In my year long (plus) absence from blogging, there have been many topics which were and still are ripe upon which an aging smart ass can grab onto and opine mightily.
I could spend months on the current insanity of politics and more specifically, how certain members of both parties have become contentemporary characters straight out of Miller’s, ”The Crucible”. The only difference is the inflammatory accusations, It has nothing to with consorting with the devil. It’s much more broad than that, It’s scale is broad and more encompassing, Just be accused of being a racist. That’ll get you a big rock tied around your waist and dumped in 12 feet of metaphorical water fast.
Be accused of being a xenophobic…an imaginary fear and loathing of any and all foreigners. There’s Islamaphobic name calling, being a white suprmist will also do the trick, ignoring anyone demanding their struggle to identify with several different genders which have yet been defined, There’s fat shaming, thin shaming, bashing middle aged white men and something called “entitlement” which frankly, both vexes and entertains me.
I stopped blogging just as the Harvey Weinstein debacle was becoming mainstream news outside the insulated tinsel surrounding Hollywood. Casting couches and quick behind-the-desk masturbating sessions just for mere walk on roles have been Hollywood’s worst kept secrets since the days of silent movies. Yet studio heads asked it of women and women complied….just to get an acting gig. Me? I just couldn’t do it.
In the beginning, I’ll be honest— I bristled every time I heard someone blythely and blindly admit believing a woman just because she says she was accosted. I’m not necessarily saying she….they were lying and yes, I”m well aware that a certain prick-like behavior behavior consumes certain men of power, especially when they can yield power over a woman’s career. Especially vulnerable women who want to be a stars at all costs. And let’s not pretend for one minute these women don’t exist. Opportunists operate regardless of gender and it’s specific plumbing.
Did it happen with Harvey? I believe so. Is Crosby guilty? Are Matt Lauer, Al Franken guilty along with the UK’s Jimmy Saville? I gag as I say yes, probably.. Have some women lied to join in on a possible legal pay day in all this nonsense? Of course. The truth has been intertwined with greed, self-promotion, lies, and a certain pathology that far exceeds my level of understanding. One that goes beyond coming forth because there’s strength in numbers.
As for the general #MeToo movement, I guess I can say I’m a victim….sort of.. But it was never in a sexual nature. I was a broadcast journalist for three decades and yes, 99% of people in charge….the station managers, producers, directors, managing editors and station owners were all men. So, I was often told to shut up, that I wasn’t funny and I was frequently fat shamed on the air, often by a very vain on air personality with a face pulled back so tightly, his ears formed what looked like two paragraphs around his own asshole, This was in the mid to late 90’s. I might have been chubby, but I guess he respected me enough to allow me to make retaliatory comments….within reason and as long as they were funny. And when that happened on air, there were always conversations off air. No apologies. We just left the station later that day, only to arrive back to do it all again the next day.
Another on extraorindarily insecure guy with more paranoia than talent constantly trashed me to bosses. He stabbed me in the back repeatedly and tried to get me in troublel all the time, including talking openly with management about certain personal issues he knew I was having. He knew he was such a talentless hack that he endeavored to maintain job security by kissing more ass s then in the porn industry. The truth is, I was much funnier than he was. My timing was quicker. Me. A woman, That had to have impinged on his misplaced narcissism, What a pathetic little man he was.
As for the Weinsteinian approach to les femmes and gainful employment, I knew only a few women who were “forced” into compromising positions, not just to get jobs, but forced into recurrent behind closed door dalliances in order to keep her jobs. But fortunately those instances were few and far between and mercifully, I was never friends with any of them, And yes, I meant that. I wasn’t friends with them, nor would I have been. I wouldn’t be friends with a woman who thought so little of herself . Don’t even think about the men.
I will say that many of the women who paved the way before me in both TV and radio, had it much worse than me. I respect them very much. They heard the degrading comments and endured the boob grabs, the butt pinching and the lurid commentary about their bodies and possible sexual prowess. And these comments and actions were made by their coworkers or higher ups who had absolutely no right to say or do any of these things. So many were such ugly little trolls with more audacity than penis size.
In closing, I’ll turn 60 in a month and in doing so, I’ve lost a lot of rat’s ass. I dont care so much about certain things….or even public opinion. I have no issue being a woman and I’ve succeeded because of my gender and in spite of it, too. I guess I’ve been lucky for the most part, but while I think women are just as smart and capable in some ways as men, we’re not men and there are major chemical and neurological differences, emotional one’s too, and all that means we aren’t and we never will be equal, I don’t care what anyone says. It’ll never Happen. . We’re not as big or as strong.
The late, great independent force to be reckoned with, Katherine Hepburn has ALWAYS believed as I have about the differences in the sexes..
She way way more butch than I am and save for her multiple Oscar wins, her talent, her global reknown which still exists, all her money and her normal, happy childhood, we have a lot in common.
I think if Kate were ever approached by a lascivious agent, casting director or producer, I would imagine his ability to sire children would havevbeen greatly hindered.
if she were alive today, I’d invite her to join my movement, “ #Me? Not so much and with good reason”
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