I Don't Get It

ALV and I were discussing feminism last night and decided that we're "old school" feminists. You know, the kind of feminists that think women should be able to make their own choices about what they do in life - i.e. be focused on career, be a stay-at-home mom or anything in between. This is opposed to the newer face of feminism - the mindset that if a woman doesn't do all that she can to exceed men in power, wealth and all those other areas where The Man (literally) has excelled in the past, then she is the ultimate failure and a disgrace to anyone with girl parts.

But I think that, in general, most women of any feminist or even anti-feminist group can agree on one thing - we're not meant to bear litters. Don't get in a huff. I don't mean that big families are a bad thing. I mean that having six or eight babies AT ONCE is not biologically sound. Human women are not dogs, cats, ducks or any other species that has multiple births on a regular basis. It's not just unnatural - televisions, forks and my comfy jeans aren't natural, and I wouldn't want to live without any of them - it's dangerous. It's dangerous to the babies, the mom and my sanity.

Unless you've been in a coma, solitary confinement or Tahiti, you've seen the hoopla over "Jon & Kate Plus Eight". I'm going to avoid deep analysis (Jon is a hapless bore and Kate is a neurotic control freak), but I have to wonder why we're rewarding these people for spawning like Scottish Terriers. Scottish Terriers do it all the time! And let's take a quick inventory of the damage their TV show has done to this family - exposed possible affair of Jon, exposed possible affair of Kate, taken Kate out of the house for her promotional book tours, left 8 children to live under constant scrutiny (which has worked so well for many child stars of yore) and earned a look from the government for possible violations of child labor laws. That's just the stuff directly attributable to the show. Then there's that whole "life" category of things that normal people have to deal with.

But, you know what? If these people want to destroy their lives with celebrity, that's fine. From what I've gleaned, Jon & Kate at least seemed able to support a household of 10, even if it would have become tight.

Today, however, I read this headline - "Octuplets' Mom Inks Reality TV, Book Deals".

UGH. The woman has serious issues. And a burden on society. While these deals might remove her from welfare, do you really think she's going to stop? She needs *help*, not affirmation.

Tell me that, along with "Twilight" and gladiator-sytle sandals, these multi-kid, multi-exploitation reality shows will go away.

Summer is Over

Time to start studying for one of the most important tests of my life - second only to PC III, which would have sent me into hysterics if I'd failed it. (I predict only the normal volume of tears if I fail the bar, which I don't think I will. Shouldn't my fear level between the bar and PC III be switched? Hm.)

So for the next several weeks, I'm taking BarBri. I'm exceedingly glad we're having these preview workshops for a few days though. (I'm delightfully skipping over the oddities of listening to a lawyer who decided to regale her DVD audience that her 9 year old was having difficulty learning her multiplication tables, and that, for some reason, this meant that we had to work especially hard in memorizing our elements of negligence.) I have forgotten a lot. Torts, for instance.

Then there's that whole job search thing. I wish I could trace the entire path of my career goals throughout law school - I'm sure it'd be highly amusing. There was an entire stretch during PC that it went right off the 'lawyer' map and onto the 'anything else!' map of jobs, but I've recovered. Mostly. I'm still figuring it out though, and while I have a clearer picture of what I want to do with my life than just a month or so ago, I am really reticent to dive into the serious job search without more focus. It's probably just my own brain dancing its own little avoidance dance, but I'll let it have its fun for the time being.

I hope no one is expecting any startling realizations for the time being. The one with the most excitement in this family is Charlie, who has many stories about how he and the little Yorkie mix across the way keep missing each other on their trips outside. He sulks every time. He has a hard life.