I’ve been watching Oprah’s Life Class the last week or so, it comes on twice in the day on her new network and a commercial came on for Shania Twain’s show “Why Not?” and she mentions how she lost her voice and her confidence etc. and she can’t figure out why.
I wish I could tell her why. I think I know.
It’s because with her husband running off with that best friend of hers, even though he was married to SHANIA TWAIN for goodness sakes! It meant all those ‘women empowerment’ songs she’d been singing were proven to be absolute NONSENSE!
Shania made her mark being powerful.
When he left her, her reaction proved her to be completely and utterly vulnerable.
She’s embarrassed!
And that new song of hers: Today is Your Day, is more hokum. It’s wishful thinking nonsense.
Maybe she’s trying to rebrand herself, but I don’t think that will work. Not until she actually gets over being embarrassed, and starts working on her craft again.
And I’m thinking she must have actually believed the stuff she was singing/selling.
Oprah didn’t help much either.
When she was interviewing Shania at one point, Shania says, “Oh but I was mean…” And I thought, “Ah ha!”
When I was younger I always wondered why the ‘beautiful’ people had marriages fraught with infidelity. And especially it seemed that the women the men were cheating with, weren’t anywhere near as good looking as their wives.
The conclusion that I’ve come to is that when women are very good looking, they believe it gives them extra capital to treat men and other people badly.
All the movies sell this. They have these femme fatales who slink across the screen with their hips protruding sideways with each step, and the men and everyone else withers in their path.
It’s NONSENSE!
Women should stop falling for it!
It’s as campy as Xena Warrior Princess with her twirly boob armour.
Any half-built man could drop her with a side kick.
She doesn’t hava any inertia behind her blows for goodness sakes! And that’s just a matter of plain physics.
Just like skinny-minny Uma Thurman beating up all those Japanese Tae Kwon do blokes in Kill Bill.
When will women realize that they don’t need to compete with men militarily to be empowered.
That women’s power really is different.
A man cannot bear a child.
Women have been doing it for millenia.
How could a man endure the pushing apart of his pelvic bones to allow the passage of a baby’s head and body?
If you think about it, it’s kind of like the rack, you know those old torture devices where they’d tie ropes or chains to a persons wrists and ankles and stretch them on a board, only this is happening internally, and for a purpose.
A man cannot feed a child after it’s born.
Again women have been doing this for millenia.
Without women, there are NO men!
That is POWER!
In animal husbandry, it’s always the female that is the valuable commodity.
The males are mostly slaughtered for food.
Whether they’re sheep or cattle or chickens, you don’t need too many around. They just turn the farmyard into a war zone.
Women’s power lies in their own nature.
But all this toddlers and tiaras nonsense and ‘women empowerment’ nonsense, when they’re dressed in the most provocative styles is not POWER!
It’s actually demeaning!
I was watching Denzel Washington in American Gangster one time and his character says something very interesting at one point. He says that in a crowd, the person who is dressed the most outlandishly is actually the person with the least power.
In such crowds women are often dressed in slinky, very uncomfortable looking, evening gowns.
We need to become more discerning, see through the NONSENSE people are spouting to the sentiments that lie beneath.
The whole message of Lady Gaga, for goodness sakes, is fraught with hypocrisy!
The woman can never appear on stage without the most outlandish accroutements and make up that makes her look like she’s wearing a mask! Like she’s hiding behind her weird stuff.
She looks like a joke!
And she’s trying to sell us the idea that she’s secure within herself?
Puhlease!
Methinks she doth protest too much!
If 49 years have taught me nothing else, it’s to take what these people say with a grain of salt.
Don’t just listen to their words! Regard their actions!
Actions really do speak louder than words!
Look at their body language.
Lady Gaga can barely sit up straight. She’s always POSING!
It’s all just stage presence!
Anyone can have stage presence.
Mark my words, in years down the road, she’ll probably do an interview confessing to how insecure she felt at the height of it all!
I remember Alan Alda saying that he took up acting because it cured his shyness.
When you go out on stage you can take on your own persona.
And I remember an interview about Marilyn Monroe where she said that her sexiness was something she could turn on and off at will.
She was talking to some friend and they were walking down a street. She said, “Watch.” And she turned it ‘on’ and suddenly all the people were gawking at her. People who were otherwise just passing by.
I actually know what that feels like.
Not the sexiness stuff of course, but the ‘turning things on’ bit.
When I’m just talking to people normally, I’m definitely ‘off’. I think it would be extremely odious to be ‘on’ under those circumstances.
But once I get up on stage, I turn it ‘on’, just as surely as flicking a switch.
I guess what I’m trying to say in a round about way is, “Don’t be fooled. Look past the fascade.”
6 Responses
patientdreamer
20|Oct|2011 1Hi Rukhsana,
I joined Pat at the LA SCBWI conference this year and thoroughly enjoyed your speech and workshop. My husband and I love traveling and especially to exotic places. This year it was Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before arriving in LA. We are fascinated and enjoy learning of different cultures and it is our travels and remembering where we have been, what we have discovered, felt, been a part of that makes a holiday memorable. Like Pat I am an aspiring writer and it is my travels I hope to share with children, a window if you like into a world that maybe unknown to them.
I find your website here very interesting. I loved your book Wanting Mor and am so pleased to hear, after reading Pat’s interview with you that you are writing a sequel….yay! Can’t wait.
Sorry I have meant to write earlier as I have been reading your posts with interesting. Like this one it certainly makes me see things I had not thought about, from a different perspective and it certainly made me smile. Very you!
Look forward to reading more.
Thankyou for your informative and inspiring interview.
Rukhsana Khan
20|Oct|2011 2Hi Diane,
I am really touched by your kind words! Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed my post and blog!
I’m like you! I find other cultures absolutely fascinating!
I love traveling the world and seeing what people are up to, how they view things, what they believe, and I inevitably come to the conclusion that we’re way more alike than different!
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam! Wow!
Never been there…yet! But perhaps one day!
I might be going back to Singapore again. BIG RED LOLLIPOP is up for the Red Dot award and I’ve been invited back to present at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. That was really fun!
All the best,
Rukhsana
Patricia Tilton
20|Oct|2011 3I am so happy you met Diane — know she’s been wanting to write you! She is so kind and generous — and loves your work.
Rukhsana, boy what a blog you wrote. My head is spinning. Many of your comments about the portrayal of women is spot on. I have concerns about the messages to youth. And, as much as we glorify beauty, we now the industry is glorifying vampires (steal power) and and link it with romance. Can’t go there as a writer. I have to remain true to myself.
Which ties into your comments regarding the rejection. I’m really pleased you held your ground with the sequel. You know in your heart what the story is and I applaud you. Will you find another publisher?
Saw your note on my blog. Will post. But, wanted to drop you a note first. By the way, the comments on the interview will come in over a few days. Yesterday I had my highest views ever on the book review — 84 views in one day. There are some people who subscribe by email and I’ve received two very lovely emails today. Will look forward to what the next few days show.
Can’t find a way to join your blog, so I can receive your posts. The RSS feed takes me to the Internet. Tried throug Wordrpress and that didn’t work either.
Best,
Pat
Rukhsana Khan
23|Oct|2011 4Hi Pat,
I’m so glad you enjoyed my post!
This is stuff I’ve been observing and realizing over a long time.
Don’t get me started on the vampire romance novel stuff! I actually think Stephanie Meyer’s series is irresponsible!
I can understand why it sold so well, but when I heard how she got the idea for it, it gave me chills, and not in a good way!
I’m hoping I get another publisher for this book. We’ll see.
If not, it’ll go into the ‘compost heap’ that’ll give rise to something better, God willing.
I’ve had a lady ask to subscribe by email but I don’t know how to do that for her. That’s not good that the RSS feed takes you back to the internet. I’ll have to look at my settings.
Maybe the problem is there.
All the best,
Rukhsana
patientdreamer
21|Oct|2011 5Hi Rukhsana,
You are most welcome and wow, Big Red Lollipop seems to be doing very well and how lovely to be invited back to Singapore. I haven’t been there for many years now. I will have my fingers crossed for the Red Dot Award, for your book. I think you will find those countries very interesting and I hope oneday to return, (it may take a couple of years or more). We plan on visiting South America in a couple of years… that’s our next big trip.
Just a note, if you haven’t already done so…. on my blog I have a page called “Travel Insight” (admitedly I haven’t kept up with it), has short narrative stories of happenings on previous travels we have done. You might find interesting, if not, offer a laugh or two.
I look forward to more posts
Regards
Diane
Rukhsana Khan
23|Oct|2011 6Hi Diane,
I loved Singapore when I went there, was it only about two years ago!
The people were so friendly!
And the Asian Festival of Children’s Content was a very ambitious festival where I learned a LOT!
I’ve always wanted to see South America.
My husband is from Guyana, and I’ve been there. It’s lovely, the people are very nice but it’s rife with corruption.
I’ve always wanted to see Peru!
It’s on my list of places I want to go before I die.
Also Antarctica.
I’ll try to check out your blog when I get a chance. Might not be for a while because things are getting crazy again!
All the best,
Rukhsana
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