I hate these types of articles. It seems that every few weeks or months we get another treatise on being a woman in the modern world. Maureen Dowd of course gives us some of the oddest. And today we got What’s a Modern Girl To Do? asking all of the same questions again. What happened to equality? Why can’t career women get married? Why are men scared of high achieving women? Why do we now want to be even more objectified?
It all drives me up the wall! I feel like no one has any idea about what it means to be a woman anymore. I certainly don’t. Men bounce between being insecure fools and dominating sex obsessed dictators if you would listen to these articles. And yet somehow I feel like I have navigated the dating waters of college rather well. I am certainly a career oriented woman with a high IQ and a desire to be a success in the professional world. And so far I can’t say my boyfriend seems the slightest bit worried about it. Tony supports me in every way even when he knows that I am likely to be the more successful professional for at least several years. Why is it that my man can be so secure and so many others feel threatened?
I just don’t get any of this. I am intellectual and critical and I have never felt a need to be apologetic about it. But equally I am fashion and image conscious and I often feel akward about my aesthetic inclincations. But isn’t that the side I am supposed to be cultivating now? Who knows? I feel a tremendous sense of frustration and annoyance at all of this confused feminism because all of us are running around in the dark. Part of me wishes we could just leave it alone for a while to sort itself out. None of us are saying anything that is pushing this forward (myself included, this is all drivel as far as I can see) so perhaps if just all live our lives for bit this might sort itself out organically. Or not.
I was going to blog about this, but then I figured it was hopeless. Why do people even bother with these kinds of essays? Does it make some women feel better to think that it’s just the times and not them? Maybe it makes Maureen Dowd feel better because she became an old maid on principle and now those principles aren’t making up for the fact that she dresses up her cats. It’s really not that hard to be a woman. It’s a lot harder to be stupid and incompetent. That really exacerbates life problems a lot more than boobs do.
As you can see by my barely formed post about this it was pretty much hopeless. I just don’t get why the Times keeps running these articles. Does it make them feel better somehow? I would imagine that being stupid would be way worse than boobs because hey if you are smart you can figure out makeup and clothing and that helps immensely with making yourself a tasty lure (which seems to be Dowd’s concern). Though with her odd little picture in the piece with her high heels and tight dress who knows what the heck is up with her?
I think it does make them feel better in a way, She’s probably a real jerk in real life, and she has to really work just to figure out why no one likes her!
Great blog, Julie. I love the Black Friday idea. Sign me up!