Who'd have thought...& Susan B. Anthony is rolling in her grave!

If you had told me a year ago that I'd have not one but two blogs, I'd have thought you were crazy. But I saw an article a few weeks ago, in Newsweek I think about how blogging could be therapeutic, and I thought, "maybe it's time to start releasing some of this pent-up commentary that is keeping me awake!" This topic of blogging therapy is not new but I finally decided to take it to heart & see if it might prove to give me a means of venting and getting stuff off my chest. There's a lot going on in the world, and in my own world that get's me going, and I'll probably have much to vent about later on a variety of topics. But right now, what has me really steaming is "Lipstick."

So...Susan B. Anthony's unpeaceful rest.

Women have labored for centuries to be respected and acknowledged for having the capacity for analytical thought and the ability to learn and understand complicated concepts and topics. Bottom-line, we're not idiots. We are and can be every bit as discerning or intelligent as men. We don't only think with our emotions. We don't cower when faced with real world issues, or mathematical equations. One hundred years ago, Susan B. Anthony was in the midst of the Suffragette battle to get women acknowledged as having the same rights as men, and finally in 1920 women in the US were given that right by way of the 19th Amendment. It didn't mean that women were immediately respected and treated as though they were equal. In many ways that battle continues today. And lately, I've been listening to women talk, especially about "Lipstick", and I cringe! How will we ever be TRUELY respected, when women talk openly, in public, and sometimes ON CAMERA, and say such STUPID, SHALLOW, BRAINLESS things!?!

What I'm hearing is talk about Sarah Palin, obviously, the queen of pitbulls and cosmetics, and personal vendettas. What I'm hearing a lot of women saying is, "She's so cute! She's so young! I love her glasses!!" They giggle and talk about how they like her for these reasons! They love the "lipstick" comments and they even have buttons about it. They don't have a single word to say about economic issues, medicare solutions, or how she's going to make out in a face-to-face with Putin. They are demonstrating EXACTLY the characteristics that had men treating them condescendingly, and as if they had only a child's level of capacity to think and analyze serious real-world issues for centuries. I find myself thinking, "these women should NOT have the right to vote! They are treating this election like some survey in a fashion magazine deciding whether Britney Spears or Jada Pinkett-Smith wore that green dress from Robert Cavalli to the best effect!!"

I'm ashamed! I'm embarrassed! I'm disgusted! I'm appalled! I bite my lips as they launch this dialogue and try not to puke! These comments suggest they are shallow pin-heads who can only focus on the shiny, flashy bits but have no capacity to look at anything deep, substantive or important! And then there is motherhood and the subject of "being a woman." I'm eager for a woman to someday be the president or the vice-president, but not just ANY woman! Having a womb, used or otherwise, and what she is wearing are NOT the basis by which we should be judging a candidate and her appropriateness of being in that position! And this applies to the Hillary supporters who have decided they need to vote for McPalin because their first choice didn't win. How could they have understood anything Hillary thought or believed in and her position on important issues, and agreed with her, and then moved to McPalin because she didn't win the nomination?! What did they understand and agree with? Her lipstick color?

The much maligned Britney Spears is a woman and a mother! Is she just as viable of an option for vice-president?! If she get's cool glasses (& dresses a wee bit more conservatively) will she be equally qualified? Is this who you want in the number two position? McCain's camp seemed to think otherwise when they attempted to compare Obama to her and Paris Hilton. But, boy don't they love it and ride the skirt-tails of the "celebrity" they have brought on-board themselves? HOW ironic! How sickening that women on both sides have abdicated their ability to think beyond the "lipstick" and the X chromosomes!

I heard this situation described as a really bad Disney movie, and isn't it just?! You have some small town "soccer mom" who turns a friendly local mayorial contest into a highly polarized, backstabbing, vengeful campaign and wins. I'm picturing Terri Garr or Shelley Long. She does the same thing to become a Governor of a state that has the population of Memphis, TN, only more remote, and spread out into tiny municipalities, many of which aren't even connected to each other with a highway. Clearly the cost of keeping up the roads can't be that high! When her old co-candidate, the president, passes away, she finds herself living in the White House, with her finger on the button, and the movie now suddenly takes on a very un-Disney tone, and you've got this soccer mom, facing dilemmas more reminescent of "Syriana" and "United Flight 93" and "September 11th". OH! I don't think I want to watch that movie devolve into "Independence Day" and "The Day After!" No happy endings for this Disney movie.

Poor Susan B. Anthony! I'm guessing she never wore lipstick. I'm guessing she must be rolling in her grave about now. And if lipstick wins out this November, we'll probably all be in there with her.