A WOMAN OF ALL TIME…This is the 250th anniversary year of the feminist Mary Wollstonecrafts’ birthday and yet, many of us are either vaguely or, shamefully, unaware of her significance, let alone her relevance to today’s society. However, one does not need to search very deeply to learn that Mary is as relevant today, as she was in her generation…here are a few reasons why WE NEED her…today!
…Oh Bettina, how you make me go “awww” and not “ahhh”…Whilst Bettina Arndt, Australian “sexologist” extraordinaire, is to be thanked for laying bare (no pun intended), many issues on the conjugal (or not so conjugal bed)…and also for a plethora of information on her online site (thanks Bettina, it’s most informative and I mean that in all earnestness)…I have been quite perplexed by some of Bettina’s utterances…Now in fairness to Bettina, I am not really familiar with either “Bettina the woman”, nor her particular perspectives in any great detail, suffice to say, she is not a woman of my generation.
“Why should it matter which generation Bettina is from?” you may indeed enquire. Well, in fact it doesn’t matter. What does really matter is that lately I’ve been over-hearing Bettina and others talking about Bettina and her references to women’s, “fragile libidos”. Bettina, dare I say it, I think you are a little, “out of touch” (…again, no pun intended).
In fact, also listening to Bettina in recent times on the radio, as she encourages women to think about having babies earlier, one wonders whether she really understands that many women are perhaps thinking about babies, at least in some corner of their minds.…and that some women are even thinking about babies much earlier than what she may perhaps even give them credit for! However, women can’t do much about having babies earlier, when many women have such a challenge locating “a suitable prospect” for a partner, are concerned with stable employment and perhaps, developing a career – and trying to do all of this in good time, before the biological clock strikes the big 40! Alas, for a good many women (according to statistics noted in the media by various social commentators), things just “don’t come together!”
…Yes, Bettina, having a career is often an imperative…at least as a backstop if things go awry…just look at the divorce statistics! A second income is also quite useful and important for independent women, not to mention, often a necessity in modern society. What’s more, Bettina, many women want careers and I am certain you can relate to that…!
I also heard Bettina recently advise singletons, to go out looking for love as she implored to the effect, that it has to be an “active search”. Bettina, don’t you know, you can’t “make love happen”… just as you can’t make women who are bored and/or, no longer “turned on” by their partners, “make love”…Bettina, in the nicest possible way, please, “Get Real!”
Returning to Bettina of “more sex please” infamy (in reference to her book “The Sex Diaries”…), in the context of the above-noted commentary and for a more pointed examination that focuses on the salient issues, the reader may like to refer to Virginia Hausseggers’ article in the Canberra Times, “A Call to Loving Arms” (28/02/09). Thank-you Virginia!
…and PS. Bettina: Neither my girlfriends nor I, have EVER complained of “a fragile libido”…we are more the “tiger in the bedroom…” types (remember the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding)?…Perhaps Bettina, you may consider devoting more time and energy to why many of “these topics” are not being actively canvassed in our institutions of learning, schools, universities and business forums etc…I did hear you say that you had recently spoken at a school on the topic of girls and babies; perhaps you ought to be thinking about “co-educational approaches” re these themes? Now that sounds more logical to me and more in keeping with the times, too!
…I also understand that Mary Wollstonecraft was a quite a passionate woman. More to the point, I do wonder if she were around today, whether in light of the above, she might indeed be feeling at the very least, somewhat contrary!
For further information:
…Oh Bettina, how you make me go “awww” and not “ahhh”…Whilst Bettina Arndt, Australian “sexologist” extraordinaire, is to be thanked for laying bare (no pun intended), many issues on the conjugal (or not so conjugal bed)…and also for a plethora of information on her online site (thanks Bettina, it’s most informative and I mean that in all earnestness)…I have been quite perplexed by some of Bettina’s utterances…Now in fairness to Bettina, I am not really familiar with either “Bettina the woman”, nor her particular perspectives in any great detail, suffice to say, she is not a woman of my generation.
“Why should it matter which generation Bettina is from?” you may indeed enquire. Well, in fact it doesn’t matter. What does really matter is that lately I’ve been over-hearing Bettina and others talking about Bettina and her references to women’s, “fragile libidos”. Bettina, dare I say it, I think you are a little, “out of touch” (…again, no pun intended).
In fact, also listening to Bettina in recent times on the radio, as she encourages women to think about having babies earlier, one wonders whether she really understands that many women are perhaps thinking about babies, at least in some corner of their minds.…and that some women are even thinking about babies much earlier than what she may perhaps even give them credit for! However, women can’t do much about having babies earlier, when many women have such a challenge locating “a suitable prospect” for a partner, are concerned with stable employment and perhaps, developing a career – and trying to do all of this in good time, before the biological clock strikes the big 40! Alas, for a good many women (according to statistics noted in the media by various social commentators), things just “don’t come together!”
…Yes, Bettina, having a career is often an imperative…at least as a backstop if things go awry…just look at the divorce statistics! A second income is also quite useful and important for independent women, not to mention, often a necessity in modern society. What’s more, Bettina, many women want careers and I am certain you can relate to that…!
I also heard Bettina recently advise singletons, to go out looking for love as she implored to the effect, that it has to be an “active search”. Bettina, don’t you know, you can’t “make love happen”… just as you can’t make women who are bored and/or, no longer “turned on” by their partners, “make love”…Bettina, in the nicest possible way, please, “Get Real!”
Returning to Bettina of “more sex please” infamy (in reference to her book “The Sex Diaries”…), in the context of the above-noted commentary and for a more pointed examination that focuses on the salient issues, the reader may like to refer to Virginia Hausseggers’ article in the Canberra Times, “A Call to Loving Arms” (28/02/09). Thank-you Virginia!
…and PS. Bettina: Neither my girlfriends nor I, have EVER complained of “a fragile libido”…we are more the “tiger in the bedroom…” types (remember the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding)?…Perhaps Bettina, you may consider devoting more time and energy to why many of “these topics” are not being actively canvassed in our institutions of learning, schools, universities and business forums etc…I did hear you say that you had recently spoken at a school on the topic of girls and babies; perhaps you ought to be thinking about “co-educational approaches” re these themes? Now that sounds more logical to me and more in keeping with the times, too!
…I also understand that Mary Wollstonecraft was a quite a passionate woman. More to the point, I do wonder if she were around today, whether in light of the above, she might indeed be feeling at the very least, somewhat contrary!
For further information:
Bettina Arndt
“Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost, Than Never to Have Loved At All”, Life Matters program, ABC Radio , Australia(28/09/09): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2696916.htm
Virginia Haussegger
http://virginiahaussegger.com.au/index.php?id=3ee34df6e67d90c1d6cd851f8897d36d
Blog: http://virginiahaussegger.blogspot.com/
“A Call to Loving Arms”, Canberra Times (28/02/09)
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/opinion/a-call-to-loving-arms/1446675.aspx?storypage=0
Mary Wollstonecraft
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml
COMING UP:
Mary Wollstonecraft - to be featured in Key Thinkers Series, University of Sydney (14 Oct 2009)
http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/93.html?eventid=4512
Virginia Haussegger
http://virginiahaussegger.com.au/index.php?id=3ee34df6e67d90c1d6cd851f8897d36d
Blog: http://virginiahaussegger.blogspot.com/
“A Call to Loving Arms”, Canberra Times (28/02/09)
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/opinion/a-call-to-loving-arms/1446675.aspx?storypage=0
Mary Wollstonecraft
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml
COMING UP:
Mary Wollstonecraft - to be featured in Key Thinkers Series, University of Sydney (14 Oct 2009)
http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/93.html?eventid=4512