I'm on part two of the Theodore Roosevelt series by Edmund Morris. Morris' reviewers label him as a pretty much awesome biographer. He is!…
As I read Theodore Rex, I learn so much (as one should do when reading - learn!). Through reading about President Theodore Roosevelt I learn about myself - things I'd like to experience that I never thought I would (like, hunting) and things I'd like to pick up again as hobbies (like, language study). I thought that by reading about someone who lived more than 100 years ago I would learn about how much things have changed since then. Much to my amazement, wickedness and greed in society was just as prevalent then as it is now! Paying for votes, selfish elite,… I could go on, but what purpose would that really serve? Yeah, there were lots of positives in society that existed then that still exist now, but ironically, they don't stand out to me…Unfortunate, right?
I'm reading this chapter in the book, "Not A Cloud on the Horizon - 1902", in which Morris describes the almost-complete White House renovation. Edith, Roosevelt's wife, has taken on the responsibility of choosing fabrics and furnishings because that is, apparently, a woman's job. How did that become a woman's job? Even today that gender responsibility is still practiced. If females aren't interested in interior decorating, they're "not girly". If males are interested in interior decorating they are "girly" and, from almost all the male interior decorators I've seen, are gay (or whatever term is used now). Why is this? Why do we talk so much about how things have changed, yet we still blatantly uphold gender roles? Why do we call the past old, yet continue to give activities gender; the same activities that were gendered by those of the past? (Albeit, there are things that I believe should be maintained.) Don't guys like their living quarters to look decent, too? Or is that just another misplaced gender role that guys still have the "caveman" mentality and are dirty/sloppy?
There was a WHOLE lot more that I wanted to include here, but this will do for now. :)
As I read Theodore Rex, I learn so much (as one should do when reading - learn!). Through reading about President Theodore Roosevelt I learn about myself - things I'd like to experience that I never thought I would (like, hunting) and things I'd like to pick up again as hobbies (like, language study). I thought that by reading about someone who lived more than 100 years ago I would learn about how much things have changed since then. Much to my amazement, wickedness and greed in society was just as prevalent then as it is now! Paying for votes, selfish elite,… I could go on, but what purpose would that really serve? Yeah, there were lots of positives in society that existed then that still exist now, but ironically, they don't stand out to me…Unfortunate, right?
I'm reading this chapter in the book, "Not A Cloud on the Horizon - 1902", in which Morris describes the almost-complete White House renovation. Edith, Roosevelt's wife, has taken on the responsibility of choosing fabrics and furnishings because that is, apparently, a woman's job. How did that become a woman's job? Even today that gender responsibility is still practiced. If females aren't interested in interior decorating, they're "not girly". If males are interested in interior decorating they are "girly" and, from almost all the male interior decorators I've seen, are gay (or whatever term is used now). Why is this? Why do we talk so much about how things have changed, yet we still blatantly uphold gender roles? Why do we call the past old, yet continue to give activities gender; the same activities that were gendered by those of the past? (Albeit, there are things that I believe should be maintained.) Don't guys like their living quarters to look decent, too? Or is that just another misplaced gender role that guys still have the "caveman" mentality and are dirty/sloppy?
There was a WHOLE lot more that I wanted to include here, but this will do for now. :)
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