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...
I hope 2008 sees the end of this brand of feminism, I really do. The subject of the link in question is Page 8 of possible reasons Home Improvement jumped the shark, and “Guest” writes in with…
The show jumped with the “sandwich episode” where Jill really started to assert her own special brand of aggressive feminism. It was angering to watch Jill call her son a sexist because his girlfriend did his housework; the problem couldn’t possibly be on the girlfriend’s end, it must be the EVIL MISOGYNIST BRAD at fault because he LET her do his housework. In the end, everything was resolved, of course, when Jill converted everyone over to her point of view, aka the right one, including dimwitted Tim, who, of course, buckled under his wife’s demands yet again. Was there ever a single episode where Tim said, “Tough crap, Jill, this time it’s my way”?
I was watching this episode with my ten-year-old son, and found myself answering some complicated questions.
See, here’s the deal: Brad’s new girlfriend makes him sandwiches. Sometimes he (politely) asks her, and sometimes she offers. Jill the Mom is having a hissy-fit about it. Everybody else thinks it’s just fine. Girlfriend included.
I recall vividly at about the halfway mark, the point of view that I know to be the “right” one, was nailed…perfect bulls-eye…and then ritually abandoned. The son reminded his mother, in quite a civil manner, that if the objective was to uphold and respect the individual preferences of women, it should be noted the individual preference of his girlfriend was to make him a sandwich. So by interfering with that, Jill cemented her position as the one person who was interfering with womens’ choice, when everybody else, was not. She didn’t have a comeback to that one. The scriptwriters solved that in short order by simply abandoning that train of thought and pursuing some whacky slapstick courtesy of Husband Tim.
Of course the lone hold-out Jill is in the “right.” Should the long precedent of Home Improvement episodes not be sufficient to convince someone of this, the episode’s conclusion pounds the final nail into the coffin holding any doubts. She does, as “Guest” says, convert everyone to her point of view.
I do think there’s something amiss when Brad starts to count on his girlfriend making sandwiches. But when you’re insinuating something evil and wrong is happening whenever a lady does something to lighten a gentleman’s heavy load, a line is being crossed. If she’s serving some ideal higher and more noble than helping her fella out for the sake of helping him, well, I would just hope that ideal is higher and more noble than sitting on the couch watching her favorite soap opera munching on a sack of chips. And regardless of what that ideal is, I’d say they’re just about finished as a couple.
And that goes for him too.
There simply isn’t anything glorious or morally pristine about refusing to help people, especially people with whom you’re supposed to be sharing your life. Sorry, but I have to agree if we’re looking for points at which the show jumped the shark, I’d say 6×23 is a great place to start.
Sorry if I’m taking this way to seriously. Hey, looks to me like they did. Here it is just eleven years later, and this paleofeminism has a dated feeling to it already. Hyper-dated. Like Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore sleeping in separate beds…that kind of dated. So maybe we’re past this already.
God, I seriously hope so. My sweetheart can run circles around me in the sandwich-making department.
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I think you watch too much TV, just kidding.
The only comment I can make was my wife’s definition of feminists, man she disliked them.
Feminist: A woman too lazy or inept to succeed on her own merits so she blames a man.
She broke the CEO glass ceiling by, well, starting and building a company, go figure.
- Allen L | 12/31/2007 @ 19:53I lliked that TV show, dufus dad syndrome notwithstanding. Never saw that particular episode.
And you’re right about the whole thing. Well at least they did a hat tip to the reasonable point of view before knocking us over the head with the “correct” one.
- philmon | 12/31/2007 @ 22:53Yeah, the funny thing is, if the lady is living her life the way the feminists WANT her to, then this starts to get reasonable. Because that means she’s the breadwinner. Hell, if I had a wife who made twice as much as I did and worked twice as hard, and started making me a sandwich on top of it, I’d probably knock the table knife & mustard jar out of her hands myself.
But paleofeminism makes no distinction to accommodate the lady who chooses to stay at home. Worse yet, it offers a “buffet” to accommodate the gal who is as lazy as she wants to be. Go for the feminist plan of sticking your kids in daycare? Fine. Reject the thing about getting a job? Great. So basically, become a Jabba The Hut and lounge around all day watching TV, let your husband do all the work including take out the trash and feed the pets…then demand virtual applause when you tell him to make his own goddamn sandwiches? Ah, the feminism goddess smiles upon you.
At some point it becomes just a fine art of using people. Maybe as payback for some five thousand years of oppression, aw fine if you believe that, more power to you. But I don’t think you should go through the motions of creating an “equal” life with somebody, when you’re really not so much sharing lives, as throwing them in the trash hour by hour. Honesty. That’s all I ask.
Like I said, it’s impressive how much a mere eleven years has made this into dated material. So perhaps I’m just stating the obvious. But having lived through this nonsense, I’ll have to admit it really gets under my skin.
- mkfreeberg | 12/31/2007 @ 23:50I think the word feminism betrays the motivation of its adaptors. Under the guise of equality, a movement has been created that actually puts all things female in a higher priority than its counterpart, and lies about it.
But the nomenclature betrays the emphasis. I would have gone with labels like equitist, or egalitarianism if I were truly even-handed.
- sanskara | 01/03/2008 @ 19:22Since I’m working backward through your many opera, I thought I’d send you this. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/2339-diabolical-narcissism-go-clean-up-the-kitchen-you-stupid-stupid-woman
- Richard A | 06/27/2019 @ 10:44