Life is not fair
Apparent this is proven because the news coverage of Diana Nyad's historic swim from Cuba to Florida was inept, inadequate and downright disappointing. All because she's female and she's over 60. The absence of older women in the media shows the discrimination. That women hold only 20 rather than 50 of the seats in the U.S. Senate shows what a misogynistic society we are. If that doesn't do it clearly enough, the fact that women are disparaged for being ugly as they age while men grow distinguished must be proof of this.
That's the basics of an online discussion I'm currently involved in. I contend that the elderly as a whole are more or less invisible and that elderly men are just as invisible as elderly women. I could point out that the staff of the assisted living facility I reside in dote on the women much more than the men, but that's just anecdotal evidence. Maybe they identify with the women more because that staff is overwhelmingly female and they see their future in those women.
Fair is an interesting concept. In general when a woman stays home to raise children she isn't considered to be less of a woman. Men who stay home to raise children while their wife or female partner is out working to provide for the family are indeed considered to be less manly by a large segment of the population. Is that fair?
Women represent 44% of the workforce of federal civilian employees. So is it unfair that this isn't 50%? Not when you consider the percentage of women versus men who are working in the home rather than outside of it. Blacks (African-American if you prefer, Census data uses both labels) made up 12.6% of the population in the U.S. in 2010. In that same year, they made up 17.5% of that federal civilian employee workforce. If we're a fair and equitable nation, shouldn't the civilian workforce of the federal government represent the demographics of our population much more closely?
What about the gender gap in education? College enrollment and graduation rates show a 57% rate for women and only a 43% rate for men. Applications are slightly more disparate. A 2009 study shows that among the population ages 21-29, women are 1/3rd more likely to have a college degree than men in the same age group.
While the ideal of total equality hasn't been reached in TV news just yet, more and more we see women not being forced out of jobs as TV news anchors and reporters because they are aging. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But was it age, or money that caused Fox 11 in Los Angeles to send Jillian Barberie and Dorothy Lucey packing? We don't know for certain. But if it was all about age, why didn't they fire Lisa Breckenridge at the same time? She's just a few years younger (from what I can determine).
Christine Devine, who looks amazing, is on the "wrong" side of 40 if that's the benchmark for moving women away from the news anchor desk. She's not going anywhere (she's a great Twitter follow, FYI). Pat Harvey was an anchor there when CNN started in 1981. You do the math. Colleen Williams is 58 and she's still anchoring drive-time and late night news at KNBC and she's been there longer than the man who co-anchors with her.
Now I am not saying that we have fairness in any of these areas in any complete or acceptable form. What I am saying is that the trend is in the right direction.
* * *
We had our monthly meeting with the chef here yesterday. He announced something I already knew he had been working on, that starting next week there will be actual menus on the tables and people will not be brought whatever is the sole entrée for each meal. Breakfast will be al a carte daily and there will be two choices each for lunch and dinner. There are 10 alternative choices for lunch/dinner if a resident doesn't like either of the scheduled choices. A new menu will be out each week.
It's a great plan. More and better choices. More personalized and less institutionalized service. Everyone liked it. Well, almost. There was one person and this person had complaints. Before even seeing how it works.
As president of the Resident's Council I'm obligated to listen to those complaints and do what I can to try to resolve them. As an individual resident I'm sick and tired of hearing those complaints when they are about the same thing over and over again and there isn't anything to be done about them. That's why I mentioned something in yesterday's blog about our right to be free from complaints that aren't our problem to resolve.
It has escalated to the point that the real reason why I eat lunch and dinner from a tray in my room is that I don't want to hear that litany of complaints on a daily basis were I to eat those meals in the dining room. This person doesn't come down for breakfast, so I'm happy to go down and eat breakfast there.
I would try to get this person to realize their complaints aren't accomplishing anything except making them an annoyance but my complaint about this would undoubtedly fall on deaf ears. Ah well, I can always just tune out and not really listen.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I'm frustrated that I can't vent about something work-related because it might potentially violate client privacy. So know that I'm venting inwardly, but I'm fine.
As an early birthday gift to myself (my birthday is tomorrow), I walked this morning. Why did I find it easy to do that today when it was such a problem in the last few days? I guess I'll never fully understand what they call "the what the hell" thing.
Why is it when you don't need a parking space on the street there are plenty available, but when you need one desperately there are none to be found?
Why can the IRS tell me it's going to take more than 30 minutes for them to answer my call on behalf of a client but when an hour has passed with no response, can't they tell me how much longer it might be? California's FTB will take your number and call you back. The IRS won't do this, although they do refer to callers as "customers". Doesn't customer imply a choice?
There is nothing "Los Angeles" about the Angels who play their home games in Orange County, in the city of Anaheim and any change in their name should be to remove Los Angeles, not Anaheim.
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 1781, the city of Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish settlers.
On this date in 1812, the siege of Fort Harrison begins.
On this date in 1862, General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Virginia into the North during the Civil War.
On this date in 1870, Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed.
On this date in 1886, the Apache warrior chief Geronimo surrenders.
On this date in 1888, George Eastman registers the trademark "Kodak".
On this date in 1948, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
On this date in 1957, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to stop African American students from enrolling at Central High School.
Also on this date in that year, the Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
On this date in 1959, the mother of this blogger went into labor and it continued into the next day.
On this date in 1972, Mark Spitz wins his 7th gold medal at the Munich Summer Olympic Games, a record (subsequently broken).
On this date in 1977, the Golden Dragon Massacre takes place in San Francisco. Five die in a gunfight between two Asian gangs.
On this date in 1985, scientists discover buckminsterfullerene, name in honor of Buckminster Fuller. His geodesic domes resemble the shape of the buckminsterfullerene molecule.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Sarah Childress Polk
Alexander III of Scotland
Emperor Wanli of China
Jennie Lee
Syd Hoff
Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn did a good job portraying him)
Henry Ford II
Paul Harvey (http://www.hark.com/clips/bzltlwvlqy-paul-harvey)
Howard Morris
Craig Claiborne
Dick York
Thomas Eagleton
Mitzi Gaynor
Major General Charles Hines (first black man to command a military base in the South)
"Bubba" Knight (older brother of Gladys Knight)
Tom Watson
Judith Ivey
Khandi Alexander
Patricia Tallman
Drew Pinsky
Damon Wayans
Kevin Kennedy
Mike Piazza
Ione Skye
Beyoncé Knowles
Whitney Cummings
Movie quotes today come from "My Best Friend's Wedding" as there just weren't enough from "Made of Honor" which had Whitney Cummings in it:
Isabelle Wallace: George, this is so sweet of you to come to our rehearsal. I insist you stay on to lunch.
Kimmy Wallace: Oh yes.
Julianne Potter: No, no, no, no, no... Absolutely...
George Downes: Love to! Love the bag, love the shoes, love everything. Love to!
#2
Kimmy Wallace: You kissed him!
Ladies in the bathroom: [Gasp]
Kimmy Wallace: At my parents' house!
Ladies in the bathroom: That's cold.
Kimmy Wallace: On my wedding day!
Ladies in the bathroom: Bitch.
Ladies in the bathroom: Tramp.
Julianne Potter: I...
Kimmy Wallace: Shut up! Now I love this man, and there is no way I'm gonna give him up to some two-faced, big-haired food critic.
#3
George Downes: Go on. This is so moving. Kindred spirits, eh?
Julianne Potter: No, he's nothing like me. He's like you, actually, only straight.
#4
George Downes: The misery, the exquisite tragedy. The Susan Hayward of it all. I can just picture you there, sitting alone at your table in your lavender gown.
Julianne Potter: Did I tell you my gown was lavender?
George Downes: Hair swept up. Haven't touched your cake. Probably drumming your fingernails on the white linen tablecloth, the way you do when you're really feeling down. Perhaps looking at those nails thinking: 'God, I should have stopped in all my evil plotting to have that manicure, but it's too late now.
Julianne Potter: George, I didn't tell you my dress was lavender.
George Downes: Suddenly, a familiar song. And, you're off your chair in one, exquisite movement... wondering, searching, sniffing the wind like a dapple deer. Has God heard your little prayer? Will Cinderella dance again? And then, suddenly, the crowds part and there he is: sleek, stylish... radiant with charisma. Bizarrely, he's on the telephone. But then, so are you. And then he comes towards you... the moves of a jungle cat. Although you quite correctly sense that he is... gay... like most devastatingly handsome single men of his age are, you think... what the hell. Life goes on. Maybe there won't be marriage... maybe there won't be sex... but, by God, there'll be dancing.
That's the basics of an online discussion I'm currently involved in. I contend that the elderly as a whole are more or less invisible and that elderly men are just as invisible as elderly women. I could point out that the staff of the assisted living facility I reside in dote on the women much more than the men, but that's just anecdotal evidence. Maybe they identify with the women more because that staff is overwhelmingly female and they see their future in those women.
Fair is an interesting concept. In general when a woman stays home to raise children she isn't considered to be less of a woman. Men who stay home to raise children while their wife or female partner is out working to provide for the family are indeed considered to be less manly by a large segment of the population. Is that fair?
Women represent 44% of the workforce of federal civilian employees. So is it unfair that this isn't 50%? Not when you consider the percentage of women versus men who are working in the home rather than outside of it. Blacks (African-American if you prefer, Census data uses both labels) made up 12.6% of the population in the U.S. in 2010. In that same year, they made up 17.5% of that federal civilian employee workforce. If we're a fair and equitable nation, shouldn't the civilian workforce of the federal government represent the demographics of our population much more closely?
What about the gender gap in education? College enrollment and graduation rates show a 57% rate for women and only a 43% rate for men. Applications are slightly more disparate. A 2009 study shows that among the population ages 21-29, women are 1/3rd more likely to have a college degree than men in the same age group.
While the ideal of total equality hasn't been reached in TV news just yet, more and more we see women not being forced out of jobs as TV news anchors and reporters because they are aging. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But was it age, or money that caused Fox 11 in Los Angeles to send Jillian Barberie and Dorothy Lucey packing? We don't know for certain. But if it was all about age, why didn't they fire Lisa Breckenridge at the same time? She's just a few years younger (from what I can determine).
Christine Devine, who looks amazing, is on the "wrong" side of 40 if that's the benchmark for moving women away from the news anchor desk. She's not going anywhere (she's a great Twitter follow, FYI). Pat Harvey was an anchor there when CNN started in 1981. You do the math. Colleen Williams is 58 and she's still anchoring drive-time and late night news at KNBC and she's been there longer than the man who co-anchors with her.
Now I am not saying that we have fairness in any of these areas in any complete or acceptable form. What I am saying is that the trend is in the right direction.
* * *
We had our monthly meeting with the chef here yesterday. He announced something I already knew he had been working on, that starting next week there will be actual menus on the tables and people will not be brought whatever is the sole entrée for each meal. Breakfast will be al a carte daily and there will be two choices each for lunch and dinner. There are 10 alternative choices for lunch/dinner if a resident doesn't like either of the scheduled choices. A new menu will be out each week.
It's a great plan. More and better choices. More personalized and less institutionalized service. Everyone liked it. Well, almost. There was one person and this person had complaints. Before even seeing how it works.
As president of the Resident's Council I'm obligated to listen to those complaints and do what I can to try to resolve them. As an individual resident I'm sick and tired of hearing those complaints when they are about the same thing over and over again and there isn't anything to be done about them. That's why I mentioned something in yesterday's blog about our right to be free from complaints that aren't our problem to resolve.
It has escalated to the point that the real reason why I eat lunch and dinner from a tray in my room is that I don't want to hear that litany of complaints on a daily basis were I to eat those meals in the dining room. This person doesn't come down for breakfast, so I'm happy to go down and eat breakfast there.
I would try to get this person to realize their complaints aren't accomplishing anything except making them an annoyance but my complaint about this would undoubtedly fall on deaf ears. Ah well, I can always just tune out and not really listen.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I'm frustrated that I can't vent about something work-related because it might potentially violate client privacy. So know that I'm venting inwardly, but I'm fine.
As an early birthday gift to myself (my birthday is tomorrow), I walked this morning. Why did I find it easy to do that today when it was such a problem in the last few days? I guess I'll never fully understand what they call "the what the hell" thing.
Why is it when you don't need a parking space on the street there are plenty available, but when you need one desperately there are none to be found?
Why can the IRS tell me it's going to take more than 30 minutes for them to answer my call on behalf of a client but when an hour has passed with no response, can't they tell me how much longer it might be? California's FTB will take your number and call you back. The IRS won't do this, although they do refer to callers as "customers". Doesn't customer imply a choice?
There is nothing "Los Angeles" about the Angels who play their home games in Orange County, in the city of Anaheim and any change in their name should be to remove Los Angeles, not Anaheim.
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 1781, the city of Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish settlers.
On this date in 1812, the siege of Fort Harrison begins.
On this date in 1862, General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Virginia into the North during the Civil War.
On this date in 1870, Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed.
On this date in 1886, the Apache warrior chief Geronimo surrenders.
On this date in 1888, George Eastman registers the trademark "Kodak".
On this date in 1948, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
On this date in 1957, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to stop African American students from enrolling at Central High School.
Also on this date in that year, the Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.
On this date in 1959, the mother of this blogger went into labor and it continued into the next day.
On this date in 1972, Mark Spitz wins his 7th gold medal at the Munich Summer Olympic Games, a record (subsequently broken).
On this date in 1977, the Golden Dragon Massacre takes place in San Francisco. Five die in a gunfight between two Asian gangs.
On this date in 1985, scientists discover buckminsterfullerene, name in honor of Buckminster Fuller. His geodesic domes resemble the shape of the buckminsterfullerene molecule.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Sarah Childress Polk
Alexander III of Scotland
Emperor Wanli of China
Jennie Lee
Syd Hoff
Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn did a good job portraying him)
Henry Ford II
Paul Harvey (http://www.hark.com/clips/bzltlwvlqy-paul-harvey)
Howard Morris
Craig Claiborne
Dick York
Thomas Eagleton
Mitzi Gaynor
Major General Charles Hines (first black man to command a military base in the South)
"Bubba" Knight (older brother of Gladys Knight)
Tom Watson
Judith Ivey
Khandi Alexander
Patricia Tallman
Drew Pinsky
Damon Wayans
Kevin Kennedy
Mike Piazza
Ione Skye
Beyoncé Knowles
Whitney Cummings
Movie quotes today come from "My Best Friend's Wedding" as there just weren't enough from "Made of Honor" which had Whitney Cummings in it:
Isabelle Wallace: George, this is so sweet of you to come to our rehearsal. I insist you stay on to lunch.
Kimmy Wallace: Oh yes.
Julianne Potter: No, no, no, no, no... Absolutely...
George Downes: Love to! Love the bag, love the shoes, love everything. Love to!
#2
Kimmy Wallace: You kissed him!
Ladies in the bathroom: [Gasp]
Kimmy Wallace: At my parents' house!
Ladies in the bathroom: That's cold.
Kimmy Wallace: On my wedding day!
Ladies in the bathroom: Bitch.
Ladies in the bathroom: Tramp.
Julianne Potter: I...
Kimmy Wallace: Shut up! Now I love this man, and there is no way I'm gonna give him up to some two-faced, big-haired food critic.
#3
George Downes: Go on. This is so moving. Kindred spirits, eh?
Julianne Potter: No, he's nothing like me. He's like you, actually, only straight.
#4
George Downes: The misery, the exquisite tragedy. The Susan Hayward of it all. I can just picture you there, sitting alone at your table in your lavender gown.
Julianne Potter: Did I tell you my gown was lavender?
George Downes: Hair swept up. Haven't touched your cake. Probably drumming your fingernails on the white linen tablecloth, the way you do when you're really feeling down. Perhaps looking at those nails thinking: 'God, I should have stopped in all my evil plotting to have that manicure, but it's too late now.
Julianne Potter: George, I didn't tell you my dress was lavender.
George Downes: Suddenly, a familiar song. And, you're off your chair in one, exquisite movement... wondering, searching, sniffing the wind like a dapple deer. Has God heard your little prayer? Will Cinderella dance again? And then, suddenly, the crowds part and there he is: sleek, stylish... radiant with charisma. Bizarrely, he's on the telephone. But then, so are you. And then he comes towards you... the moves of a jungle cat. Although you quite correctly sense that he is... gay... like most devastatingly handsome single men of his age are, you think... what the hell. Life goes on. Maybe there won't be marriage... maybe there won't be sex... but, by God, there'll be dancing.
posted by me at 4:48 PM
<< Home