Two Gender Yargs

[mrissa]

So here I am looking through children's market listings, making notes, and I came upon this statement, quoted verbatim from the publisher in question: "We want nonfiction specfiically targeted to girls. If the approach would appeal to boys as well as girls, it is not right for American Girl Library."

This reflects a view of both boys and girls that is so alien to me that I can hardly even count how many fundamentla disagreements I have with this mindset. It's a very good thing I have no intention of writing for American Girl Library nor ever have, or my dream would be hereby crushed.

And then, the Victoria's Secret holiday catalog arrived. They always send this ridiculous thing, where you can order two sweaters, five pairs of panties, and a safari, or something stupid like that. This time, on page four, it reads, "No matter what role you play, underneath it all, every woman is an angel."

What freakin' year is this? 1886? Honestly!!! Every woman is an angel my lily-white angelic ASS!

Comments

Re: Bras, Angels and Prostitutes

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I think I'm attracted to almost anyone in a certain age range with an XX chromosome! Well, not quite, but you get the idea. I suppose it's the curse of being male. I do find the above categories of display rather attractive, but that's just because they're flaunting it. So I wonder if my feelings are just natural when you're single, it's been a long time between relationships, and you're trying to wait for marriage. Not an easy task.

I wonder how other people manage?

Mack

Re: Bras, Angels and Prostitutes

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was *ever* much over half for me. But I've had various bits of evidence over the years that I myself don't constitute a valid statistical universe.

The concept of waiting for marriage terrifies me. There's too much to learn both about sex and about living with somebody for me to think it wise for your very first project to have to be the masterwork of your life.

Re: Bras, Angels and Prostitutes

[shamaneyes.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've never actually figured out the percentage, of course. It just *feels* that way sometimes, I suspect. It all depends on my mood.

As far as waiting for marriage goes, let me clarify. My past experiences have all been disturbing, unhappy, or both. I also became involved in some dominance and submission scenarious that were very bad for me. At this point, I want to avoid any further damage, as really I'm not very comfortable with sex or sexuality of any sort. I've learned too much about the wrong things at this point; I honestly think it will be a long time before I can really trust anyone or myself in those areas again. Marriage to me means that someone wanted to wait long enough to have me for me, not for what I could do for them.

Mack

Re: Bras, Angels and Prostitutes

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There's too much to learn both about sex and about living with somebody for me to think it wise for your very first project to have to be the masterwork of your life.

On the other hand, there are lots of aspects of being married -- like or parenting or of writing books or any number of other things -- that don't generalize past the project at hand. In some ways you do learn, for example, how to live with another person. But in other ways you learn how to live with that other person.