General Discussion

McCamy Taylor

(19,240 posts) Wed Nov 7, 2012, 06:50 PM Nov 2012

Can We Get a Time Out from T & A?

Today we have 20 women coming to the U.S. Senate. We have a female Secretary of State---the third one in this country. There are eight other women in the cabinet including the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. There are two women on the Supreme Court. Women have been to space. Women perform cardiothoracic surgery. And yesterday, the Fort Worth Star Telegram had a feature in the Life and Art’s Section asked “Which will be the first lady of fashion?”

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/02/4384227/who-will-be-the-first-lady-of.html

Mama mia!

Before I comment on the article, a word about “Life” and “Living” sections of local newspapers. When I was a girl back in the 1960’s, these were the “Women’s” sections. Then, someone realized that women do more than cook and buy clothes and change diapers. They invest in the stock market (the business section), they bet on football (the sports section). They even---have mercy!---vote (local and national news). So, newspapers changed their “Women’s” sections to something more gender neutral to reflect changing times. Too bad they did not change the way they look at women.

From Dolley Madison's ostrich-feather turbans to Jackie Kennedy's French-designed dresses, first ladies have long taken a leadership role in matters of national style…(O)nly one woman can hang her coat in the White House closet. Here's how we cast our votes for election-season fashion.

Dear Mary! Did we learn nothing from Eleanor Roosevelt? Were we asleep during Bill and Hillary? How far have we regressed that we judge the wives of presidential candidates on their ornamental value?

I grumbled over the article then dismissed it. I had more important things to think about, namely the election which would determine the health of my nation. And the patients in my office, who needed diagnoses and prescriptions and referrals. And my latest short story. And bird feeders that needed filling. And cats that needed feeding.

But today, as I was at the gym trying to improve my cardiovascular fitness, I got another look at the way America looks at women. The television in the changing room was tuned to Dr. Phil. He was advocating for a young woman who insisted that she could not be a good mother to her five children without breast implants and a tummy tuck. Her husband disagreed. The husband was shot down. It is, according to Dr. Phil, perfectly normal for an American woman to want to spend tens of thousands of dollars stuffing saline filled sacks under her breasts and having someone chop out a piece of her abdomen so that she can feel good about herself.

Idiocracy is not the future. It is now. And, according to the entertainment media, every woman is still just a piece of Ass (you know, the award winning movie within the movie), no matter how she spends her days.