a few reasons (1) who has time to watch tv in the middle of the day (2) crappy storytelling. Sure, the storytelling has always been hokey but it has gotten especially bad in the past several years.
For awhile, I contemplated doing a history of social issues on soap operas, and I think there is a lot to it. However, after a few conference presentations, I decided it wasn’t for me. Still this is pretty sad…..it feels like the end of an era and the slow downfall of a beloved television genre.
Win a threesome with Scarlett Johansson?
Seems kinda wrong if it is true! But I doubt it is.
Rebecca Walker’s piece about her mother and feminism was disconcerting to say the least. Girl w/ Pen! and Feministing both posted tasteful disagreements with Walker’s assessments of feminism. The part that caught me offguard that a writer like Rebecca Walker who avoided addressing such solid bifurcations or face and gender in her previous books like Black, White & Jewish, went ahead and claimed that feminism was a major reason why her mother was not their for her grousing up.
According to the strident feminist ideology of the Seventies, women were sisters first, and my mother chose to see me as a sister rather than a daughter. From the age of 13, I spent days at a time alone while my mother retreated to her writing studio - some 100 miles away. I was left with money to buy my own meals and lived on a diet of fast food. via
If it weren’t for feminism Rebecca Walker wouldn’t have the opportunities she is able to take advantage of now. Her work wouldn’t be published as readily. Her diatribe on motherhood would be relegated only to kitchen conversations. Without feminism, Rebecca would still have her father’s last name. Without feminism, Walker wouldn’t be the person she is. I am sure her relationship with her mother is a difficult one, and probably Alice Walker took advantage of feminism to avoid being a proper parent. However, it is not feminism’s fault that the Walkers don’t have the best relationship. It is a combination of timing, ideologies, personality, the past, present, and future.
I haven’t done this in a long time but tonight I settled in to watch an episode of the Real World. It was hilarious mostly because one cast member stole another’s underwear. She got real pissed off and called her parents.
The conversation went something like this:
Girl: You know that underwear I bought with my Victoria’s Secret’s gift card. Someone stole my underwear.
Her mom: Maybe it’s a joke.
Girl: I shouldn’t live with a thief.
Her dad: The bible says to love those who do you wrong…
Insert more random dialog
Her dad: *mumble* the bible *mumble*
Huh what? What does the bible have to do with stolen underwear.
Therein lies the reason I don’t watch the Real World.
Why does Phyllis Schafly need an honorary degree from Washington University when she already has two real live degrees from that institution?
When I was getting my M.A. from my liberal arts alma mater, a classmate of mine did a research paper on Schafly. I was shocked at that age to learn that people were so strongly against the ERA. Now, I am just used to it.
But seriously what’s the point of the honorary degree?
Jenna Bush is supposedly getting married this saturday in Crawford, TX. From an article about the town of Crawford’s role in the ceremony:
I asked ‘Oh, are you going to be going to the wedding?’” Judy asked. The woman replied: “No, I just want to be in town when it’s happening.’”
It wasn’t until late this week that the downtown began to show signs of the event, which will end up in presidential history books.
A white banner with red wedding bells on either side of “Congratulations Jenna and Henry” now stretches across a local storefront. via
“Happy Days” Jenna on left. The rest you can figure out yourself.
Since I’ve been going to the gym in the middle of the day, I catch some interesting tv I wouldn’t otherwise have time to watch. I watch a lot of reality tv/ makeover shows which is appropriate given that its the gym. I do realize a lot of these shows are materialistic and shallow. However, one show, 10 Years Younger, in particular really bothered me. I do enjoy style makeover shows like What Not to Wear but enjoy how they subtly make fun of people but ultimately work on making people think more positively about themselves.
On the episode of 10 Years Younger, there was a 26 year old mother of two. She wore slightly baggy jeans and a white t shirt with no makeup. It was explained that she had gained forty pounds since having her children. The host of the show kept pressing her by asking if she was afraid that her husband would leave her for gaining weight. She finally said yes she did have that fear–that it was her greatest fear.
My gut reaction to this was WHAT! Thats her greatest fear! Not something bad happening to her children or herself but that her husband would leave her because of weight gain after she had their children!?! OK I realize it is a “reality” tv show and there is master editing and manipulation of dialogue occurring. Why would she be with someone who didn’t appreciate her mothering their children but is instead focusing on her looks. Of course, once again this is how the show portrayed this woman’s life.
This got me thinking if an alien who knew nothing about Planet Earth or the human race watched this show how would he or she or they think of the way we value motherhood, one’s intelligence, sense of humor, self-worth, spirit, generosity among other non image based characteristics. It would come across as though we did not value a human unless he or she always looked “put together” and “hott and sexy.” Thankfully, people like me can process their own opinions about such a show and recognize the triviality behind it. Maybe I should make a show about how to get people to read the newspaper more or write in a journal every day. But oh I don’t have a production crew or a major network backing me. Oh well…!
So don’t worry the woman got her fabulous makeover, didn’t exactly looked ten years younger but more together, and her husband looked happily surprised. Wonderful. THE END!
According to the NYTimes, female tweens like to have their hair highlighted:
“Lexi works hard, gets good grades,” her mother said. “I feel like she deserves a treat.”…
Hair treatments like shiny glosses or full-color dye plus highlights, once reserved for women with salaries and mortgages, have increasingly become the norm for pre-pubescent girls as more busy parents with discretionary income are willing to pay salon prices for what used to be done at home. via
Wow, stop the presses! Young women like to have their done. Must have been a slow Thursday for the styles section.
Yesterday, I tuned into NPR and listened to Talk of the Nation. Journalist Meghan Daum discusses her aptly named article, Raunch is rebranded as ‘confidence.’ Her commentary on the program and article are brilliant. She certainly hits many features of women and spring break life right on. What I like most about Daum’s journalistic style is that she calls certain statistics and reports “news of the ‘no duh’ variety.” I only begin to chuckle to myself when I think of all the news I read on a regular basis that induces a “duh” cringe in me. The kind of “duh–don’t we all know this already?!?!” reaction that makes me want to run away from the media crazed USA and move to a quiet British Columbia hamlet and be done with it all.
Daum’s no duh news:
The American Medical Assn. released figures about sex and alcohol use during rowdy spring break vacations. The poll, which surveyed female college students and graduates aged 17 to 35, found that 74% believed women used drinking “as an excuse for outrageous behavior”; 83% “had friends who drank the majority of nights while on spring break”; and 12% “felt forced or pressured into sex” during spring break.
Apart from Daum’s almost mischievous, hilarious terms, there is a troubling side to this column. Daum correctly states that young women are equating their spring break antics with confidence. The wackier, riskier and raunchier they get, the more confident they can claim to be. Ultimately what this article reveals is that young women are not only partying during spring break but that spring break represents an enlarged version of what is going on today with today’s youth (ie teenagers and young twentysomes.)
Yet another reason I am glad I went to high school in the 1990s.
On the relationship between internet social networks and professors:
Some do so in hopes it will attract attention for a book or paper they have written; others do so inadvertently, joining Facebook to communicate with students and then finding themselves lured deeper by its various applications. via
It sure is a different time than I was in undergrad!