Into the West
Jim's got the TBS mini-series on DVD and we were watching it together today. It made me long for Rendezvous, which won't be for another 7 months. Bugger.
It also made me think about Pocket Watch, and other such 'period' pieces I was going to write. I was going to have so much fun writing them. I just needed to keep myself in that 'mood'. Much like I've endeavored to keep myself in the appropriate mood for writing Aztec by watching scary movies. And the mood for Lunatic Lounge that was inspired by Twin Peaks, but had become more like Pulp Fiction.
So I'm thinking about another 'Freemont' story. But try to incorporate more action in with the introspections. Perhaps a love story of sorts. Maybe Freemont falls in love with an Iroquois woman. Or, as is often the case, he gets placed in a predicament where he 'receives' a woman as a 'gift'. I realize this might gather a boo & hiss from feminists, but my writing was never about appeasing everyone's sensitivities. It's about being realistic. And that shit really did happen back then. As a woman, I might be given some lee-way or whatever. But if I were a man writing it, I could imagine the hounds being on my heels snapping and snarling.
I remember seeing a scholarship posted in the English department a couple years back and was interested in it. But when I read on further and found that it was for minorities, I just shrugged, sighed and said "oh well" and forgot about it. I told someone about it a few days later and they told me that I am a minority. What? Well you're a woman, aren't you? It had never occured to me that I was considered part of a minority. I still don't consider myself a minority. Just a human being, same as anybody else.
Unlike some women, I don't want superiority. Just a fair shot same as anyone else. I don't want special treatment just because I'm a woman. I do appreciate it when Jim holds the door for me. There are women out there, I know, that get pissy if you did that for them.("I can get my own door, thank you very much!") I think it's a sweet gesture, myself. I don't expect it, or ask for it--But I don't get mad at Jim when he does it, either. All I ask is that a man not assume I've got oatmeal above the eyebrows just cuz I'm a woman.
And this baloney about women wanting in on "male dominated" occupations only because it's male dominated, not because they actually want the job. Like the Ethel Merman song: "Anything you can do I can do better." And wanting preferential treatment just because they're a minority. It's gone too far. I'm all for being treated equal. In the beginning, that's what we were fighting for. But for some women it wasn't enough.
A friend of Jim's had said it best--
He was being interviewed for a counseling job and the interviewer asked him: "And how do you deal with color?"
His answer: "I don't deal with color. I deal with human beings."
It also made me think about Pocket Watch, and other such 'period' pieces I was going to write. I was going to have so much fun writing them. I just needed to keep myself in that 'mood'. Much like I've endeavored to keep myself in the appropriate mood for writing Aztec by watching scary movies. And the mood for Lunatic Lounge that was inspired by Twin Peaks, but had become more like Pulp Fiction.
So I'm thinking about another 'Freemont' story. But try to incorporate more action in with the introspections. Perhaps a love story of sorts. Maybe Freemont falls in love with an Iroquois woman. Or, as is often the case, he gets placed in a predicament where he 'receives' a woman as a 'gift'. I realize this might gather a boo & hiss from feminists, but my writing was never about appeasing everyone's sensitivities. It's about being realistic. And that shit really did happen back then. As a woman, I might be given some lee-way or whatever. But if I were a man writing it, I could imagine the hounds being on my heels snapping and snarling.
I remember seeing a scholarship posted in the English department a couple years back and was interested in it. But when I read on further and found that it was for minorities, I just shrugged, sighed and said "oh well" and forgot about it. I told someone about it a few days later and they told me that I am a minority. What? Well you're a woman, aren't you? It had never occured to me that I was considered part of a minority. I still don't consider myself a minority. Just a human being, same as anybody else.
Unlike some women, I don't want superiority. Just a fair shot same as anyone else. I don't want special treatment just because I'm a woman. I do appreciate it when Jim holds the door for me. There are women out there, I know, that get pissy if you did that for them.("I can get my own door, thank you very much!") I think it's a sweet gesture, myself. I don't expect it, or ask for it--But I don't get mad at Jim when he does it, either. All I ask is that a man not assume I've got oatmeal above the eyebrows just cuz I'm a woman.
And this baloney about women wanting in on "male dominated" occupations only because it's male dominated, not because they actually want the job. Like the Ethel Merman song: "Anything you can do I can do better." And wanting preferential treatment just because they're a minority. It's gone too far. I'm all for being treated equal. In the beginning, that's what we were fighting for. But for some women it wasn't enough.
A friend of Jim's had said it best--
He was being interviewed for a counseling job and the interviewer asked him: "And how do you deal with color?"
His answer: "I don't deal with color. I deal with human beings."
posted by Sonny Shine at 3:08 PM
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