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All them girls look the same to me
Friday, November 30th, 2007 09:38 amOne of the benefits of the day-job is that I get to peruse the catalogs of university presses. I therefore have, via the Duke University Spring/Summer 2008 catalog, news of a book entitled The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture, by Lauren Berlant. Duke University is for the moment keeping the ISBN a closely held secret.
This book -- understanding that I'm working from the description, not the work itself (which I actually will seek out) -- proposes that the public intimacy of a so-called "women's culture" works to promote the notion that a woman's life is not unique to herself, but something that is automatically understood and experienced by other women. The author (again, working from the description) represents "chick lit" and "chick flicks" as manifestations of this fantasy all-women-all-the-time culture, and also (apparently) has a few issues with the way literature written by women is adapted to screen and stage.
I of course spent most of my life feeling like an alien among my own gender, having missed out, for one reason or another, on nearly all of the "normal" defining experiences of my cohort. All-night, all-girl talk fests? Not once, never mind numerous times. Lifelong bonding with a college roommate? Nope. Children? Nuh-uh. Divorce? Avert.
Now that I'm Older Than Spit(tm), I find that I have more in common with, and am easier in the company of, other women -- possibly because the burden of any significant years of life experience diminishes the importance of any one experience. I wonder how many have felt this same thing -- a disconnect between themselves and the group that is "supposed" to perfectly understand all aspects of your nature and your experience. And I wonder where that assumption of homogeneity came from, and why it's entered our Big Book of Base Assumptions. And I also wonder (naturally) how that assumption affects the shapes of the stories we tell each other.
This book -- understanding that I'm working from the description, not the work itself (which I actually will seek out) -- proposes that the public intimacy of a so-called "women's culture" works to promote the notion that a woman's life is not unique to herself, but something that is automatically understood and experienced by other women. The author (again, working from the description) represents "chick lit" and "chick flicks" as manifestations of this fantasy all-women-all-the-time culture, and also (apparently) has a few issues with the way literature written by women is adapted to screen and stage.
I of course spent most of my life feeling like an alien among my own gender, having missed out, for one reason or another, on nearly all of the "normal" defining experiences of my cohort. All-night, all-girl talk fests? Not once, never mind numerous times. Lifelong bonding with a college roommate? Nope. Children? Nuh-uh. Divorce? Avert.
Now that I'm Older Than Spit(tm), I find that I have more in common with, and am easier in the company of, other women -- possibly because the burden of any significant years of life experience diminishes the importance of any one experience. I wonder how many have felt this same thing -- a disconnect between themselves and the group that is "supposed" to perfectly understand all aspects of your nature and your experience. And I wonder where that assumption of homogeneity came from, and why it's entered our Big Book of Base Assumptions. And I also wonder (naturally) how that assumption affects the shapes of the stories we tell each other.
