which one is a lobster?
Apr. 15th, 2004 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabI'm awake, hanging in Mozilla Hottoad playing a rousing round or two of Which One is a Lobster?, morning's pretty status quo.
Then I came across Housekeeping Monthly's Guide to the Good Wife, from 1955. Really, it's no different from any of a dozen post-war era Rules-type propaganda (a good bunch of which has circled the internet and LJ while we all point and goggle and take secret comfort in how far we've come -- and take secret horror from how much we haven't really changed), but today the cynic and the idealist in my brain were genuinely incredulous. "1955!" the idealist said. "Simone de Beauvoir's published half a dozen things! Gloria Steinem's a bra-burning coed already! I don't get it!"
"Heh heh heh heh," the cynic said. My cynic's not so lucid in the mornings, but then, she doesn't have to be, with an article that says "remember -- his topics of conversation are more important than yours." My idealist said, "that's gotta be ironic, right? I mean, just a little bit? There's gotta be at least one female editor on that magazine staff with a wicked sense of humor, eh? Even in 1955?"
"Heh heh heh," the cynic said.
Now I want to see DS9's "Far Beyond the Stars." I wonder if I sold that season back.
[ETA: Hail my inner idealist, for she is quick to spot that which is too-TOO over the top. It hasn't been proven conclusively, but I've got good money on the hoax team. http://www.snopes2.com/language/document/goodwife.htm
The point being; the language of the so-called ad has that ironic button-pushing edge to it. You can see the difference between "don't complain even if he stays out all night" and "don't try to excel him in anything which requires masculine ability." It's subtle, but it was enough to make me sit up and question the Good Wife article, anyway. Maybe it's that the idea of complaining "if he stays out all night" strikes me as having great tongue-in-cheek implications of "let him sleep with his secretary!" and "he's probably a big queer!" -- all of which are things that we'd comment on, now, in the way the Snopes entry suggests, but we probably wouldn't have then.
Point being, the spirit of the law is certainly representative of its time. But the letter of the law sounds subversive, to me.]
*
Still to come in this issue...
"Thursday is Toot Your Own Horn Day!"
"Why I Like Villains: A Fugue"
"LJ or Userinfo: Which is the Cover Page?"
"'Parliament of Dreams' is Today's Favorite Episode"
"How I'm Procrastinating on the B5 Ficathon Fic: an editorial"
And this week's quiz: "What's That Crunchy Thing Edith's Eating?"
*
Meanwhile, if you're looking for red, white, or yellow-all-over, Giselle Burton of Babylon 5's Best Tabloid, Galaxy Gab, just released her second issue.
Then I came across Housekeeping Monthly's Guide to the Good Wife, from 1955. Really, it's no different from any of a dozen post-war era Rules-type propaganda (a good bunch of which has circled the internet and LJ while we all point and goggle and take secret comfort in how far we've come -- and take secret horror from how much we haven't really changed), but today the cynic and the idealist in my brain were genuinely incredulous. "1955!" the idealist said. "Simone de Beauvoir's published half a dozen things! Gloria Steinem's a bra-burning coed already! I don't get it!"
"Heh heh heh heh," the cynic said. My cynic's not so lucid in the mornings, but then, she doesn't have to be, with an article that says "remember -- his topics of conversation are more important than yours." My idealist said, "that's gotta be ironic, right? I mean, just a little bit? There's gotta be at least one female editor on that magazine staff with a wicked sense of humor, eh? Even in 1955?"
"Heh heh heh," the cynic said.
Now I want to see DS9's "Far Beyond the Stars." I wonder if I sold that season back.
[ETA: Hail my inner idealist, for she is quick to spot that which is too-TOO over the top. It hasn't been proven conclusively, but I've got good money on the hoax team. http://www.snopes2.com/language/document/goodwife.htm
The point being; the language of the so-called ad has that ironic button-pushing edge to it. You can see the difference between "don't complain even if he stays out all night" and "don't try to excel him in anything which requires masculine ability." It's subtle, but it was enough to make me sit up and question the Good Wife article, anyway. Maybe it's that the idea of complaining "if he stays out all night" strikes me as having great tongue-in-cheek implications of "let him sleep with his secretary!" and "he's probably a big queer!" -- all of which are things that we'd comment on, now, in the way the Snopes entry suggests, but we probably wouldn't have then.
Point being, the spirit of the law is certainly representative of its time. But the letter of the law sounds subversive, to me.]
*
Still to come in this issue...
"Thursday is Toot Your Own Horn Day!"
"Why I Like Villains: A Fugue"
"LJ or Userinfo: Which is the Cover Page?"
"'Parliament of Dreams' is Today's Favorite Episode"
"How I'm Procrastinating on the B5 Ficathon Fic: an editorial"
And this week's quiz: "What's That Crunchy Thing Edith's Eating?"
*
Meanwhile, if you're looking for red, white, or yellow-all-over, Giselle Burton of Babylon 5's Best Tabloid, Galaxy Gab, just released her second issue.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 10:18 am (UTC)Gotta add galaxygab to John's friendlist - all the news that's unfit to print.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 10:26 am (UTC)Quite so, and besides, John might feature in the next issue...
Energy?
Date: 2004-04-16 03:22 pm (UTC)Blah...sorry...I'm about to graduate (undergrad) right now and I'm bitter at the world.
I envy you, sweetie.