Bringing it into the light...
So last night, while I was hanging out with a couple of friends, we got to talking about shame. Well, first we were talking about guilt, and about how almost all women carry around so much guilt that isn't theirs to carry. And then I told my hilarious joke that says: "Show me a woman who doesn't carry around a deep and nagging sense of guilt, and I'll show you a man." Hilarious.
But anyway, back to shame. So it was a really good time of being able to talk about shame. More than that, it was a time when some powers of shame were broken; because, as I've seen time and time again in the past, the thing that best breaks shame is bringing it into the light and telling people about what it is that you are feeling ashamed of. Even if it's bad, and even if they have a reaction like "Holy S--t, I can't believe you did that!" there is still a power that gets broken when another person knows about it. Shame really thrives in secrecy. So I think we'll have another shame-breaking session again soon.
Loosely connected to this thing about all women and shame and society, I have to give a giant "YOU SUCK" shout out to most of the Olympic figure skating announcers on NBC. I didn't watch all of the figure skating, by any means, but when I did watch it I was appalled by the way they talked about some of the skaters. After one skater, who wasn't super awesome or super terrible, one of the announcers said something like, "She is a nice skater. She has a nice figure, nice long, slender legs, and she looks great in that costume." And this was basically the extent of the comments "about" her performance. I was like HOLD THE PHONE! (Okay, I didn't really say that exactly, because I've never used that phrase before in my life.) But I was just totally beside myself in thinking that here was an athlete who spends all her time training for her sport, and she has made it to the F-ing Olympics, and the announcer focuses in on how hot her legs look in her costume. That speaks volumes. Plus, I just hate in general how the announcers always make all these psychological judgements about every skater. They are idiots.
And on one last note, only if you feel like you know me well enough to do so, please fill out some qualities you think I have in my Johari Window.
But anyway, back to shame. So it was a really good time of being able to talk about shame. More than that, it was a time when some powers of shame were broken; because, as I've seen time and time again in the past, the thing that best breaks shame is bringing it into the light and telling people about what it is that you are feeling ashamed of. Even if it's bad, and even if they have a reaction like "Holy S--t, I can't believe you did that!" there is still a power that gets broken when another person knows about it. Shame really thrives in secrecy. So I think we'll have another shame-breaking session again soon.
Loosely connected to this thing about all women and shame and society, I have to give a giant "YOU SUCK" shout out to most of the Olympic figure skating announcers on NBC. I didn't watch all of the figure skating, by any means, but when I did watch it I was appalled by the way they talked about some of the skaters. After one skater, who wasn't super awesome or super terrible, one of the announcers said something like, "She is a nice skater. She has a nice figure, nice long, slender legs, and she looks great in that costume." And this was basically the extent of the comments "about" her performance. I was like HOLD THE PHONE! (Okay, I didn't really say that exactly, because I've never used that phrase before in my life.) But I was just totally beside myself in thinking that here was an athlete who spends all her time training for her sport, and she has made it to the F-ing Olympics, and the announcer focuses in on how hot her legs look in her costume. That speaks volumes. Plus, I just hate in general how the announcers always make all these psychological judgements about every skater. They are idiots.
And on one last note, only if you feel like you know me well enough to do so, please fill out some qualities you think I have in my Johari Window.
posted by bethany at 6:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home