Personal Identity

The New York Times' Latest Trend Article isn't Fluff, It's Offensive

Posted by Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon at 8:56 AM on July 25, 2008.

God forbid anyone looks their age these days.

Post Tools
EMAIL
PRINT
7 COMMENTS

Share and save this post:

Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form

Amanda Marcotte RSS Feed

Main AlterNet RSS Feed

Shoot me now. The NY Times has a trend piece about how the new thing, when you're getting married, is to get Botox treatments for all your bridesmaids. Because god forbid anyone actually smile for the pictures.

The unsubtle implication is that women, by putting off their weddings from the proper bridal age of 19 to the wretchedly old early 30s, have to go to great measures to conceal what wretched old hags they and their friends are. The other implication, standard to these pieces, is that no matter how accomplished or intelligent a woman is, she's not validated as a woman until some random dude decides he'd like to see her doing his dishes. And that if you're marrying in your 30s, you've been waiting so long for admission to the human race that you completely lose your mind with excitement, micromanaging every detail down to the color of your bridesmaids' pubic hair.

Everything has to match, you know.

That they find enough women that actually think this way to write a trend piece about it shows the power these very same trend pieces have to brainwash at least a segment of the population.

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the popular blog Pandagon. She is the author of It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments.

Return to Amanda Marcotte » Post Tools: EMAIL PRINT 7 COMMENTS PERMALINK

Also by Amanda Marcotte
The Subtle Ways in Which Conservatives Play the Race, Gender Cards They always maintain plausible deniability. August 5, 2008.	Limbaugh: China May be Full of Commies, But at Least They Love Their SUVs Limbaugh wants you to know: that Chinese dude is totally packing more in the pants than you. July 31, 2008.	The Anti-Choice Movement Is also Very Anti-Rubbers "The anti-choice movement opposes contraception, the number one way the vast majority of fertility-age American women avoid abortion." July 29, 2008.	Does Time Magazine Believe Women's Bodies Should be Owned by Men? Time helps push retrograde patriarchal agenda with article about "purity balls." July 22, 2008.

Comments	Turn comments off sitewide	Give us feedback »
Comments closed. The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.		View:
Agreed [Report this comment] Posted by: Love Me, I'm a Liberal on Jul 25, 2008 9:05 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The patriarchy is getting more and more obvious, I can't wait for the revolution. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: Agreed Posted by: luzmejor LMAO [Report this comment] Posted by: willd4change on Jul 25, 2008 9:18 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] If the women that follow through with the idea are really that shallow and her fiance' agrees to it they deserve each other. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Be a McCain Bride [Report this comment] Posted by: zipper696 on Jul 25, 2008 10:05 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] submissive, cowed, peroxided, botoxed and available for housekeeping, child rearing and odd jobs when whistled. No wonder "Mad Men" is so popular, there they are, all squeezed into tight underwear, hair like helmets, layers of makeup and every teen boy's dream (circa 1955). [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] I read the article. [Report this comment] Posted by: VZEQICVA on Jul 25, 2008 2:24 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] There's much to be said for marrying young. Traditionally, brides are young and naturally pretty. Once they and their attendants need all this help, perhaps they should get more realistic. Women in their thirties are still beautiful and sexy, but thay can't be twenty years old again. We only go around once. Sounds like a day from hell instead of a happy occasion. Thanks, ANNA [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: I read the article. Posted by: tap17x Personal Identity [Report this comment] Posted by: DreamFast on Jul 26, 2008 4:44 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] From the very moment of birth, males and females are inculcated with the idea that one's personal identity is directly contingent on sexual identity, and parents and society at large immediately begin to squeeze children into sexual clothes and teach them to define themselves exclusively by gender. Blue for boys, pink for girls. If a young boy has a desire to play with dolls, he is guided to go against his natural inclinations and is urged to pick up the bat and ball. And the exact opposite is true with young girls. Those who do not follow acceptable social expectations are made to feel at best inadaquate and at worst, freaks of nature. It is at this stage of development where rather than allow for individual growth, the growth of the child's personal identity is being hampered rather than nurtured toward expansion, precisely at the time of development when they are free-wheeling and joyously reveling in their sense of self. It is no surprise that many women, and men still hold true to these limiting tenets and accept them as a neccessary in order to maintain a core identity. Thus, it is no wonder to me that today so many women and men find it not simply desirable, but neccessary to have Botox, acid peels, breast augmentation and calf implants. Their entire identity and self-worth is based in limitation rather than expansion. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Agreed Posted by: luzmejor

» RE: I read the article. Posted by: tap17x

Search:

» RE: Agreed Posted by: luzmejor

» RE: I read the article. Posted by: tap17x