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Watch “Show Me the Receipts – You Can Tell a Tree by it’s Fruit Matthew 7-15-20” on YouTube
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Watch “Be Smart and Stay Woke” on YouTube
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Watch “Debt Psalms 37:21, Romans 13:17” on YouTube
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As of today I have one hundred followers. I appreciate all of you taking the time to read my posts and follow this blog. The gesture means a lot to me.
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It’s been obvious to me for a long time now that it’s a man’s world. I see it. I feel it. I’m not really even complaining about it but I just wanted to point it out. I figure that under the patriarchal system men pay for dates, engagement rings and they are the financial backbone of families and dating relationships so it all comes out in the wash.
I came to that conclusion that it’s a man’s world when I realized that a man without an education beyond high school has a chance of making a decent living but a woman without an education beyond high school is likely to live in poverty. A man with no education beyond high school can drive a truck and earn at least $50,000 per year. A woman without a higher education is probably going to end up in a job that pays around $20,000 per year.
Jobs with a large percentage of female personnel usually pay low wages. Retail, food service and child care are good examples of this. When men work in female dominated professions they are often in leadership positions that are higher paid. We’ll never really know but I think that if more men chose elementary education as a career, teaching would be a job that would start $70,000 per year straight out of college with a career track that to having a six figure salary within ten years. But teaching young children is mostly a woman’s profession so they are under paid, under appreciated and have to fight for respect.
Here is a photo of the leaders at the G20 Summit 2018. Two of the twenty are women. If this wasn’t a man’s world there would be more female leadership around the globe. One of the women at the G20 Summit is a graduate of Oxford and the other has a doctorate in quantum chemistry. One of the men at the last G20 Summit was an American reality show host who shows no evidence of having an education beyond the eighth grade.
There are a number of other examples that I can point out to make my case that this is a man’s world. But if what I’ve already said isn’t enough evidence for you that this is a man’s world take a look at the beauty gurus of today.
Jeffree Star
James Charles
Cohl Woolbrighttop left: Jeffree Star
bottom left: James Charles
right: Cohl Woolbright
That’s right. They’re men. Due to changing social mores and the redefining of masculinity, femininity and gender men are now the new make up gurus to young women that seek beauty advice on You Tube and other social media outlets. Imagine a woman looking like any of these three and getting the opportunity to make millions in the cosmetic industry. It wouldn’t happen.
This would make more sense if these men were pretty like Isis King who is trans. I’m not sure if that means she had a sex change or not but at least Isis put in some work to look like a feminine woman and a normal human being. I don’t know much about Jeffree Star, James Charles or Cohl personally but they look like men with several layers of make up on to me. It’s not cute. The plainest of all women are more attractive than them.
At least Isis is pretty and has an attractive image. But these make up influencer men are just disrespectful and making fools out of women and women are loving it. Their young fans are dumb enough to think they’re being hip and progressive.
None of these men make as much money as Kiley Jenner but she had to get an entirely new face before she could build her make up empire. The money spent on Kiley’s cosmetic surgery is money well spent because she looks gorgeous. Gorgeous use to be a requirement to be a cosmetics pitch person. This is sexism and partriarchy at it’s finest.
If men are going to be allowed in traditional female spaces, such as the cosmetics industry, women’s sports and beauty pageants what’s left for women? Women don’t even get respect or treated with much chivalry anymore. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for women to be in the spotlight in this world. In a genderless society there will be even fewer. Everything will be dominated by men because this is a man’s world after all.
I’m an old lady now so this young generation of beauty influencers has zero influence on me. I’m not their target audience and I’m sure all of these men are smart enough to know that. But young women need to be weary of this gender fluid agenda because it will not benefit you at all. This isn’t a two way street.
I keep seeing women in the media that want to be the first woman in the NFL. If a woman ever gets to compete in football at that level she will probably end up permanently damaged or killed. That social experiment will be over with within one play. I don’t even think a woman could even measure up as a kicker. I couldn’t even imagine most young women being able to perform under that type of pressure.
Cody Parkey was a champ. He disappointed the entire city of Chicago and got tore up on social media. I saw him on the news after that game and he was very poised. Most women would be on TV crying and I don’t have time for it.
The woman in the picture below is Becca Longo and she aspires to become an NFL kicker. I don’t know her and I could be wrong but just imagine an attractive, young, White woman doinking the ball and ending the Bears season after they haven’t been relevant since the mid 80s. What I visualize in my mind is absolutely nauseating and I want no parts of it.
It’s up to each generation to make their mark. Each generation can correct the mistakes of the last generation or compound them. I think that feminism has it’s accomplishments and there have been benefits to society overall. It’s never a good thing for potential to be overlooked based on sex, race, economic background, etc. The mistake that feminism made is that it tells people that there is no difference between male and female. This is not true and this thought pattern benefits men.
Smarten up girls! Straight, masculine men have been using feminism to their benefit for decades. Now feminine men are using feminism and gender neutrality to their benefit and women or at least young girls are hanging on their every word. It’s embarrassing. It’s a man’s world and I think it will always be that way. It’s easier to make the system work for you than work against it.
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NW
Over the weekend I watched a film called “NW”. It is based on a book by the same name by Zadie Smith. NW stands for north west, no it’s not about Kanye West’s daughter. I hope that doesn’t disappoint you. NW refers to the British postal code of north west London where the principle characters of the film grew up together in a housing project. The film circles around two girlhood friends Natalie and Leah who are now in their thirties with families and careers.
I thought this was a great story and a very well made, meticulously cast movie. It kind of reminds me of the 2005 movie “Crash”. “Crash” took place in Los Angeles and had a large cast of ethnically diverse characters with different lots in life. The people in the story seemed to have nothing in common other than living in the megapolis of LA but their lives are all intertwined through a series of events.
“NW” operates in a similar fashion. The characters range in social status and experiences. People that you wouldn’t expect to cross paths do. There are two other characters in the film that grew up in northwest London. And just like in real life it’s interesting to see how people with similar starting points take different paths and end up in very different places in life years later.
“NW” is a story and commentary on race, class, femininity, masculinity, identity and how it all intersects. The mainstreamed, straight laced people make questionable moral decisions and have unrighteous motivations. You will loathe some of the respectable characters for their deceit and arrogance while some of the edgy ones display honesty, decency and even honor and chivalry.
I don’t believe that Hollywood would or could have made this film. I don’t think they would have made the right casting decisions. The casting choices were very important to the telling of the story. I can tell that the actors were chosen deliberately and the film makers did a great job of choosing personnel.
It took a lot of sensitivity and cultural awareness to be able to choose actors and to understand the cultural nuances involved in being Black, mixed an immigrant and White. Kudos to them. I have a hard time picturing Hollywood placing Nikki Amuka-Bird in the role of a trophy wife. But traditional Hollywood would have seen Zoe Kravitz or Zendaya more suitable for the part of a wealthy man’s wife not a woman so…Black. She nailed it though.
O.T. Fagbenle gave a great performance in “NW”. I was reading about the cast after watching it and the article mentioned one of the actors is in “The Handmaid’s Tale”. I was confused because I’ve been watching “Handmaid’s Tale” and I wasn’t making the connection. Fagbenle plays June’s husband Luke in “Handmaid’s Tale” and Felix in “NW”. He is one heck of an actor because his appearance was not drastically different from one part to the other but he was completely unrecognizable to me. He even appeared about ten years younger in “NW” even though the movie aired on BBC in 2016.
There is a lot that can be said about this film but I actually don’t want to spoil it for anyone that hasn’t seen it and may want to watch. It’s a mature and thought provoking movie with no real heroes and no easy answers. I would recommend it if you are looking for something to watch.
Here is a link to the film if you can tolerate sparkly stars framing your movies. Enjoy. I just got a copy from my local library.
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Crazy Rich Asians
I’ve been on a movie kick lately. I recently watched “Crazy Rich Asians”. It was great. I’m not much of a cry baby so I love any movie, book, commercial, sporting event that brings tears to my eyes. “Crazy Rich Asians” did that.
WARNING: This brief review contains spoilers!
It’s a very sweet movie and an old fashioned romance. I love a good romance but Hollywood doesn’t make many of those anymore. There’s not much to say about the plot because it really is working from Hollywood’s formula for romances. Honestly, you’ve probably seen a movie like this before.
Man and woman are in love. Everything is great. There’s a conflict which threatens to destroy the relationship. It does. The woman leaves. The man realizes he doesn’t want to live without the woman. He pursues her and stops her before the plane, train, bus takes off. She looks into his eyes with longing and realizes she doesn’t want to live without him either. She gets off of the bus, train or plane and runs into his arms.
The end.
There’s not much more to it than that. If you’ve seen this type of film before and enjoyed it watch “Crazy Rich Asians” if you haven’t already. Have tissue paper handy.
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Victoria and Abdul
A few days ago I watched the 2017 release “Victoria and Abdul”. It was OK. It was watchable to me because I enjoy period, historical dramas and the British royal family is interesting to me. The actors in the film did as good of a job as I think anyone could with the material they were given. This film could have been a complete disaster in the hands of the wrong film makers.
If you plan on watching this movie and you don’t like spoilers do not proceed. I don’t feel guilty about the spoilers in this movie because it isn’t a current release and it’s based on historical facts. Consider yourself warned.
So Abdul is a young man from India that worked in some sort of clerical position for a government office in colonial India. He was selected and ordered to travel to India to present the Queen Victoria with a coin that was being given to her as a gift from the people of India. When I say Abdul was selected to travel to India I mean he was ordered along with another government worker named Mohammed.
Once Abdul and Mohammed arrive in England they have to present the Queen with the coin that bears her likeness. They are ceremonial colored people. The pair are instructed not to make eye contact with the Queen and once she has been presented her coin on silver platter they are to back away. Abdul makes eye contact with Victoria while making his exit. The Queen remarks that she thinks that he is handsome.
Abdul and Mohammed are required to serve Queen Victoria at a different dinner. At this event after serving the Queen her dessert Abdul shockingly drops to his knees and kisses her feet. I’m unsure of why he did that but the Queen took a liking to him after that. He becomes her confidante, tutor and spiritual advisor. Much to the consternation of Mohammed their stay in England is prolonged.
Abdul irritated me throughout 90% of this movie. This grown, married man who had achieved some level of education was forced to travel to gloomy England and serve the Queen that stole their country and oppressed his people. Yet he was infatuated with her. I don’t understand it.
I really don’t understand the nature of Abdul’s feelings towards Victoria. She is the queen of the nation that colonized his country. Any healthy person would harbor resentment. I couldn’t tell if he admired her position of power, looked to her as a mother figure or if he had an attraction to her. Perhaps it was all three.
I can accept a platonic friendship or a loving surrogate mother/son relationship. But I felt at times that the film was hinting at romance and trying to create sexual tension. Victoria was a mother of nine and she was eighty one years old in the film. She had a long list of health problems. She was a woman well past her prime. I was hoping Abdul wasn’t so intrigued by the idea of having the attention of a White woman that he saw past all this. I was watching this movie like “Have some pride for goodness sakes Abdul she’s dying!”.
Particularly since he had a good Muslim, young, attractive, Indian wife back home. During a conversation between Victoria and Abdul his wife came up. The Queen was a bit disappointed and dismayed by the news and she felt betrayed that she had not been told about her. Then The Queen requested that Abdul’s wife be brought to England. Once again, this was an order not a request or suggestion.
The most interesting and relatable character in the movie was Mohammed who traveled to England with Abdul. He was a man with pride and looked at the world in a practical and realistic way. He resented having to travel to England, he hated England, he was upset with Abdul for prolonging their stay and he saw the British as settlers that oppressed the people of India.
Nonetheless, he was employed by their government in his homeland. I’m sure he saw his employment opportunity as the best deal that was being offered. I’ve learned that taken the best deal that is offered to you is a lot of what life is about. As a Black woman in America I strongly identify with Mohammed.
The relationship between Victoria and Abdul deepens and one day the monarch dies. The queens family and household staff resented Abdul and the attention he had from the queen. Once the queen passed away Abdul and his wife and mother in law were sent back to India. The queen’s son, Bertie Prince of Wales destroyed evidence of his influence over the royal palace.
A statue was erected near the Taj Mahal. Abdul lived nearby and visited the statue in the last scene of “Victoria & Abdul”. He was visibly aged and he kissed the feet of the statue and looked at it with adulation. Abdul had years to reflect on his banishment from the place that he grew to love and call home, the disrespect and poor treatment he received from everyone but the queen and the attempt the queen’s son made to completely erase his presence at the palace.
Abdul buried Mohammed, who proved himself to be a loyal friend, in England. Mohammed never wanted to come there and was anxious to return to India. Mohammed died in the royal palace as a prisoner to Queen Victoria.
He never came to realize that he and the queen were never on a level playing field and she pulled rank in the relationship on several occasions. The Queen Victoria loved, enjoyed, admired and in some ways respected Abdul. But she still looked upon him the way one views a pet. She didn’t really see him as a man.
I was frustrated with Abdul throughout this film. I think the director wanted to create a “Driving Miss Daisy” vibe but it didn’t happen in this film. I haven’t seen that film in years but if I recollect correctly Hoke put Miss Daisy in her place once or twice. There was mutual respect between the two of them even if they weren’t seen as peers outside of their relationship. Queen Victoria complained of having a long life as a queen but she never let Abdul know that she was queen and he was her subject.
I didn’t really like the film for personal reasons. But it’s actually OK. It runs for about two hours and the story sails along. I never look at a clock to figure out how much longer it was going to last. The setting and costumes were fun. I always like learning something new about history. And the actors were quite good. I don’t think you will hate it if you watch.
Thoughts, Observations, Impressions
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Shannon's Life in the Midwest 