So, I flip on the tv and, of course, it's on Comedy Central where
Meatballs II is playing - I've never seen it, or the first one, through, I don't think. Anyhow, it tunes in just as a mom, played by Jamie Leigh Curtis, is dropping off her early teen daughter at the (I'm guessing) wacky summer camp:
Mom: Remember now, boys only want one thing.
Daughter: But that's a good thing, right?
Mom: But they never want it when you want it.
Heh. I have no point, really, I just thought it was funny. And a little unexpected, like the tables have been turned. The flick's from 1984. Huh.
12 comments:
I think it was in the 80's that the Women Complaining About Men Movement was born. Women were portrayed as POWER SUITS (with white sneakers for the walk into the building) with lots of ladder-climbing ambition. And men, of course, were the obstacle to be overcome.
9 to 5, Working Girl, The Secret of My Success, and so on.
This evolved into the 90's sitcom dynamic -- idiot husband, naggy wife, rotten kids.
I suppose this was all a reaction to the previous wife/mother roles depicted as the June Cleavers, Donna Reeds, and eventually into the Carol Bradys. The next natural evolutionary step was to show the women in the workplace with ambition.
And with ambition comes status, power, and the ability to finally say there's a time when the previously doting, submissive wife DOESN'T want the typical animal husbandry, a.k.a. "two minutes in heaven".
I dunno. That's my analysis after waking from a weird 5 hour nap. 8)
They made a Meatballs II?? Tell me Bill Murray stayed away.
I think his little brother did Meatballs II
I think it was in the 80's that the Women Complaining About Men Movement was born.
You mean 80BC, right? Didn't we just discuss Lysistrata? It's a very funny play, and very bawdy, with lots of comments about *ahem* men's performance (or lack thereof). No, women have always complained about men, it just wasn't until the '80s that people actually started listening - partly because it turned out women were making most of the consumer choices in the home, and watching the tv the most, so marketing was aimed at them and partly because of the civil rights movements of the '60s and '70s - remember the "battle of the sexes" that culminated in the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs showdown? Women rebelled against the sterotypes that kept them in the kitchen because it didn't reflect reality. By the '80s women started bumping up against the glass ceiling, and a lot of struggle ensued which was reflected in popular culture. It's still going on today, because women are still having trouble with that glass ceiling.
And with ambition comes status, power, and the ability to finally say there's a time when the previously doting, submissive wife DOESN'T want the typical animal husbandry, a.k.a. "two minutes in heaven".
Well, status and power don't necessarily come after ambition - it took several years to get women in positions of semi-power (remember my links to the number of women in Congress over the years), and we're still fighting. It also took a long time for the FCC to catch up - Sex and the City would have been rated X in the '70s and '80s, and still had to be shown on HBO when it came out. Even when it got very popular, it made many men uncomfortable, because it confirmed that women, when they're alone, compare dick sizes and performance.
Of course, as women start gaining more access to status and power, we've seen the rise of silly ass men's rights movements, where they all whine about how poorly they're treated, how unfair the court is to them in divorce cases, how totally oppressed they are because they can't sexually harrass women in the workplace. They whine about the depiction of men on sitcoms (a venue where turning tables is the fookin' whole reason for being there!). Funny, no one ever questions why the hot chick would want to marry such stoopid fat slobs, but that's another story...
My secret hope is now that women have reached (and in rare cases transcended) the glass ceiling, they take a look around and realize that it's all bullshit. The whole corporate culture. The thing they made look so appealing in those 80's movies -- it's really just boring bullshit completely devoid of any sense of fulfillment, and I'm not talking about money.
I always hated those movies. The ones that try to glamorize the business world.
It is what it is and we do it for the money. People buying and selling goods and services. It's economics. Let's try not to fantasize it into escapism.
I have zero interest in that world.
And for the record, on those sitcoms I never watched, I ALWAYS wondered how we were supposed to believe the hot wife married the chubby dufus.
ALSO not my form of escapism, thank you very much. Luckily, those shows are dying off.
It is interesting how that sitcom dynamic -- doofy hubby, bitchy wife, shitty kids -- seemed to appear more in public as those shows rose in popularity. I'd see that family at the mall or the grocery store.
Is it art imitating life, or the other way around? I dunno. It's pretty fucking annoying though.
Sorry I had to make that sentence fancy. I feel quite strongly about it. 8)
Help!
Help!
I'm bein' repressed!
Is it art imitating life, or the other way around?
Prolly what I call the "full moon" effect; you notice it more because you've become more aware of it. Just like when there's a crazy day and people say "oh, it's probably the full moon!" I wanna smack 'em because other than miniscule tidal effects, the moon has nothing to do with behavior. You just notice craziness more, because you've heard all your life that the full moon affects people. Studies have proven this - and they have taken into account the people who wait for a full moon just to act crazy.
And there are good sitcoms - I've been catching Scrubs on Comedy Central, and it's pretty goddamn funny.
But sad to say, there are people who thrive on the fast-paced, dog eat dog world of business. Not my bag, I just wanna live and let live, (while totally snarking about the way others live, of course), and stay out of the mainstream. But I've known people who thrive on the stress and the speed and the competition, women and men. And it's like a race between these two people - imagine them running full bore around the track and suddenly, just before the finish, the woman slams into an invisible wall while the man sails over the line. It's just not fair, she kept up all along, she can do the job. She's taken all the crap and given it, too, and for less pay. Why should she be barred from the top because she has boobies and a vagina, eh?
Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Heehee!
Hey snark, didja see? I'm back on L&L. Not sure how I can top He Is Risen, though. I was thinking of boobies.
Hmm. Maybe I should have said "I was thinking of a picture of boobies."
Hmm. Still not right; maybe "I was thinking of posting a picture of boobies."
Aw, never mind. How 'bout kittens in a cup???
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