I used to think it was just me who had the idea of being a “crazy cat lady” when I finally became an old spinster, but it turns out this is every independent woman’s dream.
Women: You may deny it, but every time you watch “Everybody Loves Raymond” or “King of Queens” or any other show that represents an unmotivated man married to a hot, successful woman, I know a part of you wants to hurry to the nearest alley to collect as many strays as can fit in your newly acquired shopping cart.
The question is, why does CBS and other networks try to sell this idea to the masses? Independent women being okay with, and even loving a man who’s only goal in life is to fart on his couch?
Answer: It’s all about the modern day witch hunt. To crush the witches by marrying them off to immature dunces.
Think about it: Back in the day, successful women were declared witches and then burned at the stake. And last time I checked, it was kind of illegal to call a woman a witch and then burn her at the stake. No matter if she’s made of wood or not. So what do we do?
We can pair her forever with dead weight. In the form of Kevin James. Perfect modern day handicapping of a woman who was really going to be somebody until she had to take care of her juvenile ball-in-chain.
Now, let me just say that I am nowhere near against marriage. I think there are some good men and women out there that can work well together to become successful people together and apart. But when sitcoms are bottling up the idea of men sitting back and letting their unhappy, overworked wives take charge of their lives, I say count me out of that love affair.
Yet, some women are buying it. If not in the CBS sitcom evening hour, then in fashion television.
I just got done watching a show entitled, “How Do I Look?” where a team of fashionable women picked on this hippy, dog-walker lady who everyone called “Crazy Linda.”
And why was she “crazy”?! Because she wore tie-dye. Apparently anyone who wears tie-dye is wearing the mark of insanity. Much as owning a cat is the mark of spinsterhood. All of which are the marks of witches.
The part that killed me about this “How Do I Look?” show was the fact that the only reason this woman wanted a makeover was because no man would give her a chance while she was in tie-dye.
As was dubbed the tag line for poor crazy Linda, “Will she drop her dated look for a chance at love or remain dateless?”
The point being: A man can find a hot, intelligent, successful woman while sitting in his underwear, complaining about not getting enough sex while “crazy Linda” can’t find one person interested in looking beyond a tie-dye shirt.
Modern day witch-hunt.
We may not identify our witches as those “pagan” women who are lighter than a duck, and able to float like wood (Monty Python, anyone? anyone?), but we do call them out on their love of tie-dye, fondness for cats and all things ceramic.
As a member of a new generation coming into power, I hope we teach our children that it’s okay to be a woman and not know a thing about fashion. To be a woman and not know how to put on make-up or have at least “five sure-fire ways to get rid of wrinkles.”
And above all, I hope we teach our children that being a man is nothing like being a Jim Belushi or Homer Simpson.
That we should all be exactly like Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke. Because that was the true point of this post.
-The Boxcar Children
Here, here. Preach on sister! Those sitcoms have always grossed me out as well but…. I’ve never managed to say it in as many words as you, or as well. I’ll be linking people to your page
[...] for some serious girl power, see this post. [...]
I went to Paris and then a lot of Italy….. It was gorgeous. Gotta say that I love Europe, even though it was nice to come home to normal toilets and customs
I actually get to spend all of next summer in Florence (SQUEEE!) so I am pretty excited about that, naturally….. Thanks for the comment!
What if she turned me into a newt?
Anyhoo, I do hate that the goal of so many TV makeovers is to land a date. We can’t just improve our appearance for ourselves? We can’t dress nice to feel good? No, apparently it’s all about trapping a man. Ugh.
Lovely post. Although I have watched the King of Queens and like the show, I have always cringed at the fact that Carrie (and other strong women in sitcoms — Marge, the wife in Everybody loves Raymond, etc.) are, as you so elegantly put it tied down to a “juvenile ball-in-chain.”
And here is where I reveal my total ignorance of blog communication: I wrote a blog about your blog and provided the link to readers of that blog to…here. I know there is a much more savy (and cooler) way of saying that, but damn if I know it.
Anyway, the link is should you care to check out the site (it is a very cool site!): http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/8591
Ciao!
DVNTWRITER: For some reason your links don’t work for me, but thanks for your comments and I’m sure your site is cool. If you send another link, I’ll check it out.
PS: I am working on my library collection and I own a cat. I drink teas (herbal), dislike getting the physical newspaper, and live for my computer.
Now all I need is a small house. I will xyriscape the yard so I don’t have to water (aka, don’t have to go outside). Oh, and the library in Beauty and the Beast? I take a scaled down version of that wonderful beautiful room.
Other than that, I’m just about set. Crazy Smart but rather Antisocial Cat Lady with Big Library and Every New Cool Electronic Gadget (up to date computers and TVs are a must!) status here I come!!!
“here kitty kitty…!”
Stupid Men & Hot Women…
While I guess there may be some lazy idiots sitting around wondering when that hot babe of a wife they are entitled to is going to show up, most smart men I know are just as offended by the gender stereotypes as we are.
Makes you wonder who, exact…..
Hmm… Well the official site is: http://www.feministing.com
Then if you go to the community page (just under the banner are a bunch of links going across the page. Community is the first one), you can search for it. I titled the post: Educated Women are Witches.
I’m new to the site, so I don’t know if there is a way to search for a specific post. At the moment of posting this comment, my post on that site was on page three.
Sorry that link didn’t work… Not sure what the issue is.
Dvntwriter is totally right, those sterotypes are making us look bad!
But, if my wife kept moving the foot stool so I tripped on it everyday, I’d be looking pretty hard at a divorse.
Just sayin’
I would not be opposed if everyone happened to be exactly like Angela Lansbury or Dick Van Dyke.
Ok I’m not at all against educated women. I think education is very important and everyone should be college educated and beyond. But what I have a big problem with is a lot of young college educated women who after college feel that they are these deserving young women who think they should be instantly be put in to higher positions without even working their way up to the positions. Say for example a VP position or a managing position a lot of women feel that since they have graduated college that they should instantly get those positions.
It’s interesting that science, articles and such say that women develop and mature more than men at an early age. But I think when women then go to college and after college graduation these women stop developing after college and once in the work place these women revert back to their high school days and don’t grow up until much later in life until they start a family or beyond. What I mean by that is when women get into the “real world” and start to work they bring out there insecurities and go back to their high school days of being these little catty, brats that think that now that they have graduated college they have this “special right” in the work force. These are the water cooler women that never get over the “deserving” issues. I have worked under a younger women that was a manager and she was just as I had expected. She didn’t have the experience to be manager, was this catty bitch that thought she should be in a higher position even though she was clueless. Much older women that have significant experience are excellent to work for because they have the experience, they grow out of the “deserving” attitude, and they finally realize they are just like everyone else and have to work their way up and can’t just get into the position because they feel entitled.
I don’t think that’s really a gender problem…it’s a generational problem. From what I have read of generation X and Y, there’s a sense of entitlement that hasn’t been as strong in generations past…probably mostly undeserved entitlement. Although you may try to pin-point this on women specifically, men are guilty of this every day as well (as far as I’m concerned). The reality is a bachelors is barely worth shit right now. So none of us should really feel all that entitled unless we have a PhD in Astrophysics. Thanks for the comment!
[...] and good. Just… no. (Another fellow English major blogger put the whole thing pretty aptly in this post, if you want more on this [...]