A Woman's Work is Often "Done"

It's Saturday, and I'm preparing to stubbornly remain in a rut: on Saturdays I tend to stay home, away from the teeming masses, and watch vapid movies on "Lifetime", "The Hallmark Channel", as well as other cable channels where escapism by made-for-TV movies or direct-to-DVD projects are paraded for our mindless pleasure. It's within many of these films that I've watched too many powerful female characters packing boxes in their offices to move on into the wild blue yonder with a perky smile on their face while the credits roll on.

What's up with so many little films floating around on TV where working women with successful careers usually pack up at the end to go off to either marry the man of their dreams or to leave the stress of success behind after solving a major crime or winning the coveted client? Am I missing something? How many male characters go into retirement when they've made their mark? In a film, I mean. Not on the network series screen.

I haven't been a marching card-carrying "Feminist" at any point in my life. I simply lived a liberated life by nature, and if I liked a guy I had no problem asking him out. I also opened a door or two for them, and sometimes I would drive. I didn't join NOW although I have friends who have been at the head of that organization in one capacity or another, as well as one who started Ms. Magazine with Gloria Steinem on the campus of Harvard. I respect what all of these women and organizations have done over the years. For me, in a print  interview many years ago, I explained that I was for "human liberation" first and foremost.  In truth, I loathe being part of any organization unless it's job-related.

Based on good timing and having "the right stuff", in my 20's I was fortunate to slip into the men's locker rooms and play with guys in careers where many women barely existed, such as a DJ in the early days of "Progressive radio." Even then, however, I was aware that my job was made possible by the "Feminist" climate of that era. At one radio station our program director (who was a liberated male, a member of NOW, and quite irked at me for not joining) made a comment one day as a woman in our news division and I were walking down the hall together. The PD remarked, "There go our tokens..."

After over 30 years of the "modern" woman's movement, wouldn't one think that by now popular culture would embrace women's rise in all areas outside the typical role of "mother", "wife" and/or going off to soothe one's spirit in a quaint little town to open up a cute B & B after slaughtering corporate lions?

Examples, you might ask? Oh, please spare me the title research and trust that I've seen enough. Perhaps you have as well. Yes, there are many films out there where the female character remains on the job despite the odds and is supported in her venture by a male partner, be it her husband or another testosterone-based entity. All is not always a walk-away. It's just that I have seen too many of these "moving on" themes cropping up in the past  few years.

The message that the films are sending harkens back to an underlying belief system that our American values are out of order, eroding the foundation of the country when women place career above family. Arguments and debates rage on over the subject of how women who work take on two roles while their mate saunters home from his burdensome work day to go directly to the refrigerator for a nice cold beer or to the home bar to mix that perfect martini as the children run wild through the house in their latest costumes and the wifey is cooking up a tasty roast as sweat trickles down her pasty face, resentment building with each baste.

I'm serving-up an observation of what many have found to be a great disappointment in the continuing stereotypical roles of men and women in our culture. Nothing more. Nothing less. As my fingers begin to itch to pick up the TV remote to initiate the search to numb my overactive grey cells for the day, I thought about what I may be viewing, which is why the subject has rolled off the keyboard of my laptop this morning. And sure, I have a choice to watch a marathon of NCIS or, if lucky, stumble on a charming English mystery... But then, for today only, what fun would that be? I wouldn't have a reason to flog, would I?

Of course, this topic is merely the tip of the melting icebergs of our dubious climate, and deserves a bit of depth in another post, don't you think? It will happen. Just not today. I can't wait to watch another successful woman character be written off to go to a desolate ranch and live with that hunky cowboy and his horses.

Yee-Haw, y'all!