Monday, March 20, 2006

one day down, four to go.

there are many richly interesting topics on which i really do want to blog. and i will. but not tonight, as i am going to eat three macaroons, watch the daily show, and go to bed.

yes, exactly three macaroons.

really, though, i've been thinking about feminism and "happiness" after that ridiculous study that came out about women in traditional gender roles being happier. this just in: the sky is blue. the happy feminist and shakes tag team this one into submission, so i really can't add much more to their brilliant take-downs, but it has gotten me thinking.

i'm also thinking about reform versus revolution, which was a central tenet in this week's read for my bookclub* (which was Assata: An Autobiography, by the way, and it was pretty interesting. so many things you don't learn in school...). is reform worthwhile? is revolution feasible? what to do if you feel the answer to both those questions is "no?"

i'm also thinking about marriage. you thought you all were off the hook, but you're not! we've got gender role expectations and the subconscious, we've got the way the word "wedding" tacks on 20% to the price of absolutely anything, we've got cultural hypocrisy about monogamy and divorce, and we've got dresses. so many potential dress dilemmas, so little time.

ok, that's all for the moment. i know it's a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing, but that's where i'm at this week. where i'm at right this moment is needing coconut, jon stewart, and bed.



*a little added excitement for tonight's bookclub was that i got to officially meet roni and cinnamon, two fantastic chicago feminists and bloggers and all around good peoples. though they didn't know who i was, i knew them, as i had been admiring their wit and wisdom in bookclub since before i started blogging :) so it was good to be able to introduce myself outside the realm of teh interweb.

7 comments:

Roni said...

Aw shucks...it was super duper to officially meet you. I always admit that nametags were made for people like me...I always forget names.

Anonymous said...

Yay for the official meeting. Now I'm going to officially stick your link on my site instead of just getting to you via Roni.

Anonymous said...

we've got cultural hypocrisy about monogamy and divorce

Explain?

Anonymous said...

:) Hey you. So...does this mean when Cinny and Roni and I go out...you'll come to?!?!

And you almost sound like their stalkers the way you write ;)

Smoootch

kate.d. said...

toast - i will, when i can find the time and energy to post about it :) in short (which will also be reductive, but whatev), i am wondering about how society on the one hand holds up the idea of finding "the one" and getting married and living "happily ever after" as this holy grail of existence, when the fact of the matter is that it often doesn't play out that way. infidelity happens. divorce happens. a lot. so as a society, we're not being honest with ourselves, and we're asking people to live up to what have proven to be unrealistic expectations. and that seems to me to be, in the long run, detrimental.

i'll put that more coherently at a later date!

amy - i feel less stalker-esqe now that i got to officially introduce myself :) and i am most definitely coming out, we were talking about it last night. i made sure i was still on the party list :)

Anonymous said...

I guess my short answer would be that, just because you don't achieve the ideal the first time around doesn't mean that you give up on the ideal. Divorce is basically society's way of acknowledging that sometimes you need a do-over. Of course, I might just be reading my own positive, non-judgemental take on divorce into that.

kate.d. said...

yeah, lots of people need or want do-overs. and that's kinda my point - even though divorce becomes more and more regular, we still cling to this notion that it's somehow an aberrant thing to do - that it's a "failure" of some sort. but if over 50% of people are "failing" at an endeavor, shouldn't we revisit whether the endeavor makes sense instead of tsk-tsking the people who don't "succeed"?

oy, so many things to think about! i will be writing more on this, for sure.