Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A strange week for women

The past week has been a strange one for women. Writing about the 2012 election season, New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot wrote,“If there was a war on women this year, it looks like the women are winning" with a record 20 women taking U.S. Senate seats next year. Candidates who made extremely unpopular (and I must add offensive) remarks about women and rape did not win their elections. In this respect, it was a good week for American women.

Then I read Expat Mum's blog yesterday, who alerted me to the delicious irony of Liz Jones. Jones had been invited to speak at a mom-blogging event in London and really put her foot in it declaring herself not a writer but an artist. In her column she ridicules the women who stay home with their children and blog for income. Because, you know, brand-dropping, divulging one's marital woes in excruciating detail, and insulting one's neighbors in newsprint is what real writers -- I mean artists -- do.  Given the chance, I think Liz Jones would defend Todd Akin if she knew it would give her more page views.

And today? Back across the pond we've got a massive DC sex scandal that gets stranger by the day. At the center, two women, one who had an affair with the head of the CIA and the other, it's reported today, was dallying with the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and who also happened to be the target of hands-off-my-man e-mails from the woman who had the affair with the head of the CIA. The mind boggles! The older I get, the more I believe that some women never evolve past seventh grade and men, no matter how smart they are, are guided by the heads in their pants. Anyway, I think this sex scandal is going to be a potboiler. I sense offers from Playboy for the two women. Two steps back. I can't help but wonder what U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is thinking of all this as she's traveling in Australia with the U.S. Secretary of Defense today?

Today I'm 48. Here's one of my birthday presents from a secret admirer, a skein of sock yarn from The Woolen Rabbit in New Hampshire in the most appropriate colorway, Scottish Heather. Sorry for the cruddy picture but it's very dark and gray here today, a common occurrence on my birth day. I love the muted purples and heathery greens of this yarn; it will make a perfect cowl to go along with my gray down jacket.

5 comments:

  1. Happy BIrthday and thanks for the shout out. Yes, this DC scandal certainly has legs, as they say. Goodness knows where it's going to end up.

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  2. Hi,

    I am a long time reader of your blog but I don't comment very often. What a surprise to find out we share a birthday! Happy Birthday to you! I am 47 today so pretty close in age to you as well. Add to that the fact that anything British interests me. I guess that explains my interest in your blog.
    Have a great day!! :)

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  3. Jan, happy birthday to you, too -- and thank you! Hope you had a wonderful day. :)

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  4. Happy Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day filled with good things!

    I have to say, the DC sex scandal thing is bizarre. If someone wrote a movie with this plot it would be laughed at for being so unbelievable. The thing that boggles my mind is how someone who was the head of the top spy agency in the world wasn't smart enough to know how to send emails that couldn't be traced.

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  5. Thank you Toni and Kristie. I agree with you, Kristie -- the whole "plot" sounds fictional. It wouldn't pass muster in film school. But Watergate was kind of like that, too. :-/

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