behind the "mystique"

In my attempt to get a headstart for the approaching term, I've started reading some of my books now. One such book, "The Feminine Mystique" written in 1963 by the founder of NOW, Betty Friedan has me engrossed with a paranoia not of the expected things like government but further reaching. My paranoia is directed towards advertisers. This book, written over 40 years ago clearly lays out a plan to play upon female oppression for better markert dollars. By depriving women opportunity outside of the home and keeping them dependant upon an unsatisfied longing the creaters of everything from cake mix to cars was able to prey upon this longing ...to offer their object to fill the void. The scary part are the "depth surveys" done that so closely detail the intimate longings of these housewives and the plans to keep them as such in a attempt to keep a market open. The connection behind this advertising is scarier still. After WWII, there was a need to find a home or purpose for the new technology from the war and with that technology came a need for a market for it. So  it goes without saying that the cleaning/ cooking appliances make  a good sell the status hungry housewife. What i want to know was what came first...The advertisers, the goods and technology or the capitolist market and system that took advantage of the whole situation??? Either way these techniques are still clearly in use today and i'm sure with more detailed surveys. All that can be done is to make oneself as educated a consumer as possible. Here are some sites to help us all do that. Adbusters is a good one .

There is also some good info at the consumer watchdog site. Any other are WELCOME!!!!!

History revisted

Went to the Shrewsburry ren. fest yesterday...it reminded me of just how much i enjoyed history especially medieval history..i think it's because of the complexity of the time. The era seems to be so different from ours yet there are plenty of similarities even a definite connection to how so much of what makes up today came into being. In particular with regards to the lower classes of people. In western civ.  I used to think that i'd have wanted to be around in that time but yesterday i realized that maybe it would be the same stuff, different day as it were. Is it posible that people have been dealing with the same basic issues for over 600 years?! 

word cloud

thoughts?

Ok, I've been spending some time reading my  $400.00 worth of text books starting with my Anthropology class...mostly because many books for the class are novels...and i had read one book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe leisurely over the summer and really liked it. 

I then read "The Translator" by Daoude Hari. This book is written by a refugee survivor of the genocide in Darfur by the Sudan government. There were at least 5 points in the book where i was bought to tears. I had been pretty ignorant to alot of issues regarding this conflict. To be honest I'm still not sure that i really know what the situation is over. I think I'm in denial that people would go as far as genocide over  natural resources...i mean i know they're precious but that adults would think mass murder would really solve anything! What will be done when the land is diseased with the dead bodies strewn about.? It seems kinda wasteful to me. It takes quite a bit of resources to kill and torture and hold people also!

I'm now working on reading "Nisa: the life and words of a !Kung woman" written in the mid 70's by an anthropologist who spent 20 months living with the African tribe. This book is interesting because from what i'd read thus far this tribe seems pretty matriarchal in many ways, divorce in initiated by the wives, wives hunt, as well as gather from the surrounding area and have say over who they marry after a certain age. I'm not sure why but this intrigues me.

I really look forward to this class..i've always liked anthropology but never had the opportunity to take a class...maybe this class comes at a good time when i'm pretty up in the air about teaching????

On a whole other direction I've been helping Bird and Hippy do veg. surveys at E.E Wilson and Finley.  I ate so many blackberries at E.E Wilson that i nearly pooped myself on wed. LOL. There was so much fruit there,  apples, pears, blackberries, cherries...not sure how it all got there but im glad it is. It's funny , i was telling Hippy and Bird that i never really liked berries until i moved out here. Now i love them..huckleberries, blackberries, thimbleberries! At Finley there were so much Elk sign  and weird nest  or debris in the trees. We found this cool grove of trees, hawthorn i think randomly in the middle of his huge field. I could of stayed there all day!

It was so nice. I'm kinda sad that surveys are over  liked the motivation to hike and explore. 

Freedom

So... i will try to make this brief...I have finally QUIT Growing oaks...and it feels so good to say it. Kinda funny how easy it was to be honest. lol. I start at the UHDS on sunday so that also helps..=) So...beyond all that i went to campus with julie today and hung out  and tried to familarize myself with places.  It was an excellent day to be honest despite julie and i discovering that im being charged out of state tuition at OSU. Now i have to fill out some paperwork, make copies of stuff proving that i lived here for at least 12 months..but at least now i have time to do all ths stuff...lol.