THE AMERICAN BIMBO SYNDROME
We've each heard the story of the class beauty sitting at home for the prom, because every guy was sure someone else had already asked her....!
As has been said, all stories are true and some even happened. This one happened to the girl-of-my- dreams who, years later, smiled: "Why didn't you ever call?" Omigod, if only I knew then what I know know. But then such foolishness is the way of the world. Especially the world of hormone-charged adolescent boys.
Now at this age, however, we have less excuse. And yet recent surveys among Northwestern freshmen suggest there is still a kind of beast in being beautiful. The intuitional male reaction to beautiful females is a schizophrenic one that often lasts right into adulthood. Sensual attraction, but sentient repulsion. You want them at the same time you resent them.
That would seem to explain some of the reasons men find it hard to vote for or work for smart attractive women. For some, she's still that cool beauty on campus who never gave me a second look! For details check with the attractive, smarter-than-their-looks-convey women who have tried to become senators, CEOs, news anchors, and university presidents.
When the Gloria Steinem's of our times correctly spoke for the emancipation of women, they tended to speak of women in general. But the bright attractive women in particular sometimes got lost in the revolutionary shuffle. Cursed with the bimbo-syndrome (from Marilyn Monroe to Goldie Hawn), they often face the irony of having to beauty-down to be taken more seriously.
Sounds like another Oprah special, only even Oprah has suffered the curse by becoming too famous too fast. Now if only I had called Peggy for that prom, I wouldn't be writing about this stuff...
HATING COMES WITH BEING HUMAN
A great many pundits are psycho-analyzing the electorate these days. Why in the name of Richard Nixon are so many people so suspicious of everything the government does....?
Well, straight off, lets put issues aside. I mean, actual fact-based issues are not really what's at the heart of most of the political hysteria. Serious thinking is much too complicated. But what's not complicated is serious fearing. Ever since we got dumped from the Garden, we've been a deadly-serious fearing sort of species. We fear the night, the storms, the tribe across the river, the nation across the border, the religion down the street, anyone who looks and acts differently than us. Hey -- we're advised that's just how our evolutionary genes have programmed us for survival!
The evolutionary history of our nation is pretty short compared to other civilizations with their longer track record of suspicions and fears. But we're catching up fast. And in a democracy, your suspicions and fears have the added elegance of being heralded as the "voice of the people."
So what do we the people focus on? Well, naturally, anything that seems suspicious and fearful. Over the last century that's included the Kaiser... Demon Rum...Hebert Hoover...FDR...Adolf Hitler....Elvis Presley....Barry Goldwater... Richard Nixon...the CIA....Bill Clinton...and every American's favorite bogeyman since King George III: the government!
Ask some of the indignant, poster-waving, democracy-in-action folks addressing town hall meetings and picketing presidential address to their children. They'll tell you what they're most afraid of. That's right! The same government who builds their highways and roads, inspects their food and water, guards their national health, and all that other subversive stuff Oliver Stone movies and Glenn Beck exposes report.
This is not to say the government is always the solution. But it is to say it's not always the problem. In a democracy, the people in their suspicious, fearful misinformation may be the biggest problem of all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I never thought about the "men" resenting the "beautiful" women....they always WANT them. I think the beauties are more resented by the plain jane women. I have a friend that looks like a model, and even some of her closest friends really resent her for her beauty. Yet she complains when she goes to a bar, no one buys her a drink....I tell her your prom theory, but she doesn't believe me! Some people just don't get it!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I agree with men resenting the so called "bimbos"...I think they want them more and more. As far as not voting them into positions of power, I think the same old double standard still unfortunately applies.
ReplyDeleteWell, any guy/gal issue will always be seen differently from different sides of the gender divide. But lets put it this way -- the smart beautiful female almost always tends to trigger a split response among most males. One,appealing. But two, threatening. That's just the way the male of the species tends to be. SoI think that's why beauty is not automatically a plus
ReplyDeleteI am here to say beauty is not automatically a plus. I have had to work harder my entire life to prove I am not stupid. Ironically, I work in sales as the only woman on the team. My tenacity has paid off but it has taken me twice as long as my men counterparts. By the way, I was the one sitting home alone on prom night and continue to sit home alone on Saturday nights at age 38.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -- I hear ya! So do more women (and men) than America might believe. We're a funny species, we humans. This beauty-hangup is just one of so very many. Be well!
ReplyDeleteOh, and by the way, Peggy married a Marine and they now live on Wake Island. Maybe things worked out for the best for both of us!