Dolls Gotta Have Heart; Raggedy Ann, Legends, and History for Over 100 Years - Ruby Lane Blog

A doll who is herself an excellent woman!!







Dolls Gotta Have Heart; Raggedy Ann, Legends, and History for Over 100 Years - Ruby Lane Blog: Raggedy Ann has been a beloved doll and literary character for over 100 years.  Her face has graced countless story books, coloring books, paper dolls, toys, radios, canned goods, and posters about Diphtheria and Smallpox vaccinations.  Raggedy Ann and her brother, Raggedy Andy, have starred in their own animated films, and Raggedy Ann has flown... Read more »

Shirley Temple Performs Animal Crackers In My Soup

Ellen M. Tsagaris in France

Ellen M. Tsagaris link to French National Library and my entry for Barbara Pym

Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog

Pym was a fan of Denton Welch, and was aware of his love for doll houses.  Bronte, also, was fond of miniaturia, dolls, and doll houses.





Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog: The first dollhouses on record are probably the Dutch cabinet houses and Nuremburg doll houses, meant more for adults as cabinets of curiosities than for children.  The novel The Miniaturist is based on these. One great example that still survives is Mon Plaisir, from the 18th century. The Nuremberg House open, 1673 via Victoria and... Read more »

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest: Here is the link to Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/rubylanedolls/ . Our boards cover our Blog, specials like ou...

Nannies, Maids, Paralegals, Upstairs and Down; Will the Real Jane Eyre Please Stand Up?

The Nanny Cast, Public Domain

I admit one of my guiltiest pleasures is watching Fran Drescher in The Nanny, 90s sitcom that took the usual theme of Jane Eyre marrying Mr. Rochester to a new, hip dimension.  It takes her 5 years, but Fran Fine marries Mr. Sheffield, her prince charming, and in an interesting twist, Ms. C.C. Babcock, theater exec and accomplished in everyway but having a personality, marries the butler, Niles.


These are unsuitable attachments that work across class, annoying, nasally voices, and snotty upbringing. Pym would be in her heyday, and Ms. Fine is certainly not like Jane Eyre.  Nor would Mr. Rochester be grabbing at Jane, screaming "Miss Eyre!" as the often petulant Mr. Sheffield shouts "Ms. Fine!" when the going gets tough.  Yet, the writing is witty, the chemistry among all the actors fantastic, and the irony keeps it all fast paced.  The rest of the cast does its part, too, with additional guest stars, some incredibly famous, adding their own voice to the Peanuts Gallery.


Other shows that have attempted this male boss and female subordinate-servant romance include Gun Smoke, what is going on with Miss Kitty and Marshall Matt?  Then, there's I Married Dora, Perry Mason and Della Street [look up an article called "The Emotional Labor of Paralegals"], Castle and The Mentalist [maybe the woman didn't work for the man, but as coworkers, they ended up as love interests], Hunter, to a certain extent, The Courtship of Eddy's Father, and Ugly Betty.


There was even some upstairs-downstairs action going on in Dark Shadows  between Beth and Quentin.  Of course, literature is full of tragic, compromised women who yearned for and received an unsuitable attachment above their class.  Think Tess, if not all of Thomas Hardy [who, by the way, was happily married as far as we know], Madame Bovary,  Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, The Age of Innocence, All of Jane Austen, and of course, Pym's classic, An Unsuitable Attachment.

Public Domain

In one episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Richards and Mr. Grant attempt to date, and in another, they appeared as a married couple in a shot of the casts' future.  There is an ION Christmas film based on a Cinderella theme; it seems never to have gone out of fashion.


After a lot of struggle and misunderstanding, these excellent women rule the roost behind the scenes in the case of Hazel and Alice of The Brady Bunch, or they somehow marry the lord of the manor and live happily ever after.


Do unsuitable attachments work?  Not always, not if you're Princess Diana.  Even suitable ones don't work in some cases, no, in a lot of cases.
Whatever happened to "grow old with me; the best is yet to be."  It isn't bad to have things in common, to marry the familiar.  No, I don't believe in impediments to true love, but I'm not sure I believe in fairy tales, either.

A Male Expert for the Advancement of Women—Really!!!

A Male Expert for the Advancement of Women—Really!!!

 

I was listening to the news when an ad came on for an upcoming event.  It was a women’s event, held every year by a local group.   One man and two women will be speaking. I have to ponder this title.  Not since Hypatia put out an issue called “The Male Lesbian “have I been so confused.

 

Apparently, there is a gentleman promoting himself, which many articles I found on Google claim men do, by saying the holds the key to teaching other men on how to advance women.

 

Yes, I did Google “male expert for advancement of women.” About half way down, I found this man’s name.  I won’t print it here; you can look it up for yourself.  I’ve pissed of enough men in my lifetime.  I don’t care to listen to any more insecure whining.

 

So, how does a man do this?—Listen, Learn, Lead.  This last task assumes that the “man” is the leader or manager.  What are women who are managers supposed to? Find a male supervisor to “lead them?” Anyone wanting more tips on how to be lead, go to marc.org, which stands for Men Advocating Real Change.

 

I don’t think so

 

The tone of this article was patronizing and condescending.  I learned to listen, learn, and yes, lead, in grade school.  We weren’t considered progressive, either.  We just treated each other equally for the most part, barring one nasty old harridan who taught third grade nad used shout on the play ground “Boys play with boys, and girls play with girls!!”

 

The whole idea reminds me of a “forced entertainment” seminar at my old employer, done many years ago.  The presenters were women who worked for the company.  They told use we should wear hair, and dress in a feminine manner, not be loud or crude, and always make the men you work with feel that they know a little more than you do. 

 

That knocked the Revolution back a few decades.  The seminar was held in 2005 or so, but might have been 1955.  Never did The Female Eunuch, or The Feminine Mystique run truer.

 

These are my opinions, but why do I need a man to mentor or sponsor me? Isn’t that what a pimp does?   It’s as though this article is an admission that the work place is still the old boys network housed under a glass ceiling, even if some think the ceiling is higher.

 

I’ve been complimented with comments like, “she’s’ a girl, and she’s smart.”  Why can’ I just e smart?

 

Does being male make someone inherently better at mentoring or leading or sponsoring? I think not.  Nearly all the other articles I found with these key words talked about gender equality, and many talked about the pitfalls many women still face in every job and industry. I have to wonder when this nonsense is going to end.

 

Public Domain Image