I’ve missed Whiny Wednesday lately. I keep trying to put a positive spin on it or even whine on a theme, but this week I think it’s time to just have a good old-fashioned whine.
What’s on your mind? What’s under your skin? What do you feel you have to be a grown-up about when what you really want to do is throw a tantrum? Now’s your chance to get it off your chest.
Whine on, sisters!
Not sure if this is a ‘whine’ or not . . . but I was reading in the LA Times this morning about Stephanie Powers, who recently published her autobiography. Of course, you can’t mention her name without bringing up the TV show that she and Robert Wagner did together, “Hart ot Hart”. I was failthful viewer of the show. I was wondering on modern TV are there women like the character Stephanie Powers played on “Hart to Hart”? I gave up watching TV – now it is old movies (thank you NexFlix) and documentaries, and re-runs on assorted cable channels. Why? On TV women are portaryed as either trying to find someone to love and love them or they are the mother figure trying to control someone. No where are there the self-actualized women who are living their lives to the fullest. At least not that I have seen . . . Yes, I know, it is TV! But, that medium is SO influential in our culture. Would a show like “Hart to Hart” be successful today? I wonder? A lot of the show was the ‘chemistry’ between Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers – can that be recreated with new actors without a child (or the desire of a child) in the mix? In the article about Stephanie Powers, it is mentioned that she was a long time smoker and recently had a portion of her lung removed due to cancer. I am reminded of the Virginal Slims cigarette line, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.” Sometimes, I wonder if we have?
Sewforward,
I also think we’ve gone backwards on this score. I recall (fondly) my childhood when TV shows had strong, spunky non-mom role models like Marlo Thomas in That Girl, Mary Tyler Moore and even Emily Newhart from the Bob Newhart Show…
Hear, hear!!! I am ripe for a whine today. Here’s what I’m tired of:
– my period! It adds insult (and hassle) to misery every month. If I don’t get babies, take the dumb monthly crap away too.
– being nice. I’m sick of listening to people for whom I do a LOT of work talk about how much they get done. What they get done is what *I* do, and having them whine at me and then go home while I stay and try to finish up the details. They are good people, too, so I feel guilty about resenting this, and I’m sick of feeling guilty!!
– nasty mean people. I just want to cry over animal cruelty. I know that won’t help. Sometimes it just feels like too much to see one more alert about another way humans are selfish a-holes.
– never having time. Just away from everyone. No questions, no opinions, no needs, no demands, no just-a-tiny-favors, no hairballs, no alarm clock.
– worrying about money. I know there’s no such thing as real security, but I wouldn’t mind a better fake.
Thanks, Lisa. I may come back and have another. š
xoxo
Jennifer, so sorry you’re not doing well. Come back and gripe any time. š
Thanks, Lisa! I’m actually doing okay – feel much better for having a rant. Just all the things I feel I have to not complain about get tiresome. Thank you for giving me a place to vent.
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On the TV thing, very few of the programs we watch have any kind of “mother” theme, but then, we like SciFi a lot. Many of the parts Amanda Tapping has played come to mind for “strong” women. Of course in her current series (which i don’t care for much, but my hubby does) she is a mother who lost her daughter, but that isn’t the focus of the show, i think.
I loved the Firefly series from long ago where children had no part of the show.
My whiney today is that i can’t find anything to eat that doesn’t disagree with my stomach. So if i give up & simply eat easy (forbidden) stuff, my stomach doesn’t bother me but i’m in a lot of pain. I hate this rollercoaster.
I think I may just whine that they didn’t do a full 7 year run of FireFly. God that was a great show. I think I may go fire up the DVD.
I don’t watch TV at all so I can’t add much, but I do like to go to the movies (or I used to) but again there is such a run on baby movies right now, it’s hard to find something to see. Even the men are onboard. I’m seeing billboards for “Due Date” with Robert Downey Jr. Apparently it’s a road trip movie about a two friends trying to make it across country in time for the birth of the first child of one of them. Sigh.
Great topic sewforward. I think I will post it for discussion.
My whine today is that I cannot get rid of this stupid cold. I am sick of being sick and I have too much to do the have a pounding headache again. Blach!!
Okay…after another “dramatic discussion” last night I have to say that my number one peeve (today) is not having my plight completely understood by my husband. He doesn’t understand why the 20-year-old experience IF has completely changed my outlook on life, isolated me from 98% of my peers, and why I feel overwhelmed at times with the demands of work and home, because “think what it would be like if you had kids.”
Gosh, I love him, but sometimes I want to strangle him. He just doesn’t get it!
Vicki, I’m so sorry to hear about this. I get it. I think it’s an issue we all deal with at some level or at some point. I think that’s my biggest issue is that no matter how well you put your life together you can’t help but be defined by infertility.
So it’s no longer Wednesday but I’ve had a terrible week and just put a can into our recycling bin and it occurred to me…why do I bother recycling (and I’m BIG on recycling)??? None of my friends with children recycle. They have children and they are not concerned about saving the planet for them. Why should I care? I’m not leaving behind my own children or even nieces and nephews. If the parents of the children in my life don’t care enough about them to put their paper, plastic, and aluminum items in a bin and stick them by the road once a week, WHY DO I BOTHER???!
Just sayin’.
Please note there is a 99.99% chance I will continue to recycle after this post.
Oh Sue!! Yes! I have this thought. People who use paper plates on a daily basis for convenience while I am careful recycling every scarp of paper I use! Drives me bananas! (But yes, I too keep recycling, and turning off lights, and nudging down the thermostat, and saving for an electric vehicle. Sigh.)