The Atlantic: Nora Johnson: ‘Sex & The 1960s College Girl’

Source:The Atlantic Magazine– From Nora Johnson

Source:The Daily Review

“Men…admit that what really irritates them about modern women is that they can’t, or won’t, give themselves completely to men,” Nora Johnson wrote in her 1959 Atlantic article, “Sex and the College Girl.” “This is undoubtedly true … And this, God knows, is a good thing.”

In the article, which is excerpted and animated in the video above, Johnson grappled with changing expectations about sex, romance, and gender roles as society began to afford women more opportunity in the workplace. A common fallout, Johnson argued, was that young women felt the need to “settle” by trading passionate romance for comfort and stability. College-age girls could only hope to avoid disappointment by managing their expectations and maintaining a certain romantic reticence.

“There must always be something held in reserve,” Johnson writes, “a part of her that she will give to no one, not even her husband. It is her belief in herself … It is the dream of the things she never did.”

For more, check out The Atlantic’s “Sex and the College Girl” here: The Atlantic.”

From The Atlantic

At risk of sounding partisan and this is not the first time I’ve taken this risk as a blogger: as much as the Christian-Right and broader Far-Right in America, especially Christian-Nationalists put down and critique Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states for their interpretation of Islam in their government and Islam in general, they actually have a lot in common with Islamic-Theocrats and the Islamic-Right in the world and have for a very long time. 50 plus years or longer and share very similar if not identical cultural and religious views, especially when it comes to women’s place in the world.

Source:IMDB– Sex and The 1960s College Girl Film

And why do I mention this? Because really from the time the American Republic was founded in 1776, up until 1963-64 or so America was the Christian-Right utopia for them when it came to the women’s place in the world. They were basically servants of men who were raised to grow up, meet a good man who could take care of them financially, but spend their lives taking care of him at home, as well as their kids. As Joe ( or whoever the man was ) would go out in the world and make a career for himself and earn a good living everyday, while his wife Mary ( or whoever the woman was ) would be at home waiting for him managing the home and taking care of their kids.

According to the Christian-Right and the broader Far-Right in America, we as a country have been going to hell since the mid 1960s and have been destroying their utopia. With personal freedom and individualism running rampant around the country with so many Americans of all races and ethnicities, as well as religions, both men and women daring to have the freedom to make their own decisions. And no longer feel trapped and having to live in their parents cultural basement and feeling the need to have to live the way that their parents and grandparents lived in America. With women wanting to go to college and then get themselves a good job and get married and have kids later on, instead right away, she now had the cultural freedom to do that.

If men didn’t want to get married at all and not have kids, or perhaps have kids and raise them, but not get married to the mother of his kids, he could now do that, because he had that same cultural freedom. And the same freedom for women as well. This piece from Nora Johnson from 60 years ago and this video covers that. Women now had the same freedom as American as men do with the same freedom to run their own lives. Decide for themselves if they wanted to go to college and get a good job, or get married early and stay home to raise their kids. Wasn’t like women were now required to get educated and go to work, it’s just that now they had the personal and cultural freedom to make that decision for themselves.

In 1963 or so with Baby Boomers graduating high school and now in college, they were let out of their parents basement and this cultural closet that they were living in now had the freedom to be Americans and live their own lives, regardless if their parents and grandparents approving of their lifestyles or not. And with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which made it illegal for employers to discriminate against people based on race, ethnicity, but gender as well we saw millions of American women of all races and ethnicities now entering the workforce. The sitcoms of the 1970s with show like Mary Tyler Moore and Maude illustrated that with how America was changing culturally and we haven’t looked back ever since and probably never will.

 

The Atlantic: Thomas P. McBee: ‘Men Are Socialized To Act Inhumanely’

Source:The Atlantic– The American man 

Source:The Daily Review 

“American men are in crisis, the conventional wisdom goes. And, according to some experts, they have been for a while. For a few decades, perhaps. Maybe for more than a century.”

From The Atlantic 

“Thomas Page McBee transitioned at age 30. In his male body, he “started to experience the world differently immediately,” McBee says in a video filmed at the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival in June. “I immediately gained a lot of privileges and also immediately lost a lot of connection.” 

Source:The Atlantic– tying to redefine what it means to be a man?

From The Atlantic

When I first saw the title of this video for this piece, I was expecting to hear some Far-Left radical feminist view about what’s wrong with men, especially straight men and even more so straight Caucasian men. What the Far-Left just calls White boys or White males. They don’t even have enough decency to refer to this group of Americans as men. But I was pleasantly surprise to hear Thomas McBee’s point and what he was arguing about really was the extremes of straight men in America regarding their behavior when it comes to female relations especially in the workplace.

American boys regardless of their race or ethnicity, especially if they come from a straight two-parent family with a mother and father who are in love with each other, are raised to be men. Now, once a boy reaches puberty and starts thinking sexually it might turn out that boy is not straight and gay and there might be signs of that early on with the boy having a more feminine take on life and not interested in at least traditionally boy activities growing up like sports and other activities like that. But for most of us regardless of race or ethnicity especially if we come a starlight two-parent home we’re raised to be men, meaning straight men.

American males are expected to be manly. Meaning we’re expected to speak with strong voices, be sure about ourselves, at least look like we can handle ourselves physically and not to be picked on physically. Be able to handle criticism and humor about us because we’re not overly sensitive, ( not including the current President of the United States ) we’re expected to be into sports, interested and knowledgeable about cars, not just interested, or like women, but love women and think about them constantly and love talking to them and being around them, checking them out and everything else. We’re expected to be the man of the house and lay down and enforce the rules for how our kids are supposed to behave, as well as handle the security and the home improvements of the house.

Some might argue that I’m just throwing out a lot of stereotypes out there like QB throws out a lot of balls in a two-minute drill, ( another male stereotype being that men use a lot of sports references to make their points ) but the thing about stereotypes is that there’s always some truth in them or it wouldn’t become a stereotype that’s used over and over again by intelligent people even. As far as the gay movement has come now in America with gays even getting the right to marry each other in America, 90-95% of whether you just include outed gay men or closeted gay men, are not only straight, but we still tend to be masculine in America. There are gay men even who aren’t queens and you wouldn’t know right away after meeting them that they’re gay.

To Thomas McBee’s point about what it means to be a man and to be masculine, I agree with him. There’s nothing unmanly about guys who care about other people and not just people who are related to them or are their friends or associates. There’s nothing unmanly about guys hugging each other and I’m not just talking about hugging our father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, etc, but guys who hug their male friends, because they love their male friends. The strong handshake plus one-arm hug that’s popular now with straight men, I do that with my good buddies as well especially if I haven’t seem them in a while. I have two brothers who live on the West Coast and live 3000 miles from me. Every time we see each other which isn’t very often we give each other big hugs. Nothing unmanly about guys showing physical affection for each other.

At risk of sounding politically incorrect here, but I’ll qualify what I’m going to say here and not just because this will probably be politically incorrect and again as a Liberal who believes in free choice and personal freedom there’ nothing wrong with homosexuality and nothing immoral about it. I believe Americans have a right to be themselves and even a responsibility to be themselves regardless of who they are short of hurting innocent people with what they’re doing, but being unmanly is not manly. ( To state the obvious ) Again, all Americans should be exactly who they are, but men who speak with high voices and they tend to be gay, or feel the need to use their hands move their cheeks and eyes, necks when talking, talk like valley girls, but have feminine interests and mannerisms and I’m not talking about being interested in women, but interested in what women tend to be interested in, to me at least queens aren’t manly otherwise they wouldn’t be queens. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, if that’s who you are. ( To use a Seinfeld line )

Again at risk of stating the obvious, you can be a straight man even and still be human. My only advice there would be to take things meaning life as they come and not to overact. Use proper analysis about what’s going on and how it affects you and not to overreact to. Don’t have a teen age girl moment ( again, to sound politically incorrect ) and act as if your life is over because you didn’t get the job that you wanted or someone said something awful about you.

I hate the term man up, so I would say be a man about life and take it for what it is which comes with a lot of highs and lows. Enjoy the highs because those are the pleasures of life, but don’t view yourself as invulnerable because now you’re on top. And use your lows as learning experiences and opportunities to improve. Instead of thinking your life is now over screwed up and suffered some disappointment and you’ll get a lot more out of life and enjoy it a lot more. That to me is what being a man is about which is taking life for what it is and acting accordingly.

The Atlantic: Rebecca Traister: ‘Can Women’s Anger Save America?’

Source:The Atlantic– From Rebecca Traister.

Source:The Daily Review

“In America today, women are angry. But this isn’t a modern phenomenon, argues the author Rebecca Traister. In her new book, “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger,” Traister details how female rage has long been the country’s political fuel. She expounded on this idea at Aspen Ideas Festival in June, where, in a video interview, she discussed how the fury of American women—from the suffragists to the abolitionists to Rosa Parks—has catalyzed major political movements. Read a review of Traister’s book on:The Atlantic.”

I’m cool with anger not that I enjoy being angry or seeing angry people ( especially with me ) but I’m fine with justifiable anger just as long as it’s used to bring about positive change and used in a constructive sense.

Anyone can be angry with some or something, but unless they use that anger and express how they feel to make things better and express while they’re angry with someone or about something, maybe you believe someone screwed you at work or you were turned down for a promotion and it went to someone who is less qualified, you’re boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating on you, whatever the case is and whoever you believe wronged you unless you express you’re feelings and do something about it to improve your situation, anger is nothing more than wasted emotion and energy. Emotion and energy that could’ve been used to to make things better for you.

Not to get too political but by message for Democrats and Independents who don’t like President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress you can be as angry as you want to with the Republican Party especially in Washington right now, but if you don’t bother to vote for candidates who oppose what they’re doing, you’re wasting your time and the country’s time as well. Bottled up emotion is as useful and makes as much sense as trying to swim up stream with one arm and leg going into a 20 mile and hour and wind.

Anger is only a useful emotion when it’s used to make things better even for yourself or people you care about. The same thing with screwing up and making mistakes if you don’t learn from them, you’ll make the exact same mistakes again and you’ll be nothing more than a screwup who is perhaps learning impaired as well. Whether it’s women who care about the me too movement or just hate Donald Trump and his treatment of women today and in the past, unless you use your anger to bring about positive change, all you’re doing is trying to swim upstream with one arm and one leg in a 20 mile hour wind and your anger is nothing more than wasted energy and emotion.

 

The Atlantic: Olga Khazan: ‘The Social Benefits of Swearing’

Source:The Atlantic– So in other words: we shouldn’t watch our fucking language. LOL

Source:The Daily Review 

“Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee began selling T-shirts on its site with a punchy slogan: “Democrats give a shit about people.”

From The Atlantic 

Source:The Atlantic– Social swearing: apparently we’re supposed to swear when we’re in public. LOL

“People are swearing more and more in public life with no negative consequences. Are there social benefits to swearing? And what’s the psychology behind people actually enjoying it when others curse?”

From The Atlantic

They were, of course, just following the lead of Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez, who has said that President Trump “doesn’t give a shit about health care.”

He’s not the only prominent Democrat who’s been known to curse in the heat of the moment. In an interview with New York Magazine, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, explained that if lawmakers are “not helping people, we should go the fuck home.”

I’m going to give you an answer to why Americans swear so much at least now in public but also in private as well that is a lot less scientific than what Olga Khazan gives you. But before that I’m just to go on the record and say I’m not a religious fundamentalist or very religious at all and don’t even practice any religion and I’m not a prude. Of course I swear like most Americans do I just have a real purpose to it and don’t feel the need to sound cool and lot of times today swearing is generally used simply to sound cool and hip. People will swear really for no other reasons other than that.

I swear to express anger and amazement and no other reasons. “Holy shit! That man is fat!” Would be an example of someone showing amazement and being caught off guard. “Why don’t you watch where the fuck you’re going, are you trying to fuckin kill me?” Would be an example of someone expressing anger because they think someone is moving too fast generally in a vehicle and moving recklessly. But most Americans swear today and cable TV especially HBO and company is a perfect example of that because that is simply their normal vehicle of communication. That is how they talk to their friends, that is how their friends talk and it seems perfectly normal to them. That is how cool people talk today.

If you want to sound cool today you swear a lot and even do it for no apparent reason. “Where the fuck is he? He was supposed to be here 2 minutes ago. Fuckin lazy ass!” Now was that really called for or could that person just so a little patience instead and say, “relax, he’ll be here.” Or not even say that and just enjoy that time waiting a few minutes. Maybe get a latte and stare at their iPhone and pretend to look hip and important for a few minutes.

The more you swear and sound cool doing it, the cooler you’ll be in American pop culture. And if you’re in entertainment the more you swear the more popular you’ll be and the more roles you’ll have in movies or on HBO or the other networks where hard-core swearing is not just allowed but encouraged. The bigger the asshole you are the more attention you’ll bring to yourself as the reality genre as proven the last fifteen years or so. You don’t have to do a scientific study to prove this but simply be aware of your own surroundings and what is going on in culture today.

The fact that we now see more cussing in American politics today whether its lets say moderate cussing with the use of the word damn and hell, screw, and other words like that not just on cable news, but network news where you would think the people there would be more moderate and cognitive with their approach to how they express themselves, is just an example of how pop culture hasn’t just infiltrated our political system, but that our political system is a reflection of our pop culture in America.

And saying what the heck, or darn it all, gee wiz, just sounds too 1950s Leave it to Beaver for most Americans today. Especially when you can say I don’t give a damn or what the hell, that is a helluva a lot, and not pay any price for it. You don’t need to poll people or do any scientific research on this and ask people why they swear regardless of their profession. You just have to be aware of what’s going on in front of you and see it for yourself.

 

The Atlantic: Kurt Anderson- ‘The Cultural Factors Driving America’s Departure From Reality’

Source:The Atlantic– Writer Kurt Anderson for The Atlantic.

Source:The Daily Review 

“Kurt Andersen’s cover story “How America Lost Its Mind” argues that “being American means we can believe anything we want.” This is due to a combination of the new-age mentality born out of the 1960s that encouraged Americans to find their own truth and the internet age, which has allowed us to create communities that reinforce our beliefs. According to Andersen, the perfect manifestation of America’s journey away from reality is the election of Donald Trump. Read more in The Atlantic’s September 2017 cover story:The Atlantic.”

From The Atlantic

I don’t want to make this whole piece about Donald Trump and even not most of it and perhaps just a lot of it, but the way I look at America’s Departure From Reality (to paraphrase Kurt Anderson) is way I describe Donald Trump’s approach to politics and broader approach to salesmanship. Which is that it’s not what’s true that’s important to him, but what’s believable. And not what’s believable to most people or intelligent people. But what’s believable to enough people for him to accomplish what he wants.

In 2016 that was the presidency and perhaps now it’s just about what’s believable to his base so his presidency doesn’t completely go under water. Right now President Trump’s approval rating is somewhere between 33-37% depending on what non-Fox News and Rasmussen poll you look at. Even Fox News has him in the low to mid forties right now. And you take President Trump’s base away from him he’s probably in the teens right now and perhaps low teens. Not the Republican Party but just his base in the Republican Party. Which is about 4-10 Republicans.

President Trump believes for him to stay alive and not risk being kicked out of office or asked to resign even with a Republican Congress, he has to have his base with him. And to for hat he has to tell them things that are believable to them even if the rest of the country knows what he’s saying his complete garbage. (To be kind) Millions of Americans perhaps have escaped the real world to break from reality and perhaps live in so-called reality TV because their real world is too scary for them. But so does their own President.

America’s break from reality of course didn’t start with Donald Trump. Right now he’s just the overwhelming benefactor of it. Where he now represents people who believe that Russia had nothing to do with the 2016 elections and didn’t try to interfere in them. Even though President’s own intelligent agencies have told him that Russia tried to hack our elections. Climate change is a hoax, 9/11 was an inside job, Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and I could go on. But America’s break from reality has nothing to do with Donald Trump. Again he’s just the biggest benefactor of it.

We now live in a country where Americans believe reality TV is actually real and the people on these shows are like that in real-life. When in fact we now now (or at least some of us) that the cast members on those shows are encouraged by the producers of those shows to act out and be the biggest jerks they can and get into arguments with other cast members about nothing to draw the biggest ratings. Because conflict is what sells on TV.

Life in America can be tough and stressful and Americans sometimes need a break from that and be able to escape their own reality. Which is why we take vacations and a lot of us watch the tube and get online when we get home from work especially after we’ve completed everything we need to do that day. That’s fine and I do these things myself. But it’s when alternative reality takes over our lives and we start to live in those worlds and start seeing and hearing things that simply don’t exist is where virtual reality becomes a problem and we look stupid as a result. Americans are only as powerful and free as we are educated and intelligent.

The smarter we are the freer and powerful we are because we’ll make the right decisions for ourselves and people who depend on us. But the more virtual reality and so-called reality TV takes over our lives and we actually take those things seriously instead of the mindless entertainment that it is (like pro wrestling) the dumber we become and the less free that we are as a people and country.

 

The Atlantic: Derek Thompson: ‘What Makes Things Cool?’

Source: The Atlantic Magazine– Hum, maybe the word should be awesome, now?

Source: The Daily Review

“Although trends might seem completely random, there are well-documented patterns to what becomes popular. A 20th century industrial designer, who created some of America’s most iconic looks, developed a theory of coolness that has been backed up by various scientific studies. Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, explains the science behind why we like what we like.”

From The Atlantic

What makes things cool? A very good question especially since America is such a trendy what’s hot now and cool society where everyone who wants to be cool seems to follow whatever the latest trend is even if they look ridiculous, (like wearing cowboy boots and running shorts with a mink coat) talking or looking like that, or could feel like they’re dying when they try to drink the latest drink or eat the latest dish.

Americans by enlarge and there some exceptions of people who have a healthy degree of self-confidence and are very comfortable being themselves even if their best friends are following their favorite celebrities like cult followers follow their leaders. And even with some Americans who are simply cool, because they are themselves even if that makes them different, but by enlarge feel the need to be like everyone else who is considered cool at the time.

With Jim Morrison of The Doors from the late 1960s being a perfect example of an exception to this rule. Marilyn Monroe from the 1950s would be another great example of that. Sean Connery at any point of his career has always been Mr. Cool, or is that Steve McQueen, but both of these men were always themselves. With the personal attributes, looks, intelligence, charm, humor. These two men were always themselves and if anything drove other men to be like them. Instead of these two guys trying to be like some other hot celebrity of that time.

Pop culture and what’s seen as cool drives Americans more than just about anything else. We have a lot of Americans especially young Americans who rather be seen as stupid, instead of intelligent and willing to step out on the ledge (in pop culture, not in actuality) and risk not looking and sounding cool. And young adults and even teenagers if they’re into something, than people who are just older than them and even much older than them try to get into the same things. And what drives young people today in pop culture is new technology, because it makes their lives much easier and the ability to communicate so much easier than it was even more my Generation X when I was growing up in the 1980s and early 1990s. And the other thing being celebrity culture including talentless celebrities whose only ability has to do with cursing people out and expressing deep anger in public.

Derek Thompson in his video gives you the more scientific explanation of why things are cool and things become trends. But when it comes to Americans it’s about trends and faddism. What are the cool people doing meaning the popular people in pop culture and that is who people who are not famous, but perhaps want to be or just want to be part of the cool and party scene in their local community and where they work and so-forth.

And most pop culture today has to do with new technology and people feeling this need that they may die if they don’t get the latest iPhone the day that it comes out, watch the last episode of their favorite reality show or drama on cable, or what have you. And keeping up with the pop culture tends and having this feeling of coolness and being in is what drives the happiness of a lot of Americans. Way too many from my point of view.