life and puppies

I got this article off of a facebook/Twitter (everything is connected these days, isn’t it?) post from GAOOG. I like it a lot, but I have two things to say. Well, maybe more than two. I agree, of course, that women being mean to women is upsetting, sad, unnecessary, hurtful, cliched and all things icky. I also note, though, that it’s really nothing new (see: Caroline Bingley & Eliza Bennet, for example). I’m not saying this because the post asserted it was a new phenom, but more just to note that I think we have a long way to go before we improve in this area. I also say it because we really probably shouldn’t be surprised at the Most Hated List. Well, maybe a little.

Ok, back to my two things. One, I acknowledge that probably most of the reason women are mean about other women is because of insecurity issues. Wanting to tear others down to make yourself feel better is a pretty well-established phenomenon, I think. Blah blah. On the other hand, sometimes I think women are mean about other women is because women tend to simply be more interesting than men. Yikes. Did I say that? I did. It seems to me it’s easier to criticize people with complicated personalities (and annoying ones) than people who are just boring. Or maybe not boring so much as just not interesting. Or maybe not not interesting but just not as interesting. I mean, I have about zero feelings about K. Stew, but I’m pretty sure there’s a lot going on in there. Whether it’s annoying or not probably has more to do with your age and your relationship to vampire movies than anything else. Remember when everyone was really mean about James Franco because he seemed to be kinda frenetic in his quest for degrees? It just seems like if you’re not really doing too much to show much personality, you’ll stay below the haters’ radar. This of course doesn’t really explain Chris Brown being so low on the list, but I attribute that to no one really caring about Chris Brown. Whoah. Did I say that? Moving on.

Gwyneth. This is my number two. I used to really like Gwyneth. I thought she was spectacular in Emma and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I loved her in Shakespeare in Love. I was never much of a follower of Goop (partly because I can’t navigate the site), but I certainly didn’t hate her for having a blog. I mean, that would be weird, wouldn’t it? I don’t really even hate that she has a crazy diet. In fact, I like that, as the author of the post alludes to, it’s nice to see her fessing up that it takes tremendous craziness to look the way she does. Not that she calls it craziness. What makes me worry about Gwyneth and her whole message is exactly the quote the post’s author ends with: “We have to be the women we want our daughters to be.” I don’t like Apple being so restricted in her diet (or Moses for that matter). It breaks my heart. Even if she allows them to “cheat,” they have to be incredibly aware of their mom’s (impossible) standards. And that’s sad.