Who Are These Women???

I am so glad I don't have a daughter.   Why?   Well… I know that I would be mostly responsible for raising her, teaching her values, and being her favorite role model but I wouldn't be able to control it all…not 100%.  Just like I did when I was young, one day she would look around and start checking out other women, finding other people to admire, to look up to, to model herself after.  And that's when I would get scared.  I would want to ban television from her life so my child wouldn't grow up to be a fool.

Where is this concern coming from?   From my issues with Reality TV.   I don't even watch a lot of it, but I don't have to.  Clips from the most outrageous segments are shown on the news, talk shows, newsmagazines, program promos, and recaps like The Soup.  They're kinda hard to miss.

I used to think that the chicks on The Jersey Shore were pretty bad.  Not so much anymore.  One could argue that they're young and allowed to be foolish…even reckless because that's what your youth is for, right?

What I would be worried about for my Imaginary Daughter is her exposure to the grown women on shows like the Basketball Wives and Real Housewives franchises.  How would I explain to her why their low-class, disgustingly outrageous behavior is being celebrated?  For being loud, rude, mean, nasty, and violent these women are rewarded with a tv show, paid appearances, celebrity and more.  I don't understand why they're not embarrassed.  Most of them have kids of their own. Why aren't they ashamed? Ashamed of themselves, ashamed for their kids?  Is celebrity that important?

I'm talking specifically about the insulting language, screaming matches and, worse, physical fights.   Really?  Where do they find these women?  I mean, think about it; think of all the adult women you know personally and those you just know of. Do you know any who behave that way?  Any who have been in a physical altercation with another woman?  No, right?

So if I explain away the behavior of Snooki and her crew because they're young, what do I say about these grown women?  They embody all the behaviors I would have identified to my Non-Existent Child as being completely unacceptable in any circumstance…yet these low-life acts are tacitly praised.  These women are mostly attractive and well-dressed so they look presentable enough on the surface, though in reality (pun intended) they are anything but.

So, I guess I could say it's just tv and everybody knows it's not real.  But is that true? These are real people and the fights did happen.   More disturbingly to me is that in the past year, I've noticed more and more news reports of fisticuffs between adult women…in a way I've never seen before.   It spills over...from tv to real life.  It starts to seem acceptable, normal even. If adult women can't resist, how would my young sweet Fake Daughter be able to? I think we owe it to all young girls to be better than this.

Reality Show Women: Reason # 73 I'm glad I'm child free.


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Six-Month Round-up

It's been six months since The Spinsterlicious Life was born.  I was so nervous.  I had never blogged before, and am not especially tech savvy so I wasn't sure that I wouldn't make a mess of the whole thing.  I started the blog because I've written a book with the same name, a cross between a memoir and self-help book...that is, tales about my adventures in dating and other experiences, paired with my tongue-in-cheek thoughts on what life lessons might be offered to others.

Alas, although I still don't have a publisher for my book, I'm having a good time with the blog.  So I decided to do a bit of a retrospective to celebrate its half-birthday.  

In 6 months, I've had over 12,500 page views.  What's popping the most?  (NOTE: Tallies are a combination of those from the Blog, the Facebook Page, and the private emails sent to me).

The 5 Most-Read/Popular Posts
The post with the highest number of readers is what I hope is a useful guide about how to decide when to roll around naked with a guy for the first time.  The others are, I guess, pretty interesting, too:

1.    To Sex -or- Not To Sex
2.    The Break-up Text 
3.    Where Do Old Broads Hang Out?
4.    I Think I'm Jealous of Snooki
5.    Divorcee as Status









The 4 Posts with the Most Comments

Interestingly, the posts with the most readers are not the same as the those with the most comments.  Apparently, it takes something more than popularity to provoke you guys to add your two cents!  Angie got lots of responses, as did these others:
 
1.   Angie's "Ambivalently Spinsterlicious" Shoe-of-the-Week  
2.   Uh-Oh. I Might Be a Hypocrite
3.   Did He Cheat?
4.   Later, Chuck


The 3 Most-Read/Popular Guest Posts



I think lots of people (re)evaluate their status during the holidays, and Kathryn's post was the most popular of my guest bloggers.  And two others:

1.   Single During the Holidays
2.   A Much Smarter Divorcee 
3.   SY-Guy: Spinsterlicious Man-of-the-Month

The 2  Countries --Outside the U.S.-- Where I Have the Strongest Readership.
Obviously, most of my readers are from the good old U.S. of A., but 1. Canadians and 2. Australians are hanging tough with me, too...and I appreciate it.

The 1 Cute Dog 

A gratuitous plug for the world's cutest Yorkie
1.    Danny!!



Thank you and much love to you, dear readers, for your support.          



NOTE:  If you like "Spinsterlicious" and want to be notified of new posts, please subscribe in the box on the right -or- if you have a Google Account, you can click on "Follow Me" also on the right, near the bottom.   You'll receive an email each time there's an update to the blog.  Don't miss a Spinsterlicious update!

I Think I'm Jealous of Snooki

 Heaven help me: Snooki’s winning.  

That crazy-like-a-fox hoochie on MTV’s The Jersey Shore—in an ironic and super unfair twist of fate—has what I want.   No, not a ridiculous and embarrassing TV show, but lots of other things.

I feel like I’ve done all of the things a responsible adult should do (well, many of them, anyway):  I graduated from college (twice), manage to keep a job, take good care of myself physically and financially, and don’t really bother anybody.  Snooki gets drunk every day, pees outside, fights, and gets arrested for disorderly conduct.  What’s more, I know all of this without having ever watched a single episode of the show.  She’s so famous that her escapades are news and part of popular culture.  She’s everywhere.   Barbara Walters even chose her and her castmates for her list of 2010 Most Fascinating People.

I don’t care about the famous part.  Here’s what’s making me just a little crazy.  Snooki “wrote” a book and it made the New York Times Best Seller List!   This, from a woman who claims never to have read a book.  And this makes me crazy because I, too, have written a book.  A book that, I’m told by many people, is insightful and funny and unique.  Some of these people are in the publishing business; they “love the concept” but just don’t quite know what to do with it (how about publish it, for goodness sake?!)  Snooki’s book?   They know what to do with that.  And that’s the problem.  Noise has become more important than content.

And here’s the other reason I’m jealous of Snooki.  Her outrageouness earned her a million dollars last year.  I’ve been working since I was 15 and I earn a good living, but I’m tired.   I’m ready to sleep in and work a few less hours.  Actually a lot less hours.  Part-time is what I’m aiming for.  However, I can’t afford to live on half my salary.  But if I, like Snooki, earned $1 million last year, I could afford to live on my part-time salary.  But I didn’t earn close to that.  I never used to care about what other people earned, but dear Snooki’s seven-figure salary is starting to bother me.  I don’t want to get drunk every day (or pee outside) like Snooki.  I just want to do less, like Snooki, and still get paid.

The world is upside down.  Being loud and obnoxious and stupid is paying a lot more now than it used to.  And don’t even get me started on those dim-witted Real Housewives series.  I would have thought grown women would know better. Apparently not. And it hasn’t hurt them.

(Sigh.)


This and other fun posts are also available at  Women's Voices for Change


NOTE:  If you like "Spinsterlicious" and want to be notified of new posts, please subscribe in the box on the right -or- if you have a Google Account, you can click on "Follow Me" also on the right, near the bottom.   You'll receive an email each time there's an update to the blog.  Don't miss a Spinsterlicious update!