"The Real Housewives" Spectacle

Is it only me or is the series The Real Housewives Of.... a testament to the debased state of American women.  Granted, this is reality TV which can be sometimes less real than scripted TV, but the obviously real cattiness, competitiveness, backstabbing and aggression is a window into a growing reality (no pun intended).

This series follows several cliques of spoiled, over the hill, spendthrifts from Atlanta, New York, and California.  Each city series shows American women at their worst.  There is no wonder why young men want nothing to do with marriage anymore.

When I was growing up, the sign of a lady was refinement and grace, not masculine aggression.  That the casting people chose women in their thirties and forties was no accident.  These are the women most ruined by the feminism of the 70's and 80's, but their antics are becoming more and more mainstream.

I encourage the readers of this blog to view some of these programs for educational reasons.  It is very telling how these women spend their poor husbands money to soothe their aging egos.

More importantly, view the men and husbands in these programs.  They are broken and defeated.  Perhaps this is the biggest lesson the series offers. 

The American Myth of the Teen "Carefree Years"

We've heard it all before. The cliche that adolescence and high school are the "carefree years." The proponents of this myth could not be more wrong.

The teenage years are the most fraught with embarrassment, humiliation, angst, and misery. These are the years when anorexia, bulimia, bullying, drugs, underage drinking, acne, sexual confusion, etc, are everyday struggles for teens.

As a forty-something who has been having the time of his life since age 30, I can attest that the most carefree I have ever been is the present.

Perhaps married people look at their tortured lives and refer back to their single days as carefree years. If that's the case, I pity them.

In more wise societies, the teen years are seen as preparatory years where hard work and toil lead to lives of prosperity and wealth. All but the most savvy Americans believe that to be the case for their children, and we have a generation of poorly prepared "millennials" ruining workplaces the country over as proof.

So reject that myth. Impress upon your children that these are the days of hard work and delayed gratification. As much as my parents got on my nerves about this, I see now they were correct.