Last week I was in my popular fiction class and we were studying Gone with the Wind.
The book is awful, but my professor is awesome, so it makes it bearable. She asked me what she thinks of the Rhett Butler-Scarlett O Hara relationship and I was like Rhett's the shit, come on. Ashley Wilkes, in the novel is Scarlett's other lover. He is a pianist, philosopher, and a 'fine' man while Rhett is rich, 'broad shouldered', and better in bed.
Immediately I hated Ashley and was like Rhett's the shit man, come on.
She told us that all women— smart or stupid,independent or suppressed , are schooled from the beginning to like a protoype of man.
We all wait to BE taken. It explains a bad-boy fetish that many of us have.
Are they Pussycat Dolls lying when they say- I don't need a man to make it happen?
If a woman is more attractive if she wears high heels, wants to be told random rubbish about the world, needs the man to hold her hand through everything then
does a man need to have a fast car, know how to stand up for himself and his chick, fight the bad-guys from time to time.
Are we constantly fighting parts of ourselves to be more man or more woman?
Why is there a rule book that defines us as either and where did it come to exist.
I started watching Mad Men yesterday- recommended to me by a friend and neighbour- and love it. All the women are fantastic, but I hate mostly all the men- with the exception of Don Draper. Like many times already, the superficialist in me was confirmed.
Why was Don D allowed to cheat on his wife, behave like a narrow minded jerkoff , assume that a woman's dream is making a family, and still get away with it.
Because he's sexy. He's strapping, nonchalant and mends things from time to time. I noticed everything wrong with him, but I was not angry. Only disappointed. Don to me was some sort of tragic hero, a great man fallen because of his own flaw. Essentially wrong, but attractive.
My friend Sid one day, over beer and pointless conversation said to me-
'you're really confusing man. you're pissed off because that guy keeps checking you out. (that guy being nerdy frustrated engineer from i dont know where) but if a cute guy walks in right now and does the SAME thing then you'll think it's awesome. really Shanno... WHAT do you want'
Peggy Olsen, Don's new girl secretary immediately starts sleeping with the asshole young dude in the office. As a single woman, she is seen as controllable and vulnerable, and proves theories right.
There's many times when I've let a dude do damage and sacrificed feminine pride, disappointing girl friends immensely.
'I can't BELIEVE HIM dude. why did you even let him!'
But only on instances when I have been madly in love, or madly drunk.
I was left wondering about what Sid- not really a man of wisdom- said. What DO we want?
Sometimes we want to be dropped home, looked out for, feel pretty, feel small, but at the same time we don't want to be undermined and overprotected.
Being a chick is no easy job (especially in THIS city). Men believe that it is a basic human right to examine you from head to toe like you were a creature from outer space, you are ALWAYS expected to be the 'bigger person', your watchman never looks you in the eye when I have a complaint but says 'aapke papa kahan hai'.
I am yelling, arguing, swearing- trying everything that makes the people of the world take me more seriously. At the same time that I was trying to fight my way through into a man's space, I was working out because I didn't want to get fat, freaking out about having no clothes, TRYING to be the bigger person, crying and making big eyes when I was caught by cops.
There were two struggles- to break out of being just a woman, and being MORE of one.
I also realized that we cross our gender restrictions from time to time but mostly are we comfortable in these places that we are in - man or woman, boy or girl, girlfriend or boyfriend?
Is there realism in our feminism....or we still getting there?
Shakespeare says that the ideal lover is not man OR woman, not both, but NONE.
I have more questions than answers.
Mad Men is fantastic.
For more gender based confusion derived from Madmen, check out my friend what my friend Chunni has to say.
The book is awful, but my professor is awesome, so it makes it bearable. She asked me what she thinks of the Rhett Butler-Scarlett O Hara relationship and I was like Rhett's the shit, come on. Ashley Wilkes, in the novel is Scarlett's other lover. He is a pianist, philosopher, and a 'fine' man while Rhett is rich, 'broad shouldered', and better in bed.
Immediately I hated Ashley and was like Rhett's the shit man, come on.
She told us that all women— smart or stupid,independent or suppressed , are schooled from the beginning to like a protoype of man.
We all wait to BE taken. It explains a bad-boy fetish that many of us have.
Are they Pussycat Dolls lying when they say- I don't need a man to make it happen?
If a woman is more attractive if she wears high heels, wants to be told random rubbish about the world, needs the man to hold her hand through everything then
does a man need to have a fast car, know how to stand up for himself and his chick, fight the bad-guys from time to time.
Are we constantly fighting parts of ourselves to be more man or more woman?
Why is there a rule book that defines us as either and where did it come to exist.
I started watching Mad Men yesterday- recommended to me by a friend and neighbour- and love it. All the women are fantastic, but I hate mostly all the men- with the exception of Don Draper. Like many times already, the superficialist in me was confirmed.
Why was Don D allowed to cheat on his wife, behave like a narrow minded jerkoff , assume that a woman's dream is making a family, and still get away with it.
Because he's sexy. He's strapping, nonchalant and mends things from time to time. I noticed everything wrong with him, but I was not angry. Only disappointed. Don to me was some sort of tragic hero, a great man fallen because of his own flaw. Essentially wrong, but attractive.
My friend Sid one day, over beer and pointless conversation said to me-
'you're really confusing man. you're pissed off because that guy keeps checking you out. (that guy being nerdy frustrated engineer from i dont know where) but if a cute guy walks in right now and does the SAME thing then you'll think it's awesome. really Shanno... WHAT do you want'
Peggy Olsen, Don's new girl secretary immediately starts sleeping with the asshole young dude in the office. As a single woman, she is seen as controllable and vulnerable, and proves theories right.
There's many times when I've let a dude do damage and sacrificed feminine pride, disappointing girl friends immensely.
'I can't BELIEVE HIM dude. why did you even let him!'
But only on instances when I have been madly in love, or madly drunk.
I was left wondering about what Sid- not really a man of wisdom- said. What DO we want?
Sometimes we want to be dropped home, looked out for, feel pretty, feel small, but at the same time we don't want to be undermined and overprotected.
Being a chick is no easy job (especially in THIS city). Men believe that it is a basic human right to examine you from head to toe like you were a creature from outer space, you are ALWAYS expected to be the 'bigger person', your watchman never looks you in the eye when I have a complaint but says 'aapke papa kahan hai'.
I am yelling, arguing, swearing- trying everything that makes the people of the world take me more seriously. At the same time that I was trying to fight my way through into a man's space, I was working out because I didn't want to get fat, freaking out about having no clothes, TRYING to be the bigger person, crying and making big eyes when I was caught by cops.
There were two struggles- to break out of being just a woman, and being MORE of one.
I also realized that we cross our gender restrictions from time to time but mostly are we comfortable in these places that we are in - man or woman, boy or girl, girlfriend or boyfriend?
Is there realism in our feminism....or we still getting there?
Shakespeare says that the ideal lover is not man OR woman, not both, but NONE.
I have more questions than answers.
Mad Men is fantastic.
For more gender based confusion derived from Madmen, check out my friend what my friend Chunni has to say.
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Lets examine my least favourite character - Pete Campbell. He's ambitious, but envious of others and insecure of his "talent", he uses women to get what he wants or just to make himself feel better momentarily (serious mommy complex, what?). He's sneaky, he's a kiss ass, he'd be exactly the kind of co-worker you'd hate. His vulnerability doesn't work well for him to him like Don's does (even though he was a dick to his brother, that was still a pretty intense scene. Don's "shadowy past" or whatever lets us be soft on him sometime. Pete is still stuck in some private school sense of schoolboy competition.
ReplyDeleteBut why do we like Don? (I'm not attracted to him, so that part is ruled out... I don't go so much for the broad shouldered old school man types) Somehow I think of the word integrity. Even though he ran out on his family/pretended to be dead, cheats on his wife, thinks he's obviously superior to women. He dislikes Pete and likes Peggy for that very reason.
And Joan is like those razor sharp women who get ahead in a "man's world" and don't have to compromise their femininity. She uses her sex appeal and charm and the weaknesses of the men around her without degrading herself. And she can hold her own in a meeting. I like Peggy because she's young and scared and full of ideas and potential and is at that stage where she wants to please people.
Woah. Problem. I think you totes misinterpreted Rhett Butler, Esq. He was a dashing, masculine scoundrel indeed. But a reformed one! He was as pussywhipped emo as it gets. The part where he's like 'Frankly, I don't give a damn' etc, that's not him being a dick, that's him reacting to Scarlett being a dick! For realsies.
ReplyDeleteAnd I quote the entertainment weekly review - "Which is why we don't cry for Scarlett (Come on! She had it coming!), but for her dashing, reformed scoundrel of a spouse who, after realizing she'll never love him, utters his legendary ''Frankly, my dear'' and leaves her, his heart broken for the last time"
Aw, poor Rhett.
What rubbish. But S is a psycho I know. I don't like the book at all though and it's a pain to study it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was merely questioning my inherent choice of the 'manly man'.
i thought getting to study popular fiction in coll is the next best thing,the best being not having to study at all,but then you call us nerdy frustrated guys from you donno where!
ReplyDeletehave a heart please,this is not the reception we expected after graduating from some of the best places!!
hello Ashish. I deeply apologize for any offence and i am aware that the reference was extremely superficial. Most of my friends are engineers actually- but Delhi also has a section of extremely creepy ones. But then those guys are everywhere. I didn't mean to label the category as a whole,it was just one guy. Popular fiction is pretty kickass you're right.
ReplyDelete