Fashion Friday: Monday Edition

So, as the title of this post indicates this post should really come on a Friday, but I was simply too excited to keep this gem of an article to myself for that long.



Do you ever find yourself pinched by a twinge of jealousy when watching old movies with those glamorous icons of style and elegance *cough* Audrey Hepburn *cough* Grace Kelly *cough*. 'Scuse me. If you are a bloke you will be thinking I have gone a bit dodgy, but if you are a lady you will, I hope, know what I mean. They always looked so polished and elegant regardless of the role they were playing or the place they were going.


Every inch the lady, even on a motorcycle.

In this modern world we live in getting gussied up like that seems too hard and time consuming. However, popping on a one piece outfit, like this strange a wonderful thing called the dress, can be and often is just simple an outfit to shimmy into in the morning as the old reliable jeans and t-shirt. A simple dress can be adapted to nearly any occasion or season just by experimenting with a few accessories. A well matched skirt and blouse can be just as easily adapted for the office, home or special occasion.

Dressing in this way gives the wearer a polished professional look with hardly any more effort than it would take to pull on their sweats. Why should we sacrifice elegance for ease when dressing with style can be so simple?


Who ever said mom's can't look great on the go?

Vive La Revolution!
Apron Revolution - She Sews for the Whole Family

Where Have All the Good Men Gone?

After reading an excerpt from Kay Hymowitz' "Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys" in the Wall Street Journal, I was intrigued, placed it on hold at the library and added it to my ever-growing summer reading list. It sounded like an interesting premise, and judging from the excerpt, a pretty even-handed treatment of the topic. Did it live up to its promise? Weeeellllllll.... It's certainly one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. 

Hymowitz starts out with her definition of the "preadult", the 20-something who's half child, half adult, stranded between school and a solid career. How did we get to the preadult? Hymowitz lays out two primary factors, the Industrial and Sexual Revolutions. One changed the culture's idea of work and its purpose, creating the free-time necessary for a college degree and its resultant "knowledge economy jobs"; the other completely changed the script when it came to marriage, family and children. From this basis, Hymowitz examines how women have flourished in this new career playing field. Not surprising, since the technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution freed women from much of the domestic drudgery and the Sexual Revolution "liberated" women from children and a husband. Men on the other hand? They've retreated to their man-caves with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other. Think Knocked Up, beer pong, frat parties and Adam Sandler movies, among other things. Why?

Is it because women were the primary beneficiaries of the two Revolutions? Did second-wave feminists raise daughters to aggressively pursue degrees and careers that were once the sole province of men? Or are women just better at the knowledge-based career world that bloomed in the last half of the 20th century? Hymowitz explores all of these possibilities, as well as what the preadult phenomenon has meant for men and women in the boardroom and the bedroom. She ends her book by acknowledging that, while most women seem to still desire marriage and children, the growing bloc of "choice mothers" (those who employ sperm banks instead of the crude child-man) will probably become the norm. She ends by stating that

"men may have lost the clarity of previous eras' script for growing up, but that does not mean that the only alternative is to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3, and underachieving. They can still choose to keep their eyes on the things that will lead to a meaningful life." 

In other words, it's the guys' fault for not adapting and evolving to fit this new model of society where women don't really need them as husband, father or breadwinner. And yet puzzlingly enough, in the next paragraph, Hymowitz acknowledges that "with nobody expecting anything of them, men get worse." That's right, man, I don't really need you because I am woman, hear me roar. I have a satisfying career, a chic apartment, friends, everything I need. Well, actually I kinda need your sperm cause I want kids. But I don't want you cause you're gross and crude and immature. Somehow, Hymowitz fails to see the connection between the evaporation of the expectations placed on men by the previous societal life-script and the resultant slob who appeared after women decided that they didn't really need men performing in their traditional roles.

One other thing that bothered me: besides Hymowitz' obviously irritating stance that contraception did women a favor by "liberating" them from children, I also threw my hands heavenward over her dichotomy of the guys women date (or don't date, as the case were). She gives the reader two types: the sensitive, so-called-nice guy*, who's thoughtful and in touch with his feminine side, supposedly the ideal man in a post-feminist-revolt world; the other is the man's man (as Hymowitz defines him), the kind of guy who notches his bedpost and uses something called "Game" to score women without a shred of feeling. She sees no middle ground between these two kinds of men, and finds it somewhat puzzling that women don't seem to be attracted to the sensitive man, but are rather drawn to the so-called macho man. I found it most irritating that she defined the manly man, the man's man, as the slimeball in the second example. That is not a manly man; that is a cad (<== lovely, descriptive word, that). Ascribing such things as "respect" and "care" to her "nice guy", Hymowitz paints a picture of the manly man as an arrogant, neanderthal jerk. And that's just not true. Neither of her two options sound at all appealing, and I've had just enough experience with guys to know that there's a third type, the gentleman, and with all due respect to Ms. Hymowitz and her well-placed indignation over the Gamers, that's the kind of man I want.

So while I found "Manning Up" to be a fairly informative if somewhat frenetic attempt to cover all the bases, Hymowitz' failure to offer any satisfying conclusion to the question she poses disappointed me. I did enjoy reading the book. It's not your typical summer read, but it has offered me quite a bit to think about.

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*Nice?! *snorts of indignation* One such "nice" guy that she quotes is miffed because "you [the average preadult woman] ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy." Yeah. Cause I call a guy nice when he gives me emotional satisfaction only with the ultimate expectation that I'll sleep with him. Good call on that definition of nice, Ms. Hymowitz

O Modesty, Where is Thy Blush?

O Modesty, where is thy blush? we may ask,
O Nakedness, where is thy shame?
Fast slipping away from the people of God
Till some are mere Christians in name.

O Modesty, thou art a virtue quite rare,
A most treasured gem of each saint.
But where are the women aglow with God's love,
With courage to be labeled quaint?

The world treats unkindly who will not conform
To rules that Fashion declares.
For any who dare to step out from the crowd
Will notice the whispers and stares.


Yes, Fashion is cruel, she has her designs,
For she is the foe of the Lord.
She violates principles God has laid down
In counsel quite clear in His Word.

The daughter of Fashion must pamper her pride,
For meekness would make her too plain.
So vanity leads to all manner of show,
And Modesty's held in disdain.

As Modesty flees, and the goddess now reigns,
Discernment and conscience both sleep.
The church and the world now appear as if one--
How God's holy angels must weep!

O Modesty, waken the people of God
And let us recapture thy grace!
Adorn us with purity, meekness and love--
Prepare us to look on His face!


Moving Toward Modesty

The Power of Skirts

Interesting article that manages to discuss skirts, feminism and communism all in the same breath.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...may I present Miss Jane Austen! While perusing one of my favorite blogs I quite inadvertently stumbled over this lovely article about why the world needs Jane Austen. More specifically it concerns itself with the examples of true gentlemanlike, as well as ladylike, behavior that Austen illustrates in her characters. As any Janite knows not all of Austen's characters are mannerly and amiable slaves of the social dictates of Regency England. She infuses her stories with a colorful cast of rascals, rakes, snobs, bombasts, twits and last, but certainly not least, those who are truly good. With these characters Austen draws for her readers a very distinct picture of the roles that men and women should play, and the many ways in which one can miss the mark. She shows how to be a true gentleman or lady we must have a strong sense of the moral good, as well as a firm idea of duty, honor and modesty.

Why We Need Jane Austen

Strength: Part I

(NB: This is the first of a 3-part series, examining three pieces of literature with dual female protagonists and how their strengths complement each other by following archetypal patterns .)

Last summer, I re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you haven't read them, do yourself a favor, and read them. Your soul and heart with thank you for it. If you haven't visited them in a long time, why don't you stop by and call on them again. You'll discover new and exciting things in them each time you read. One of the chief themes that struck me this time around was the relationship- the differences, similarities, and connections between the two main female protagonists, Arwen and Éowyn. (Although, to be technical, I suppose that in the books Galadriel is more of a female protagonist than Arwen. And Galadriel definitely embodies female strength-she's the Wisdom figure. So, we'll touch on that as well.)

Many of the young women I know who are fans of the books find Eowyn the most attractive. Of all the woman role models in the Lord of the Rings, she's appears to be the most active and dynamic. Éowyn is a tom-boy's heroine. She gets out there with the men and gets the job done. However, Éowyn sacrifices a bit of her femininity doing so. Aragorn describes her as an iron maiden. She has steeled herself to endure the fate that faces Rohan. She's frozen her heart, for fear of being hurt. In the Houses of Healing, Éowyn fully recovers. Not only does she recover from her physical battle wounds, she unthaws. The love of Faramir nourishes and heals her-warms her heart once more. The love story between Faramir and Eowyn is so precious. He's not about to tame her-he simply pulls her over to his side. He sees this fierce warrior who, like any good mother bear, will fight tooth and claw to protect her loved ones. If he can win her heart, he knows that her loyalty will be forever his. And he melts her. She hardens herself riding into battle, and it takes the gentle sunlight of Faramir's love to melt the stone-cold statue and find the tender maiden underneath.

Éowyn is an example of the female archetype of the woman warrior. In times of great hardship and peril, a woman takes it upon herself to save. To protect. To challenge evil. Joan of Arc is a real-life historical example of this. Another literary example is Antigone, the heroine of Sophocles's tragedy.

Here's one main point that hit me when re-reading the trilogy: both women get what they want. That may seem unimportant, but it's not. It's highly unusual. Many characters never get what they want in books. Half the characters in Lord of the Rings don't get exactly what they want. For example, all Sam wants is to be with Frodo, and the saga ends with the two of them being sundered by a sea. Éowyn desires honor and valor. She sees her house falling into ruins, and it cuts her to the core. She longs for romance, for love, for brave deeds, a dire fight, fell adventures that will be remembered forever in song, and a life full to the brim.

Arwen wants one thing: Aragorn. To be with the man she loves. And her fight for him is one of endurance and patience. Women, like swans, excel at hunkering down and enduring hardships for long stretches. Swans migrate 3000+ miles. Women make it through 3+ childbirths. The power of women is the power to outlast adversity, to live through horrors, trials and tribulations, and endure it all with calm, equanimity and boundless courage. Calm and quiet, mystery and secrecy-these are at the core of classic feminine strength. Women are also much more relationship focused. Instead of striking out and winning glory and honor for herself, Arwen uses all her power to assist Aragorn on his mission. She is the perfect teammate-thinking only of the one she loves, and working with all her might to make sure he succeeds. She is generous enough to desire his success, because even his success is her happiness. Even though the price of this happiness is her death.

Arwen's more of a mover and shaker-the brains, not the brawn. And that's a crucial theme running through Lord of the Rings-mind over matter. The strength of her will is often remarked on. And there's little said about her, but one feels her power and her strength when she is mentioned. Hers and Aragorn's story is one of two individuals standing the tests of time. They have loved each other for so long. And Arwen is willing to face death in order to be with him. Like Éowyn, this woman has no fear of death. She would rather spend a lifetime with the man she loves than an eternity without him. That takes incredible quiet strength. She is willing to give her life for him. That is love.

Galadriel has a similar strength to Arwen's. She is wisdom and light. She is the Athena-like character in the story. Slightly removed from normal human emotions and passions. Goddess-like, tender and jovial, yet powerful and stern. In the Wisdom books of the Bible, Wisdom is often characterized as female or feminine. Galadriel is the archetypal Wisdom figure in the trilogy.

Recently, Mara and I were discussing Antigone, since I just read it in class, and was caught up in the amazing wondrousness of that play. We compared it to Pride and Prejudice, but as I revisited this blog post, I realized that all three of these pieces of literature have heroines that follow the same archetypes. Thus was born the idea of this series on femininity and feminine strength in literature. Stay tuned for more!

The Simple Joys of Maidenhood

Over spring break, I discovered this little lovely website. Okay, okay, a lot of these reasons are rather bizarre and kind of stupid, BUT I think the idea behind these jokes are valid. Girls (smart girls) bond over the awesome fact that they're girls. Silly girls spend their days griping about how the female sex has been oppressed by patriarchal society or some such nonsense. I don't even know. Okay, okay, I'm being too flippant. I should acknowledge there have definitely been societies throughout history that have been radically downright cruel towards women. And my heart burns with indignation. And there are women in Muslim countries who face untold atrocities, and my heart aches for them. And women who undergo stoning, or mutilation, or enforced rape are being violated and oppressed in the most disgusting and cowardly way possible. But that just proves how great it is to be a woman. Good men appreciate (albeit with a twinge of wry bemusement), and are rapt in awe. Evil or weak men want to bring down women and seek to oppress them. I think it's radically unfair to our Muslim sisters-and all women who face those dangers- to even pretend that we're oppressed. The majority of women in America are fortunate beyond our comprehension. We should be grateful, so grateful for the opportunities and freedoms that we have.

AND we should giggle with sheer delight and joy that we are women. (Heh. I just realized this blog post might not be the most relatable to the gentlemen who are part of this blog's readership. Whoops. Feel free to stop reading now if you want.

.....

Are you still reading? Awesome.)

Women are a community-a sisterhood. There are so many times I sit at lunch/dinner/coffee/pie with one of my nearest and dearest sisters of the heart and we bond over the fact that we are women, we love being a woman, and begin to list a thousand big and little things why being a woman is awesome. We have solidarity with each other, and when someone attacks our sisters, we bristle with unsounded wrath. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," you know. In fact, playwrights ever since Aeschylus have gotten what a force to be reckoned with an unhinged woman is. Clytaemestra is a ferocious, fascinating, remorseless killer who murders her husband, and has no qualms about taking an axe to her son's head. Euripides tells the story of Medea, who kills her two innocent boys in order to break her faithless husband's heart. Yikes. I feel as though I've digressed by ranting about these insane women, and I feel as thought they're not supporting my point that being a woman ROCKS. Whoops. Well, here's evidence that being a woman rocks. People make songs about it, so dude, there's gotta be something there. Rogers and Hammerstein penned: "I Enjoy Being a Girl," and then there's the classic "How Lovely to Be a Woman," which is one of my personal favorites. Kim sings: "How lovely to be a woman/and smile a woman's smile." There's some sort of delicious, intriguing and solely feminine mystique captured in a woman's smile. And in the very fact of being a woman means your something of a mystery. Mystery and secret are at the core of womanhood, which is why secrets mean so very much to girls. And when someone confides a secret to them, women hold it to their hearts-a bond forms between them and their confidante.

And beauty. Beauty is so, so important for a woman. We are called to bring beauty to the world. Although it is undeniable that men can be incredibly beautiful (I'm sure you ladies can easily think of several gentlemen that prove this point. Ahem.), women have a beauty all their own. I'm trying to attempt to explain it, but I feel like I will fall short of the endeavor. So I'm leaving that subject to sit and ruminate in our minds. We'll touch on that another day.

In conclusion, I enjoy being a girl. That's all this post really is- a thanksgiving and celebration for being a woman. There's nothin' like it, kids.

P.S. Also, stay tuned for a post coming soon-that's been in the works for 8 months now. Yipes!-about Arwen, Eowyn, and womanhood. See how nice a segue this post is for that post? Eh? Eh? Thanks for reading-now get off the computer and go enjoy your day. Bask in the sunlight. Take a walk. Sing a song. Dance in the grass. Feed some birds. Live life.

Old and the New

"Good," said Aslan, "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not."

The first morning of spring break, my little brother asked me to put in a DVD for him to watch. "Renée," he said, "can you put in the DVD that says 'Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader'?" I took pause, confused. Then I realized he wasn't referring to the new movies, but to the old-school BBC DVDs. Do any of you remember those? Anyone? With the buck-toothed Lucy, the amazing '80's-esque hair, the 2D animated FX, and the Aslan who couldn't move his mouth? I have very fond memories of them. And to be perfectly frank, I greatly prefer them to the newer movies.

Objection: *scoff* "Renée! You can't be serious! I mean, just look: *points to the cartoon-like special effects* Need I say more?"

I won't argue. The newer Chronicles have production values that are astronomically better than the old BBC miniseries'. But I think amidst all the slick CGI images, and the state of the art visuals, something is lost. The new Chronicles of Narnia don't feel like the Chronicles that I read growing up. Some books you read are sensory experiences in the fullest sense of the word: not only do you see and hear the text, there are certain smells, locations, or foods that remind you of the books, or that you experience while reading the books. The Chronicles are like that for me-there are definitely certain feelings and images that remind me of the Narnia stories. And these are books that have a very definite, tangible aura about them, unlike any other I've experience in a book. Those books defined my childhood, and I think one of the most beautiful aspects of the books is their simple clarity and their gentle spirit mixed in with the epicness. The new movie have lost that simple "homeishness" of the books. I think the old movies capture that spirit beautifully. They've got the wistful magic of pipes playing the opening theme, rather ordinary young children playing the four siblings, a stiff, but somehow majestic and fatherly puppet-lion portraying Aslan. The countryside looks so familiar, yet strange and fairy-tale-ish nonetheless.

But the greatest difference between the old and the new struck me when I heard Aslan tell Caspian that "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not." That line, so full of Lewis' cutting wisdom and deep insight. The new movies lack that essential Lewis-ness. They loose the Christian atmosphere of the Chronicles. Aslan is a weaker character-Father Christmas doesn't credit Aslan for the return of Christmas; the witch doesn't shake with dread at the mention of Aslan's name; Mr. Beaver's line about Aslan not being "safe" is cut, and when the witch cites the Deep Magic, Aslan snarls: "Don't tell me about the Deep Magic! I was there when it was written," as if He was a petulant teenager. They've diminished the majesty and the power of Aslan-they've weakened Him. And by weakening Christ in the story, the story is weakened. Part of the story is lost, and that's tragic.

In conclusion, I was so proud of my baby brother for putting in the old movie. Kickin' it old school. Like a champ. No school like the old school.

Summer Style

My friends, the season of summer is fast approaching. Thus, we enter into a new fashion season.

I am excited to announce to you that long skirts/dresses are the pieces to have.

There were lots of stores at the mall which had long dresses and skirts! Yah!

Even the American Eagle* website, had these skirts:

Let this beautiful summer season begin!

*American Eagle(in my opinion) has not been known for having modest, feminine clothes in the past. In fact, when I have gotten gift cards there I typically have to buy jewelry or some other accessory.

Light Lenten Literature (with a side of Alliteration)

My, my, but we've been actively posting lately. I wonder if it's the weather, or a desire to avoid schoolwork?

Anyhoo, I've just popped in to recommend Peter Kreeft's The Snakebite Letters. Why, yes, it is written in the style of Lewis' Screwtape Letters, thank you for noticing. Screwtape just happens to be one of my favorite books ever (and that's saying a lot, coming from the girl who can't make up her mind whether to go for the caesar salad or the caesar salad wrap), so this book has been sitting on my "to-read" pile for a while now. Since I work in the college's library, I snagged our copy sometime at the beginning of the semester and finally settled down to it a few weeks ago.

Although I didn't find it as engrossing as Lewis' original (in most of the letters, Kreeft tries too hard to be Lewis-writing-for-a-modernish-American-audience, and the cleverly diabolical viewpoint is a leetle forced on his part, but I loved the extravagance of Kreeft's descriptive phrases, as I tend towards that style of writing myself), it was still pretty good. The letters on the liturgy and all of its faults, failures, and flaws (as well as how to look past them to what is really going on during Mass) were especially interesting and enjoyable. So, while I wouldn't recommend running out and buying this book for your Lenten meditations, I would definitely pick it up should you happen across a copy.

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In more-than-slightly-related news, Fr. Longenecker  has a series of (very) short columns at patheos written in Screwtapian (if it's not a word yet, I just made it one) style. Personally, I find his take on the genre a bit more true-to-the-original and...zingy than Kreeft's. First installment here, with a complete list of articles here.