Tuesday, June 10, 2008

things that make me go GRRRR

[we now interrupt your regularly scheduled frantic decluttering and touch-up painting for the following rant]

The other night I was flipping aimlessly around the boob tube and came across a movie that I felt like watching for a few seconds. It went to one of those non-commercial intermissions where people talk about things that they try to relate to the movie but really it's totally irrelevant filler. It was a self-esteem girls' slumber party sponsored by Dove and a facilitator started talking in this blank white room with a bunch of tween girls around her about negative self-talk and some of the words women use to come down on themselves. The girls immediately came up with ugly, fat and stupid, in that order I'm fairly sure. The facilitator asked what words we could replace those mean words with and one of the first responses was caring.

"Caring," approved the facilitator, "That's a great word for girls." WTF??? Last time I checked, caring was a good word for human beings to aspire to, not just girls.

I flipped away, enraged at the myriad ways we indoctrinate our children with gender.

Then this morning as I was driving to work, I got the celebrity update on the radio. "Tori Spelling has whelped again," the female DJ said. She said the name, the fact that it's the second child between Spelling and her partner Dean somebody, who "Tori stole from Canadian actress Mary Jo Eustice [or something]." The DJ's voice seethed with venom over the word stole, then she went on along the lines of, "Tori is despicable. I'm sorry but I'm still siding with Mary Jo on this one... You're building a career as an actress, handsome husband, and one day you come home to find that Tori Spelling has stolen your husband." She tried to make a joke of it, that it could happen to anyone, but this line of thinking drives me nuts. I'm not saying I would feel very friendly towards someone who slept with my husband, but excuse me - Tori Spelling did not make and break vows till death do them part to Mary Jo. The husband did.

I hate the idea that these scheming nasty women just bewitch these poor hapless men who just get swept innocently away.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen to both.

thailandchani said...

"Stole"? What is the guy? A credit card? Seriously. How can someone "steal" another human being. You're right.. on all counts.

thordora said...

That drives me insane. While I have trouble respecting someone who helped someone break a vow, at the end of the day the MARRIED person is accountable, not the singleton. But hey, why would it be the man's fault?

karengreeners said...

Well, Tori was married too, so if anyone gets to despise her, it's her ex. That's the only person she was responsible to.

Mimi said...

Very thought-provoking, Sin. Yes, caring should be human. Of course. But Tori Spelling? Hm. That whole situation made me mad, but actually I was mad at him, so I guess I agree with you on this one too ..

(PS: You buy and sell houses EXACTLY like me. It's like reading my own thoughts, but better written ...)

Violet said...

For one thing, it's the married guy who's broken a vow, not the single woman he's done it with.
For another thing, it's not always possible to stay in love with someone just because you're married to them - nor can you necessarily choose whom you fall in love with.

Defiantmuse said...

ah, yes. I find myself fuming about the exact same thing all. the. time. And I've had it turned on me quite often. How do you think the whole situation w/ me, Mr. Egg and his ex-wife went down in a small town? I was the young tramp who "stole" him away from his 50 year old wife. Right? Right. If people only thought about things and got the whole story before judging....but...yeah. They don't.

Run ANC said...

I was watching the movie with that slumber party. Did you notice that not one of the girls touched the food? AT all?? I guess girls don't eat..