Interesting take on this by Peggy Noonan as an aside in this article about post 9-11 security and all the small humiliations it involves. As a man knowing how critically important mature women are to civil society I’m not sure I’d disagree with her.
I don’t get it. It’s news to me that the “middle-aged woman” is our ancestral arbiter and leader of society. I think the USA would be in a much better place if this were true. It seems out of place in Noonan’s commentary about the presidential campaign. I think it’s Noonan simply whining (with good cause) about the inconveniences that come with the increased security. She’s used a straw man/woman (Noonan?) to emphasize how far we’ve come as a result of the all the increased security measures. I don’t believe the typical middle-aged woman feels any more put upon than anyone else when gong through the airport security measures.
I’m so sorry middle-aged women must be reduced to the status of everyone else. What a load of crap that all is.
Speaking as a middle aged woman, I’d say that Kathy Bates as a character in Six Feet Under said it best when she said(paraphrased), “You’re over 50 and female? You’re invisible.”
I know I’m invisible and I’m only 45 and don’t look middle aged. So, I don’t know if we’re arbiters. I doubt highly we’re leaders…
We’re stealth leaders, honey.
I hate the term “civil society.” I hear it all the time in my work, in phrases like “Civil society will be invited to participate in the dialogue.” Always makes me want to snark “oh? Did you ask civil society to RSVP?”
I’ve never heard that term used in a work environment. Does it have some special, ugly significance there in Indonesia, CairoCarol?
You don’t need to ask them to RSVP…they already know they should.
Oh, not at all … it has the standard meaning, and in fact civil society in Indonesia is generally perceived to be a good thing. What I find odd about the term is reading references to it as if civil society were one entity (instead of a collection of groups), along the lines of “researchers will ask civil society to describe changes in attitudes about democratic elections” or “civil society will attend the workshop.”
That’s nonsense…
It’s over 30. Unles you are a young skinny hot chick with big jugs or a ridiculously handsome and tall man, the rest of the world is too busy to go out of our way to “notice you” just for the sake of noticing you.
Well, they do get to run the things that men are too busy to run, like church boards and school boards. So in that sense, they play a big part in civil society.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding:
“If the man is the head of the family, then the woman is the neck…and no one can make the head turn without the NECK”
Yes, they certainly are the leaders and arbiters of bake sales.
Nice. and that’s not too biased and narrow a picture, now is it?
:rolleyes:
I’d like to see some more civil society, frankly, because it seems to be going the way of the dodo bird.
I’m quite touched by Ms. Noonan’s genuine concern for the over-reaching privacy invasions of post 9-11 security measures as soon as they affect middle aged white women. A demographic she just so conveniently happens to be a part of.
Apparently personal rights and privacy are only things of any significance when they belong to the racial majority of a nation.
I guess they finally ‘came’ for Ms. Noonan. Quick, somebody call Pastor Martin Niemöller. :rolleyes:
Sadly, all I can muster is a quote from an old movie:
“Welcome to the party, Pal…!”
Perhaps she’s looking back 100 years of so to the archetype of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Well, what woman wouldn’t at least partially want that much power?
But we look back fondly on the days when etiquette ruled, citing the story of the society matron who covered her guest’s gaffe of drinking out of the finger bowl by following suit herself, as if “putting everyone as much at ease as possible” was the guiding philosophy, and it was in the nature of noble, nurturing women to see that this was so.
However, in practice Society studiously excluded all those “wrong” people, so that the already comfortable would remain so. I’d ask Peggy Noonan which of the three people in this photograph she most identifies.
Huh, I’m thinking I’m one of these so-called middle-aged women who are theoretically being dissed. I travel a good bit, rather frequently at the last minute, occasionally one way, and thus am singled out for the let’s do the whole look thru everything you own and do the pat down. (OH MY GOD SOMEONE IS GOING TO TOUCH MY BOOBS WITH THE BACK OF HER HAND!!!). Meh, no big deal. I must be lucky, all of the TSA’s I’ve encountered have been totally professional. I never felt that I was treated without respect. Each time the boob pat down was required I was offered the option of going to a secluded location. The TSA tell you exactly what they are going to do before they do it and make sure you’re ok with it before they start. Why should middle-aged women be treated differently than any one else?
Because we’re the arbiters and leaders of society! Keep up, already.
Hehehehe, I must have missed the memo, or lost my membership card. <sinjin, invisible since 1984 or there-a-bouts>