Infotainment at its lowest October 24, 2007

Don’t watch this video if you have high blood pressure. Just don’t.

I can’t believe that people are talking this way in 2007. Or ever, really. Please forgive me for not cooing over your little drooling, screaming, diaper change-needing bundle of joy you’re showing off like a new car. I mean, it’s so admirable that you’ve just further contributed to the planet’s overpopulation. Way to freaking go! Please, let me interrupt my life’s work to give you a solid high five. What you’ve done is far more important, and it proves that you’re just so much sweeter than I am. I’ll overlook the fact that you nearly mauled me in your Yukon on the way in this morning.

Rather than say anymore, I’ll just post what I e-mailed to the Today Show.

I am utterly appalled at the segment from this morning’s show describing women who care about their careers (or don’t care about the trappings of stereotypical womanhood) to be “fembots.” I delayed marriage until I was in a place emotionally and intellectually to commit myself to another person in an adult relationship based on equality and mutual respect. We have contemplated not having any children at all, but that doesn’t make me “emotionally unavailable.” I don’t dislike children, but I certainly believe that we have a choice as to whether or not we want any of our own. I value my career because I believe that the work I will do will be a far larger contribution to society than would having cupcakes with my friends or contributing to the planet’s overpopulation. This does not make me socially inept, aloof, or emotionally stunted. I have a wonderful relationship with my family, friends, and colleagues, although I do not relate to people in a typically feminine way. Until today, I had no idea that this was a “problem.”

NBC is allegedly a reputable news organization, and it’s rather sad when you take your sociological data from a women’s magazine editor, particularly one of the scores of women’s magazines that thrives on the survival of traditional (and unhealthy) roles for women. We have long since discovered that these roles are not what women need or want in their lives, and all choices women make for their lives should be respected, or at the very least, not castigated by empty-headed armchair anthropologists. While I am not a regular reader of fashion magazines, I can confidently say that Marie Claire will not make its way into my literary repertoire. Not now, not ever.

You really can do better than that. In the future, I hope that you attempt to do so.