(no subject)
Freak posted this link on his Facebook, but I wanted to elaborate a little bit. I read Sandra Tsing-Loh's piece in the Atlantic about the demise of marriage a while ago. I was annoyed, but couldn't really put my finger on it. Sort of a low-level irked. Then found this article today that's basically a rebuttal. It's certainly funnier than Loh has ever been.
First off, I only know Sandra Tsing-Loh from KPCC, where she does the excruciating "Loh Down" segments. They're 60-second clips that I think are supposed to be a humorous take on science news. I say "I think" because 1) they're not funny, and 2) I don't learn anything sciencey from them.
A typical clip goes something like this:
"A new study shows that cats can control their owners by purring...
Interesting. I wonder how that works?
"Here's some random rambling about my own cat."
No! I wanted to hear about the study!
"... and that's just purr-fect." "This was brought to you by CalTech and KPCC."
ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG*headsteeringwheel*
Seriously. Every segment. Something probably interesting followed by tangentally related rambling, then a lame punch line. Not that I'm bitter. But one of the nice things about not having to commute too far is that odds are good that I'll miss her "science" segments.
So the other day, I heard her on regular-NPR (Noo!! It's spreading!!). Apparently, she's getting divorced, and wrote an article about it. *sigh* And showing the same insight and research she brings to KPCC every morning, she's decided that marriage must be an outdated and obsolete institution.
Good lord.
Number one. Call me old-fashioned, but airing your family's dirty laundry in The Atlantic is just tacky. (Loh class?)
That said, what's with the passive voice? Reading Loh's article, you'd get the impression that she had no control over the situation. I don't even know what happened, I just woke up one day I was divorced like oh my god. Excuse me? Divorce isn't something that just happens out of the blue, any more than getting married just happens.
Also, just because your marriage didn't work out like you'd hoped doesn't mean the institution itself is to blame. Marriage is a remarkably flexible construct. There are as many kinds of marriage as there are kinds of couples-- hell, even gay people are getting married now-- and somehow, it still works because each couple defines their own union. If you're not creative enough to think outside the Ozzie-and-Harriet mold, that's your problem. I wonder if she would whine about how educational policy because she didn't graduate on time?
It's a good thing Aaron Traister put it better than I can:
"I'm sick and tired of is divorced people speaking as though they are oracles from the future who know how the rest of our unions will turn out. All the marriage bashing going on out there feels like a way of shedding a certain amount of personal responsibility. By telling the world the institution is flawed, or that we've somehow outgrown it, nobody has to own up and admit that it was their interpretation of it that was screwed up."
First off, I only know Sandra Tsing-Loh from KPCC, where she does the excruciating "Loh Down" segments. They're 60-second clips that I think are supposed to be a humorous take on science news. I say "I think" because 1) they're not funny, and 2) I don't learn anything sciencey from them.
A typical clip goes something like this:
"A new study shows that cats can control their owners by purring...
Interesting. I wonder how that works?
"Here's some random rambling about my own cat."
No! I wanted to hear about the study!
"... and that's just purr-fect." "This was brought to you by CalTech and KPCC."
ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG*headsteeringwheel*
Seriously. Every segment. Something probably interesting followed by tangentally related rambling, then a lame punch line. Not that I'm bitter. But one of the nice things about not having to commute too far is that odds are good that I'll miss her "science" segments.
So the other day, I heard her on regular-NPR (Noo!! It's spreading!!). Apparently, she's getting divorced, and wrote an article about it. *sigh* And showing the same insight and research she brings to KPCC every morning, she's decided that marriage must be an outdated and obsolete institution.
Good lord.
Number one. Call me old-fashioned, but airing your family's dirty laundry in The Atlantic is just tacky. (Loh class?)
That said, what's with the passive voice? Reading Loh's article, you'd get the impression that she had no control over the situation. I don't even know what happened, I just woke up one day I was divorced like oh my god. Excuse me? Divorce isn't something that just happens out of the blue, any more than getting married just happens.
Also, just because your marriage didn't work out like you'd hoped doesn't mean the institution itself is to blame. Marriage is a remarkably flexible construct. There are as many kinds of marriage as there are kinds of couples-- hell, even gay people are getting married now-- and somehow, it still works because each couple defines their own union. If you're not creative enough to think outside the Ozzie-and-Harriet mold, that's your problem. I wonder if she would whine about how educational policy because she didn't graduate on time?
It's a good thing Aaron Traister put it better than I can:
"I'm sick and tired of is divorced people speaking as though they are oracles from the future who know how the rest of our unions will turn out. All the marriage bashing going on out there feels like a way of shedding a certain amount of personal responsibility. By telling the world the institution is flawed, or that we've somehow outgrown it, nobody has to own up and admit that it was their interpretation of it that was screwed up."