Why I Like MoDo

I know I said I wouldn't read the Times again, but I followed a link and found free MoDo. She is intelligent, elegant and brilliantly eloquent.

What's a Modern Girl to Do? - New York Times: "In the universe of Eros, I longed for style and wit. I loved the Art Deco glamour of 30's movies. I wanted to dance the Continental like Fred and Ginger in white hotel suites; drink martinis like Myrna Loy and William Powell; live the life of a screwball heroine like Katharine Hepburn, wearing a gold lamé gown cut on the bias, cavorting with Cary Grant, strolling along Fifth Avenue with my pet leopard."
Boy was I surprised when I started dating. My first date pulled into the driveway and blew his horn. Romance was never as I had read it.
"Decades after the feminist movement promised equality with men, it was becoming increasingly apparent that many women would have to brush up on the venerable tricks of the trade: an absurdly charming little laugh, a pert toss of the head, an air of saucy triumph, dewy eyes and a full knowledge of music, drawing, elegant note writing and geography. It would once more be considered captivating to lie on a chaise longue, pass a lacy handkerchief across the eyelids and complain of a case of springtime giddiness."

I'm toast.

"Women might dye their hair, apply makeup and spend hours finding a hip-slimming dress, she said, while men may drive a nice car or wear a fancy suit that makes them seem richer than they are. In this retro world, a woman must play hard to get but stay soft as a kitten. And avoid sarcasm. Altogether."

Freaking toast. I have about as much chance of being nonsarcastic as a politician telling the truth.

"Men, he explained, prefer women who seem malleable and awed. He predicted that I would never find a mate because if there's one thing men fear, it's a woman who uses her critical faculties. Will she be critical of absolutely everything, even his manhood?"

Burnt and crispy. No, we don't question their manhood. And what the heck is that anyway? Manhood. Does it slide on and off as needed? I was talking with a younger male (30, since when is that young?) who is having a timing difficulty. I'm sitting there listening to him enumerate all the things he does to make up for it and I had to stop him. What a lot of work for such a nice guy. I told him that a woman would be honored that he went to all that trouble and if she wasn't, well he needed someone else. I said this knowing he has a great girlfriend. I'm able to think and understand that life is not perfect and sometimes you need to make compromises. Is that emasculating?

"When Gloria Steinem wrote that "all women are Bunnies," she did not mean it as a compliment; it was a feminist call to arms. Decades later, it's just an aesthetic fact, as more and more women embrace Botox and implants and stretch and protrude to extreme proportions to satisfy male desires. Now that technology is biology, all women can look like inflatable dolls. It's clear that American narcissism has trumped American feminism."

My most popular post so far was the one on the Idollators. Google hits galore.

"But it is equally naïve and misguided for young women now to fritter away all their time shopping for boudoirish clothes and text-messaging about guys while they disdainfully ignore gender politics and the seismic shifts on the Supreme Court that will affect women's rights for a generation.

What I didn't like at the start of the feminist movement was that young women were dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. They were supposed to be liberated, but it just seemed like stifling conformity.

What I don't like now is that the young women rejecting the feminist movement are dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. The plumage is more colorful, the shapes are more curvy, the look is more plastic, the message is diametrically opposite - before it was don't be a sex object; now it's be a sex object - but the conformity is just as stifling."

That is more of an indicator of the listlessness of the their extremely cosseted generation. The young men aren't any more interested in protecting their rights otherwise there would be more of an antiwar opposition.

I miss MoDo. This was great but I want more and I don't want to pay.