Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
For the past three or four years, I have been keeping a sharp eye out on what happens culturally between the last week or so of January, and the end of February. Seems to me we’re living in an age in which men and women are getting along better than they did before, back in the 1980’s or so, but the tense peace is periodically disrupted by some unfortunate new industries we have going. And at that time every year, there is this pattern that we all get our dander up about womens’ body shapes. It’s a bit odd, because it’s winter. But if you haven’t noticed it maybe you should make a point of watching too. This weird, strained narrative that women, subjected to “society’s unhealthy image of the ideal female body style,” are forced to lose unhealthy portions of weight or die trying, because the awful terrible wicked men want it that way.
Which, a lot of men are going to notice — we don’t. Oh, some do, but not nearly enough to speak for all of us, to settle in some reasonably observed rule about what “men want.” Men don’t want pencils. Men like curves. This ideal body-image that’s supposedly causing the harm, this mop-handle-with-two-balloons-attached, comes from fashion magazines. Which are not run by mean, nasty men, not men who are interested in female body shapes anyhow. Mean nasty women would be closer to the truth. Anyhow. The point is not to get into all of that again, the point is to observe that we keep re-arguing it and re-arguing it some more, right about the time the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue comes out. And, when the Super Bowl is finally finished.
I’ve settled on the theory that it is one of those two things…coupled up with, women are far more up-to-speed with fashion and clothes shopping, and how they are to be affected by the seasons, than men. Their thoughts turn to this. There is apprehension involved because, let’s face it ladies, if it really is that big an issue then it would be healthier to start thinking about it the Labor Day before. But we’re all human, there is drama involved in the holidays and there is drama involved in the football season, drama drama drama. In this imperfect world, the “ZOMG!” sets in January to February, when the tape measures come out, and unfortunately we have a lot of parasitic industries feeding off all that.
Blaming men is always cheapest.
Well, for some four years or so I’ve seen this pattern play out, and there is this resistance when I point out the seasonal nature of it. Like, those most excited about it can’t remember anything long term. But, maybe I should re-think something too, on my end; seems there’s something going on with May. We have the events of the post previous (the overall problem of which is described very capably over here), there is the angry soccer mom road rage incident, there is the body camera that saved the cop from a trumped-up accusation of sexual assault. Emma “Mattress Girl” Sulkowicz is getting in trouble all over again (H/T) and looking for a way to make a buck off all the commotion (H/T).
The infamous “lake temper tantrum” video from a few years ago (earplug warning), was uploaded in July. Those of us who are survivors from relationships like this, wince a bit…
July is not May, so this would be an exception. But we have a very clear trend here. No, it’s not that women entirely lack conflict-resolution skills…I’ll go ahead and include the disclaimer, and the acknowledgement, that it isn’t like we guys have some sort of monopoly on this. Some guys really are jerks, I get it…and yeah, NAWALT (Not All Women Are Like That).
But, there is a problem here with female entitlement. That’s not the point though. My point is, something about May — they seem to forget there is, or “may” be, a video camera running. Only the soccer mom was aware. But, she only became aware after things were already heated — just like Ms. McHenry from last month.
I’m still not entirely down with this new era in which anyone & everyone may be caught on video at any time, and the concept of privacy seems to be headed toward the brink of extinction and at a rapid, technologically-accelerated, clip. I see lots of downsides to it. But then again, these unwarranted (mostly) female feelings of self-entitlement also represent a sort of curse that has fallen on us as a direct result of technology. There is history to this. There must be, right? We don’t develop a problem just overnight with an advisor, who doesn’t advise, thinking it’s somehow okay to tell a male student “Sitting here until someone is available is harassing them,” or a wife who’s in her thirties thinking it’s somehow okay to throw a toddler-tantrum over general maintenance being done on the car.
What worries me about this seasonality is: The root of the problem is this phrase, the “somehow thinking it’s okay.” Our culture has lost a taboo or two over the years, some of the good ones, the ones that had purpose. If there is a May pattern to all these videos getting uploaded, perhaps the pattern only holds with forgetting that there’s a camera — for some reason. Which would be a fascinating thing, in and of itself. But what if it’s only the forgetting about the camera, that is seasonal? What if the behavior persists throughout all twelve months of the year, and it’s only during this small handful of months that it manages to get filmed?
And how far back into the past does this go? How much further back than the beginning of the ability to casually and surreptitiously film this stuff? How many men — er, okay, people — were made to look like the bad guy, successfully, and over how many years? How many decades?
We can never know the answer. We can only ponder the question…
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