She never wears pink.
Wait! I know what you're thinking: "That's all you have to say about one of the top investigative journalists in the world?? You comment about what she wears?! Why does everybody moan about the fashions and hair of serious women reporters? I don't hear you making snippy remarks about Lou Dobbs' ties!"
Hear me out.
That's my whole point. Why can't a woman be tough, competent and basically brilliant, without going on-air wearing #%$*-ing pink? So many anchors and reporters are showing up in pink lately. I haven't been keeping a log. Maybe I should start doing so. But it isn't just the Barbie-doll anchors. It's the serious, smart ones in the field, who have important things to tell us.
The Husband and I watch news at lunch and dinner. I've begun taking a moment out from nibbling my cheese toast to say:
"Pink."
out loud, whenever one pops up, and this is getting to be once or twice a day. On occasion, The Husband will say it first. I'm a bad influence.
Well, i might start keeping a notebook next to me, to document just how bad this cutesification of women reporters gets. I can tell you that CNN's Kathleen Koch wore hot pink last night, to bring us a serious report from the White House.
What is this pink trend about? Are the pointy-haired bosses afraid that CNN's women are too FemiNazi, and need to show that they're nice and Girlie, just like the Nurturing Ladies of Fox News?
Never mind. Kitty never wears pink. She's a serious journalist and she wears serious suits with no apologies. The day she gives in to the "Fem yourself up, pretty Little Lady!" idiots that have turned the news into Fashionista Central, I'll cry. Why the heck should she? When you've got a resume like this you don't need to.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Lucy van Pelt is my heroine.
When she's not winning trophies for championship fussing, or creating slide shows of other Peanuts characters' shortcomings, she's dispensing five-cent psychiatry from her booth.
One of my all time favorite Peanuts comic strips is found in Peanuts Treasury*, near the end of the book -- ten pages from the back. It dates from the early 1960's.
Charlie Brown laments that he feels like he doesn't fit in.
Lucy: Have you ever seen any other worlds?
Charlie Brown: No.
Lucy: As far as you know, this is the only world there is....right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: There are no other worlds for you to live in ... right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: You were born to live in this world ... right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: WELL, LIVE IN IT THEN! Five cents please.
--
It's positively Socratic!
I have to confess that I often feel more like the Charlie Brown of this strip, than like Lucy. But the beauty of Peanuts is that every character has a little bit of me in him or her.
When the Charlie Brown in me feels like this world is insane and hopeless, and like I don't belong, that's when I need the Lucy in me to remind myself: Wait just one freakin-A minute! I belong here! I was created for this nutty place, it's mine just as much as it's anyone else's and I need to be a little more like Lucy about it.
Thus the name of my blog. I'll keep living in this world. And enjoying it when it's nifty and beautiful, which life truly is, so much of the time. And i'll keep trying to make sense of it when it seems insane!
--
* Peanuts Treasury. Charles M. Schulz. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. SBN 03-072585-2
When she's not winning trophies for championship fussing, or creating slide shows of other Peanuts characters' shortcomings, she's dispensing five-cent psychiatry from her booth.
One of my all time favorite Peanuts comic strips is found in Peanuts Treasury*, near the end of the book -- ten pages from the back. It dates from the early 1960's.
Charlie Brown laments that he feels like he doesn't fit in.
Lucy: Have you ever seen any other worlds?
Charlie Brown: No.
Lucy: As far as you know, this is the only world there is....right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: There are no other worlds for you to live in ... right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: You were born to live in this world ... right?
Charlie Brown: Right.
Lucy: WELL, LIVE IN IT THEN! Five cents please.
--
It's positively Socratic!
I have to confess that I often feel more like the Charlie Brown of this strip, than like Lucy. But the beauty of Peanuts is that every character has a little bit of me in him or her.
When the Charlie Brown in me feels like this world is insane and hopeless, and like I don't belong, that's when I need the Lucy in me to remind myself: Wait just one freakin-A minute! I belong here! I was created for this nutty place, it's mine just as much as it's anyone else's and I need to be a little more like Lucy about it.
Thus the name of my blog. I'll keep living in this world. And enjoying it when it's nifty and beautiful, which life truly is, so much of the time. And i'll keep trying to make sense of it when it seems insane!
--
* Peanuts Treasury. Charles M. Schulz. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. SBN 03-072585-2
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