Day 23, 739:How Far We’ve Come.
OK, I’m about four chapters into listening about Amy Schumer’s life and wondering why I’m spending the time. I know I said mindless listening was good to get my mind off of things, but at what point am I wasting my time versus feeding it?
I was about to delete the book entirely, when I made the conscious decision to just keep going. It’s not because I’m committed to finishing a book I started. I abandoned that line of thinking years ago. Instead, I feel it’s potential insight into the generation of women behind me and how they perceive the world.
Related Post: Back to Hitting the Books
For mother’s day a few years ago, I was gifted two memoirs of celebrities from my day and age. I really wanted them and indulged in learning about the life of Candice Bergen and Kate Mulgrew. It was thrilling when Mulgrew came on the scene as the first female captain of a starship on Star Trek’s Voyager. It was equally thriller to watch Bergen’s Murphy Brown star as an anchorwoman of a major network and take on the Vice President Dan Quayle on his outdated perceptions of women’s abilities to raise children out of wedlock.
Celebrities lives shouldn’t matter, but in odd ways they do. Their roles reflect how far or
not far we’ve come as women in the real world. Kate Mulgrew felt she had to give up a child for adoption or give up her career. Candice Bergen, who could have child out of wedlock on TV, still had to portray a woman who was successful only because she lived and competed like a man, and not a pleasant one at that. She chewed through assistants and was a difficult work colleague at best.
And now there’s Amy Schumer talking about all sorts of sexual topics out in public. She follows Tina Fey who wrote Bossy Pants, one bio I haven’t yet read but my daughter devoured.
In some ways it feels that celebs are showing us how far we’ve come in embracing success, frank talk, and ability to run our own shows. In other ways, it feels we’re still playing a man’s game with shock talk, hard-nosed bossiness and crass brassiness. On the plus side, Amy Schumer talks about how she works to have a positive work environment on all her sets and share the wealth whenever possible. Sadly, a movie about a person like that wouldn’t have much box office appeal.
I worry because the common knowledge is that life is stranger than fiction, but that fiction portrays real life more than we’d like to admit. What feels real is that real women don’t want equality anymore. That’s my generation’s game. Now, they want what they truly deserve, which is the corner office and being recognized for being the alpha dog. To that, I support the whole slate of celebrity authors and cheer them on. It’s why I’m still listening to Amy Schumer.
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Daily Focus on Gun Sanity: It’s sad that it has taken Parkland for the nation to again hear the voices of the parents of Sandy Hook. According to many sources, it appears they never disappeared and kept fighting and are still fighting for common sense gun control, but somehow we stopped hearing about their ongoing, valiant efforts. Today, they are encouraging all schools to start or support Save Promise Clubs, where SAVE stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere. The clubs help students recognize signs of trouble and continue to educate each other and us on the truth about gun violence.
The Crone Diary 