Bad Feminist=smart thinking
I came across this post this morning on the “Bad Feminist” blog.
She questions the progressives’ constant attacks on Wal-Mart, citing the recent example in Chicago, in which “just sixteen months after Chicago aldermen blocked a Wal-Mart in Chicago’s South Side, 25,000 people applied for just 325 jobs in a suburb right over the Chicago border; accosording to The New Editor, all but 500 of the applicants live in the city, which lost an estimated $1 million in property and sales tax. The Chicago Sun-Times has more on this story.”
(Full disclosure, my firm does work for Wal-Mart, but this isn’t what this post is about).
The larger question, for many women these days, is how do our deeply-ingrained feminist, progressive principles jibe with how we feel now? Where the country is headed? The deep polarization of both parties when real life is JUST NOT BLACK AND WHITE. I’m a feminist who believes in chivalry, and a Democrat who believes in capital punishment.
Shrinkage and Brokeback Mountain
I finally saw Brokeback Mountain last night. I bawled my eyes out. My boyfriend pretended to be bored, and my girlfriend and I enjoyed gaping at Heath Ledger.
I thought it was a profoundly moving and sad story. Mostly I came away thanking the Lord for my exposure to psychotherapy. And not just my exposure (although granted my exposure was more intense than others, being from a Jewish upper-middle class divorced family in NJ).
Everyone in our culture is exposed to the learnings and effects of psychotherapy. Oprah magazine, Oprah’s show, Dr. Phil…all have allowed every American to actively seek to be in touch with his/her feelings.
Ennis’ torture, his inability to love or choose what he needs for a modicum of a happy exisitence: all is directly connected not only to the strictures and homophobia of the time he lived, but of the pre-insight era. I would imagine in the 60′s and 70′s, an examined life was restricted to those who had the education and means to seek it.
Perhaps I am being naive, but I don’t believe Dr. Phil or Oprah would let Ennis and Jack Twist be apart today.
I thought of another, similarly moving film about the love that dare not speak its name, and this love’s ability to ruin lives…A Man of No Importance, with Albert Finney. Netfilix it.
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. In her spare time, Morra enjoys blogging about women and politics. Read her full bio >>
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