The Odd Broad

The writing is on the wall(s)...

If you were, perchance, to visit the home of my parents, walk up the stairs and enter the bedroom to the right, you would find a room with bright, yellow colored walls.  These walls are bordered with quotes and poems scribbled in Crayola marker which to this day my mother still doesn't have the heart to paint over.  (For Ma is and always has been, after all, my creative champion.)

Quotes like:

"LIVE YOUR DREAM OR DIE"  -Jewel

"What is a weed?  A plant whose virtues have never been discovered" - R. W. Emerson

"Worrying is nothing more or less than the misuse of your imagination"  -Uncle Jim

"Doubt, if you must...but persist!"

"When the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive!"

"Forget regrets...or life is yours to miss...  (RENT.  OK, I'm a frigging theater geek, so sue me!!)

Over the years, as I came back to stay in this room, usually the quotes would inspire me; though more times than naught they would mock me in a manner most menacing.  Was I ever really that idealistic or was I merely trying to convince myself?  As my childhood dreams began to fade and morph, I sort of stopped looking up at my walls.

I'm not going to lie, I was embarrassed the first time Hubby saw my childhood bedroom and especially prayed that he'd overlook the sloppy poetry marking the wall behind the door.  That poem I penned about everyone at Conservatory being a fake and a phony and how I wished I'd never laid eyes on them!!:

"But the sickest part of all this shit...is I am the fakest part of it!"  (Yes, I dared to rhyme with the word "shit".  Even performed it as a theatrical piece in movement class.  Oh ya, I went there.)

So I was a passionate youth.  But what I've been thinking of mostly this week, this monumental week in American history, is of a small sticker adhered to my closet door, bought from The Body Shop in the Pheasant Lane Mall about a million years ago.  It's a bumper sticker with a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr., and on it are the words: Remember the Dream. 

This week, as the magnitude of what has recently come to pass soaks in, my thoughts inevitably keep turning to Mr. King.  As a rule, I generally don't like to talk politics with anyone but Hubby and my sister; but I would like to simply say this: Hooray America!!  It's about bloody time. 

xoxo

Play nice

I've said it before and I'll say it again - The Odd Broad is not about to get political.  For one, it just makes things rather uncomfortable.  Secondly, I've yet to register to vote in the state of Massachusetts and nothing irks me more than a person mouthing off about political issues when they have zero intention of actually voting on them.   

Although please don't get the wrong idea, I will most definitely be registering and voting in this election.  But all specific political affiliations aside, I'd like to say a few words about the recent happenings in this presidential race.  Especially since now there's a woman involved.

Why is the media fixating on Sarah Palin's hairdo, encouraging people to vote on it, writing opinion columns, labeling it twenty years out of date?  Would these observations be happening if she were male?  Of COURSE not!  Even as I read one article that defended itself by insisting Obama and McCain also undergo intense coiffal scrutiny, even as I know that this may really be innocent, silly fun, I'm just not buying into it.  As a female, I don't think I can afford to.  Can any of us?  In 2008, no less?

Politics aside, gender aside, for that matter; the fact remains that women are always at risk of being objectified, judged and categorized based on their appearance.  If any issue should be considered "touchy", it's this one!  It's irresponsible yet typical that the media would be pouncing on Palin's hair.  I'm just not laughing.

If she were a man, I suspect she also wouldn't be fielding absurd questions about whether or not she is capable of juggling a career and parenthood.  So, no other vice president has ever been a father?  Oh, I get it, they were men so it was okay for them to procreate and still hold a job!  Naturally there's no way a woman could be a mommy and hold a position of power!  How silly of me.  Glad we cleared that up. 

And finally, I saw a ticker in an elevator this afternoon reporting that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has described Palin as being "shrill," which Merriam Webster defines as having or emitting a sharp high-pitched tone or sound.  Seriously?  If this pathetic jab hadn't been so text book chauvinistic, as a woman I might expend the effort to actually feel slighted. 

If it appears I'm taking sides, please know I absolutely am not.  This kind of stuff just hits a nerve with me.  Always has.  I may be disappointed, but I'm not in the least bit surprised.  It's simply more of the same ancient, embarrassing, patriarchal old foolishness.  Attack a person's politics, yes, but her femininity?  Boring!  Getting old!  It's been done since, like, forever! 

Where are we, the playground?

Just so you are aware...

I often take pause at the wide ranging ads that appear in the side columns of this website.  Just so you know, these ads are chosen at random and are not in any way selected by myself.  I am at the mercy of chance, it seems, and if the folks in the know wish to place a picture ad for adult diapers upon my humble little page, well, who am I to object?

Last week my sister brought to my attention something that had already been disturbing me: an ad for John McCain on my blog.  (As you may or may not have heard me mention earlier in the month, The Odd Broad is, and has always been, a neutral, nonpartisan arena.)

That having been said, why was there a McCain ad on my page, and more importantly, why does it feature a picture of him from at least thirty years ago?  Are the voters to believe they will be given the option of traveling back in time to cast their ballot for this younger, more youthful version of Mr. McCain?  Or perhaps Hermione Granger will let us borrow the time-turner necklace Professor McGonagall lent to her in Year Three? 

A crafty, if obvious ruse, the transparency of which I find just a wee bit disturbing.  If political campaigns choose to run ads on the internet, especially on my page, include a current photo, if you please. 

I just had to clear that up. 

Below please find some of the more disturbing ads that have graced the odd pages...

xoxo

 

Hill steps down

Have no fear, The Odd Broad is not about to get all political on you.  It's just, I'm sitting here at my computer experiencing an overwhelming sensation of deja vu.  I feel as if I've already written what I'm about to type.  I see a foggy picture in my mind, but the moment I put my finger on it the vision passes.  Que sera.

Deja vus and all political affiliation aside, to paraphrase Hillary Clinton yesterday afternoon: from now on little girls everywhere will be able to take for granted that a woman can run for president. 

A little chill ran up my spine when I heard her speak those words.  As a child, my dream was to become the first woman president.  My life did not, it turns out, lead me into the vast field of politics.  But my adolescent, unguarded mind immediately sensed the glaring inequity of the situation.  Sure, it had never been done before, but why?  No answer has ever really sufficed. 

Females by our very nature are powerful beings.  We are life givers, life sustainers, mystical, intuitive and mighty.  We are a force to be reckoned with.  For centuries, the masculine way of thinking and doing has been running the show, manifesting war, violence, starvation and the systematic destruction of our beautiful planet.  To put it simply, it's not really working. 

I'm not by any means bashing men; I happen to be married to a balanced, gorgeous example of what I feel it truly means to be a strong and powerful male.  On the contrary, what I'm specifically targeting here is the outdated, ineffectual, strictly masculine style of thinking that a lot of us have been buying into, intentionally or not.

In short, I pray our next president can put a little yin into his yang.  (Wait.  That sounded dirty.  I didn't mean for it to be.)

In my deepest of hearts, I believe in my lifetime we'll finally see a woman presiding over the White House.  What a beautiful, beautiful thing. 

xoxo