"I am good but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love." -M. Monroe

she dreams in poetry but writes in prose // she lives in ballet flats but likes to feel the grass between her toes // she craves her Starbucks fix // she's pearls and she's politics // she makes her own sunshine on a rainy day // she gets her work done but she lives to play.


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Ignorance is the new black, apparently.

This op-ed article in the New York Times titles "Making Ignorance Chic" was recently brought to my attention, and I think it raises some really interesting political and societal issues:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/opinion/20dowd.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_F

While this is intended sarcastically by Austen in one of my favorite novels of all time, this seems to be the trend politics and culture

"A woman, especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can" - Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen.

In the article above, Dowd brings up the dichotomy of intelligence and beauty for women in her discussion of Marilyn Monroe and Sarah Palin. It saddens me that we cannot listen to Hillary Clinton, who is a smart, opinionated woman (regardless of whether you like her politics) without commenting on her 'cankles'. And really, what does it matter if Palin cannot define the job of the Vice President of the United States? Her hair looks great! In order to be perceived as feminine, women must be airheads. In a way, it seems we cannot win. This issue especially resonates with me, as my major is public policy, and I do not want to feel pressure to be a Sarah or a Hillary. The world can handle more complexity than that.

My mom sends me a lot of cards in the mail while I'm away at school, and one of them had a quote I really like:

"Refuse to choose between turning pages and turning heads" - "Sakura Park" by Rachel Wetzsteon

I think we should try to live that everyday.

ab imo pectore,

Hannah

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