it's been a rough day or so here in volanskyland, so if you have candles to light or chants to, um, chant, do them. a special shout-out to a special friend: kiddo, here's looking at you.
today, i would like to talk about THE ZEITGEIST.
the oxford english dictionary defines zeitgeist as "The spirit or genius which marks the thought or feeling of a period or age. "
for the moment, let us not dwell on the fact that this entry was probably submitted by an insane person...check out this book for full details:
at any rate, i like to think of myself as one who tracks what people are reading, what they are watching, what they are talking about, you know, around the water cooler (thank you maria for providing this much-needed item to the spanish house).
i recently purchased copies of FREAKONOMICS, tom friedman's book THE WORLD IS FLAT and zadie smith's ON BEAUTY. i was first in line to read bill clinton's book, got AMERICA: THE BOOK on the day it came out and bought wilco's last CD within a day of its release.
you see what you are dealing with.
however.
would someone PLEASE explain to me two things:
1) tuesday's new york times article that talks about women attending yale and penn who pay a fortune to get their degrees and decide that it is "sexy" to stay at home with the kids?
2) the chatter on discussion lists and on blogs about women who want to date/marry/have sex with SERIAL KILLERS?
here's what i know about the stay-at-home moms i know: they are all smart, talented, opinionated women who view staying at home as "one part of their lives." they are clear-headed and realistic about the challenges that may face them if and when they return to the workforce. all are well-educated and spent time working. i don't imagine that any of them would call staying at home, on certain days, "sexy."
can someone give me another perspective?
as far as the serial killers go, i got nothing. help?
finally, to tap just a bit further into my psyche, i had a very provocative dream two nights ago that involved bruce willis.
we all know my love and adoration for bruce springsteen. do you think that something got crossed in my REM wires and dreamland provided the wrong bruce for me to fantasize about? it was hot, but, um...it was bruce willis.
enjoy your days, keep my heart in your thoughts and be in touch.
gotohellifyouhatefreedom,
volansky
10 comments:
Man, I hate spam. I get it in my blog, too. Anyway, "sexy" is not confined to that article in the Times. The abuse of the word "sexy" is quite widespread these days, and since I've been the point man for the persepctive from the sports world ever since I graced your classes with my presence two years past, I can tell you that there is nothing so unsettling as hearing a 6'5" point guard out of Indiana being described as a "sexy" pick by an NBA draft analyst who is wearing entirely too much hair gel.
i am one of those stay-at-home moms who paid A LOT of money to go to yale. i am not sexy. staying home is not sexy. i just cooked separate orders of chicken nuggets and spaghettios for my 2 children. i am wearing pink sweatpants. the sexy stay at home mom is a myth.
I'm the first to admit that I'd like to be in the kithen more than a lot of other places, but I don't believe 'sexy' could ever go in with 'stay-at-home mom.' I can't really fathom how chasing after children and doing laundry and house stuff could make one feel sexy. Perhaps fulfilled in a certain way, perhaps a lot of other things, but certainly not sexy.
And... serial killers? *blinks* WHAT?! Are these women just ASKING to make thier lives an episode of Maury Povich? I thought the goal was to find someone at least SEMI sane, and, you know, not dangerous.
I mean really. Who ARE these people?!
two thoughts:
1. When a yale-educated woman wants to stay home to raise children it is sexy. When an under-educated woman wants to stay home to raise children it is lazy.
2. The yale educated woman is wrong. On all counts. Just wait 'til she has to put "brush teeth" in her palm pilot in order to maintain good oral hygeine.
Although.
Maybe Stacy's Mom went to Yale???
S
Hi Volansky!
Sarah C. told me about your "failure", "I'm feeling lucky" search on google and it was yet another thing I could add to the long list of reasons why you rock. I came here to find the comment, and then respond, but I only have time to skim... So i'm responding to this post.
You should visit http://www.venganza.org/index.htm
and enjoy
Miss you, hope all is well.
~tess
i blame a bad combination of desperate housewives, sex and the city, paris hilton, ally mcbeal, wine coolers, and biore. there's a message that was in the beginnings of the feminist movement that's getting lost in our generation.
Obviously, I have a lot of work to do today...
Now the New York Times, as wonderful as it is, sometimes is wayward, as evidenced by their endorsing Pataki in 2002, which promptly cancelled my subscription.
Now it goes without saying we all respect stay-at-home moms immensely. But as already evidenced by the comments, sexy is not a term they would consider an appropriate adjective to their being.
I think the Times is most likely spending too much time in the Upper East Side with women who had a good education, gave up the career for family, live in the doorman high rises, and happen to have husbands who make a killing downtown. I can say this with almost absolute certainty - I used to watch them carting their babies in and out of spas, high ed salons, Barney's, and Macy's - all while on their cellphone chatting with the husbands about what time they'd be home for dinner. They stood out in the crowd because they were obviously the mothers of the children they were toting around instead of a nanny. These are the women that were featured in a Time magazine article last year who also happened to denounce feminism with an air of indignity. Do these women consider themselves sexy? Yes, they do. I know them. But that's New York for you. Everyone's got an opinion.
As for the serial killers thing, that's just plain crazy. I've read an article in Time a few months ago about the women throwing themselves at Scott Peterson's feet through snail mail, begging him to marry them. These are women who clearly have issues with their self-esteem, much like Ann Coulter. Who is really a man.
-Keez
Oh, and one more thing - The Professor and the Madman is probably one of my favorite books.
Have you read "Crimes Against Nature" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. yet? You'll love it.
I am not a stay at home mom. I am, most definitely, a mom. Being a mom on most days is not a sexy occupation. Today, as a mom, I have washed a soccer uniform, corrected math homework, scraped together enough change for lunch money, and made sure the kid was wearing clean clothes and brushed her teeth. All of this before I went to work.
I am not a well-educated mom, but toward the end of becoming better educated, I am a part-time student. The rest of today's plans include work, transport to/from and cheerleading at the soccer game, baking brownies for a bake sale to benefit Katrina victims, and reading, comprehending, and being able to speak intelligently about the Communist Manifesto by 10:00AM tomorrow morning.
None of this is sexy. I go to work every day because I have to. I do wonder if, given different financial circumstances and proper planet alignment, I would have the fortitude to be a stay at home mom. I'm not sure that I would.
I applaud the lady in the pink sweatpants and all those other moms, stay at home or not, who get up every day and take care of their kids. We certainly don't do it because it's sexy.
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