I feel it has become acceptable to criticize men much more so than it is to criticize women. Having a pair of tits is not the funniest joke in the world any more but making generalizations about maleness (can't multi task, can't ask for direction, useless at remembering anniversaries blah blah blah) is more than acceptable and I don't like it. Men - the truth I don't believe it is good enough to pass off horrible behaviour in the classroom as 'its because he is a boy'. Horrible behaviour is horrible regardless of gender.
A feminist book
So it was with trepidation that I picked up a feminist book called 'How to be a Woman' because I thought it might be another opportunity of cheap man knocking. I was wrong. It turns out that me and Caitlin Moran think almost the same about a long list of issues.
Investment Handbags are just wrong
There are a whole load of vacuous so called symbols of femininity that I don't get. Gel nails with sparkles, long hair, OK Magazine and shopping or even worse shopping with friends, having more than one handbag, having a handbag that costs the same as a car! Moran is of the opinion that having an 'investment' handbag is total nonsense. I totally agree. A bag is meant to carry things around (not small dogs) and with luck matches your outfit, so don't be sucked in by the global marketing techniques that matches a stick insect woman with an ugly handbag. Expensive equals good does it? NO! And if you think otherwise then you'll have to be satisfied with the fact that I am right and you are wrong!
The modern wedding
The average cost of a wedding is 25,000 pounds. That is a shocking amount of money and I blame the conveyor belt mentality on advertising and reality tv. Conveyor belt meaning that the couple get whisked along on a spending spree of what they think is expected of them and the belt keeps on moving them along until they wave good bye to all the guests to boogie the night away at the reception. After that is when the shock of managing their budget month to month, paying a mortgage and bringing up children they wish they'd used that money on something more practical. Moran feels the same and she talks so much sense on the subject. Set up surprise proposals and having a wedding planner, matching table centre pieces and bridesmaids is not real.
Superfluous Hair
The removal of hair from various parts of the body for very confusing socially acceptable or unacceptable reasons has become the norm and Moran's theory is this new fashion is fuelled by the easy access of porn via the internet where hair has been eliminated for the sake of a good shot (if you pardon the expression). I too have expressed my opinion about hair in a previous blog Superfluous Hair so you can see that I should have written this book and become as rich and famous as Ms Moran.
Caitlin has become my hero, she loves her husband and her children, loves femine clothes and particularly underwear, but not high heels. I think her description of the birth of her first child sounds like a horror story although she got it all right the second time. I felt rather smug at this point in the book because I got it right on the first go - I have no horror story about child birth. I had two text book, natural births with no drama invovled and didn't feel the need to utter expletives throughout the experience.
It is so funny
I encourage you all, male or female, to read How to be a Woman because it made me laugh an incredible amount (there is a sad, controvertial bit, be warned). She does say towards the end that she still doesn't know how to be a woman because she hasn't yet reached the menopause, had teenage children or experienced the death of a parent so I guess I must be ahead of her about learning how to do it.
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