Archive for the 'poli not sci' Category

one day, the hobbits will be in charge

arcade fire: keep the car runnng

today’s gonna be one of those days when i ask you guys to give me yr opinions, not only cos i’m curious but because, as usual, i’m not sure of my own opinion.

earlier, jezebel linked to an article in the new york observer entitled “american cutie.” now, just yesterday, i was writing about cuteness, so i was immediately intrigued. but it was the subheading that really got me:

“The Rising Age of Obama May Look Twee, Naïve and Idealistic, But Like Gwyneth Paltrow, the Hobbits, Arcade Fire and Iron Man, It Shows a Scrappy New Generation That Has Learned to Fight”

wow. that’s a lot of things. a lot of things i LOVE!

so i read the article, which you can find here.

and you know, i’m not entirely sure what it’s about. i suspect that it’s actually not v. well-written, and it seems more like a rambling blog post (not that i would know what those look like) than some kind of editorial. but i can’t help but find it interesting, since

ok, i actually really don’t get his point. but here’s my attempt at presenting a passage that might capture it:

(note: the person speaking is win butler, from arcade fire)

***

“It’s finally our turn to have a great president,” he said, and at this point the crowd was going wild. “I’m sick of fine presidents and good presidents and mediocre presidents. I’m sick of Rutherford B. Hayes and James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce and Millard Fillmore. We got Barack Obama! Barack Obama, for crying out loud!”

In other words, Win Butler was going for the naïve moron vote. The crowd that was somehow equating Hillary Clinton and Millard Fillmore was not the Oxford Union debating society. But still, elevating Barack Obama beyond the stage of the Children’s Crusade was turning him into the Tough Twee candidate. Why Tough Twee? The crowd had the affect and information base of children, the idealism of the truly protected and insular—the province of child-voters since the beginning of the republic.

***

yeah, that probably didn’t explain much, did it? if i had to take a stab, i would say his point is that our generation has been twee-obsessed, twee meaning cuteness, innocence, the sweetness and playfulness of childhood. and yet now we’re become “tough twee,” for some reason that i don’t think he quite explains but maybe assumes that we’re old enough to feel like we should be political, like we can change things in this country. like we want to be taken seriously.

and mr.

***

The Lord of the Rings trilogy hit the Twee nail on the head. A great battle is taking place, and by a series of unfortunate circumstances, the little Hobbits have gotten involved.

J.R.R. Tolkien described the race of tiny creatures he invented thusly: They are “unobtrusive.” They “love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-farmed countryside was their favorite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill or a hand-loom, though they were skillful with tools.” They are “shy of the Big Folk.” Hobbits were Twee Pioneers. But at least they took on Sauron frontally and beat the crap out of him.

***

i will admit, i do feel a certain affinity with the hobbits. first of all, eating meals every hour of the day is pretty much the best idea i’ve ever heard (SECOND BREAKFAST, ANYONE?!). plus, i hate conflict. and their houses look so cozy! yay hobbits!

and it’s not like the hobbits were simple-minded, necessarily. they just had simple lifestyles.

even though i think we’re attracted to ideas of simplicity (farmer’s markets, etc.), i don’t think our generation has a simple lifestyle. it’s more materialistic, yes, but it’s also more complex. we are INUNDATED. we inundate ourselves. i gorge all day long on bands and celebrity gossip and books and the lives of my friends and yes, even world events, and none of that (ok, maybe the whole perez hilton thing) is empty. my preferences shape me, the world shapes my preferences, so then i shape the world? maybe?

then again, i do feel naive sometimes. but i’m young (ish?!!). that’s when you’re supposed to be naive, right?

and the only way to learn about things is to experience them… and i think people getting involved in the presidential race, feeling *excited* about it, can only be a good thing.

perhaps mr.

that leads me to the main question that’s been on my brain (in spite of all of this rambling): what does our generation actually care about? what ARE our values? and how do they translate into politics, into the future of our country?

i know, i know, we aren’t all the same cos we were born in the late 70s-early 80s. i’m not trying to label anyone here. i’m just curious about the FORCE of “us.” where will our values take us in the future? what will the country look like when we’re no longer naive, twee little hobbits?

what will happen when we’re in charge?

LINKS

meet my new hero, the nancy drew of mac laptops!

you guys. check out my new favorite reality show. WOW.

if i ever have kids, i should probably move out of america first. why does our country hate maternity so much?

jonah hill is apparently gonna make a movie of “21 jumpstreet.” i will miss you, johnny depp, but this is an AWESOME idea.

fun food art! yay! i esp. loooove the broccoli poodle.

have you guys heard of “the night of a thousand stevies”? uh, awesome?!! guess where i’ll be a year from now?! with a lace shawl and sequined beret?!

should it really just take one minute to vote?

wow, you guys seem just as excited about yr inner hip hopper as erica and me! i will *obviously* keep you updated on how the dance progresses and when our first STREET BATTLE will occur. cos it’s gonna be THROW.

i’m having one of those days where i can’t really think of something to write about… my brain refuses to settle on one topic and, instead, insists on meandering through various ideas. gah, just take yr sweet time! so, when those writer block pants sneak up on me, i always like to turn to YOU, oh pants world, cos there’s gotta be at least one person with an opinion on SOMETHING.

today’s topic is, of course, about politics… but not specific politics. more like, the process.

i read a post on jezebel today about this MTV promo featuring the girls from “the hills” telling people to go out and vote. i hate to make you go through the pain, but, uh, watch it (i’m sorry).

ok, so i get that this ad is aimed at teenagers. but COME ON?! do you guys think this is effective? this is the dumbest thing i have ever seen, and it’s not really cos of the whole “text message” story line or the song (even though they totally remind me of a health class PSA).

it’s because the girls from “the hills” are telling me to vote. for those of you who have seen “the hills,” uh, since when have LC, audrina and heidi cared about anything besides themselves (ok, and skeezy guys and clothes)?! well, aside from heidi saying she’ll vote for mccain, which… yeah. and since when should i look to them as role models or inspirational figures? i basically feel the need to do the exact opposite of whatever they do. like, What Would Heidi Not Do (WWHND, yo!).

and yes, i get that registering to vote is important. i still feel like voting is important. and the more people who vote, the better. but don’t you think, just maybe, that it’s misleading to somehow separate the act of voting with the thought behind voting? what i mean is… do campaigns like this focus too much on the ease of voting to the detriment of weighing the issues?

there’s no way to force people to really *think* about things. i mean, i’d hate to sit down with audrina and try to get her to grasp the u.s. policy in iraq, for example (i can’t even think of a metaphor she would understand… expensive vs. cheap make-up? number of times justin bobby has made her cry?). heck, i don’t think *i* even understand what’s going on in iraq.

but what do you guys think is the most effective way to get people active? i’m not asking for a nation of policy wonks, but i guess i feel like this MTV campaign is, bottom line, pretty superficial and ultimately ineffective in bringing about any kind of real change via voting.

and now, if you so desire, discusssssssssssss.

caucus doodle dooooo

last night, i did something i’ve never had the urge to do before: i participated in a caucus.

apparently everyone calls this “the texas two step” cos of the whole primary then caucus thing, but what they should *really* call it is, “the texas tendency to do things that are extremely outdated and inefficient, because this is texas, and we don’t need yr new fangled politics!”

seeeeriously, guys. there has GOT to be a better way to do this.

i arrived at my precinct location, which happened to be a lovely church down the street from trudy’s, around 7:00 or so. the place was PACKED, and i really hope the pastor wasn’t there, cos i *highly doubt* the pews ever get that full on sundays. nor would you want them to, actually, cos it would be highly uncomfortable, and then people would just want you to speed through yr sermon so they could get the heck out of there and actually BREATHE.

er anyway

here’s a picture of the church, but note that i took this photo MUCH later in the evening.

at 7:15, the guy in charge got up at the front and basically said, “wow. i had no idea there would be so many of you guys. we only had four people here last time. so… uh… i guess everyone just come up and sign out?”

WHAT?

immediately everyone rushed to the front of the sanctuary, like some cray cray rabid communion. seriously, i had visions of people grabbing communion wafers and stuffing them down their throats (but without salsa, josh) and then smashing each other in the head with the wine goblet.

where was the organization? the line? the letting people go pew by pew?

i’m totally the kind of person that needs a line. i want to know where the line begins, where it ends, and i want everyone to stand in single file so that there is NO CUTTING. I HATE CUTTING.

there was none of this. it was the v. definition of, pardon my french, a clusterf*ck.

i stood in the “line” for about 20 minutes and did not move a single inch. then i realized that i could actually go home, take a shower (i had come straight from the gym, so, yay sticky!), eat dinner and THEN come back.

so that’s what i did. MUAHAHA, suck on THAT, caucus black hole of time!

when i got back approximately an HOUR AND A HALF LATER and stood at the end of the line, it looked like this:

much, MUCH better. note that there were now three people taking signatures AND three orderly lines. how hard was that?! maybe next time someone should bring a whistle and tell people to line up like it’s recess.

then, when i got to the front, i just had to show my id and my card thingie, and then he wrote down my info. and that was it.

ok, guys, is there NO WAY we can do this on a computer?

i know, i know, there are hackers out there and computers crash and yeah yeah i get it. but i guess i’m just part of the generation that thinks everything worth doing can be done online (except for eating and hanging out with friends and dancing, OBVS).

and you know, in spite of the disorganization, there was something utterly charming about the whole process. it sort of felt like a town hall meeting, and i wanted some old lady to get up and screech about getting rid of the whores on the street or some portly guy in a bow-tie to give a spiel about the new railroad line coming into town. and then we’d all cheer or jeer and the mayor would attempt to call order and then maybe a fight would break out afterwards on the street and everyone would rush out and i’d likely be wearing a hat.

yeah, i can see why texas finds it hard to change. i kinda miss that brand of politics myself.

LINKS

reason #48 why i love posh: cruz, in a batman suit.

did you see the link caitlin left me yesterday? celebrity baby blog! ZOMG!

for everyone freaking out today about patrick swayze possibly dying of cancer in five weeks, it’s not as bad as we thought. I AM SO RELIEVED. and i am totally not even kidding. i love patrick swayze. two words: road house.

so… you work at a club?

last night, two awesome things happened.

first, when i was waiting for the bus to go downtown, a homeless guy struck up a conversation with me.

guy: hey, who you votin’ for?!

me: uh, obama?

guy: no way! me too! (smiling)

me: awesome.

guy: that guy…. that guy is gonna bring some change. that guy is gonna change things.

me: i hope so.

guy: yeah, yeah he needs to win. cos otherwise that guy’s wife is gonna win. the president’s wife is gonna win. i don’t like the president, and i think his wife being president is a bad idea.

me (unsure if he was talking about hilary or laura bush): hmm.

guy: that guy, he’s done some bad stuff. and if she gets elected, they’re gonna start the war, and it’s just gonna be bad for the country.

me: yeah, more war would be bad.

guy: obama, he’s got hope. i got hope for obama.

me: me too.

guy: so… you work at a club?

me: uh, no.

THE END

i guess i wasn’t kidding when i said that *everyone* is talking politics these days.

the other awesome thing that happened last night is that i saw the movie that won the “rewind kindly” filmmaking frenzy. it’s a remake of “beastmaster,” and it features the CUTEST little boy in the universe and an amazing dog. seriously. watch it right now, and you’ll know why this movie managed to beat out the favorites i showcased the other day.

henri actually interviewed the beastmaster on stage last night, which was great, and he told us that he does not currently have an “upcoming projects.” which is shame (i’m thinking maybe he and pearl should make a movie together). and then he wasn’t around to see his team win the prize. he had to go home and go to sleep, cos he had a math test today. i’m sure math is no match for the BEASTMASTER.HAPPY FRIDAY PANTS!

LINKS

there’s a new extended sex & the city trailer out.

does anyone else think the new UT supercomputer is kinda… sexy?

looks like maybe i should pursue a career in las vegas doormanship.

do you have yr political pants on?

i don’t have much time to write today (i’m gonna be a busy bee on wednesdays for the rest of the semester cos of my class), but i thought this might be a good opportunity for YOU to share today, instead of me.

i haven’t talked much about the presidential race on this blog, but obvs it’s been on my mind… and all over the tvs at the gym… and all over the internets… and now, definitely now, all over austin. and something crazy is happening. a LOT of my friends are actually, like, EXCITED about the race. some people, like meredith and eric, are actually *volunteering* for campaigns, which is pretty amazing and, well, unprecedented. as a poli sci major, i have to say that it’s pretty nifty to see people who aren’t normally “political” get their activist pants on.

it reminds me of when i was working on the city council campaign in houston and recruited (sometimes with force) my friends to help me out by working at the polls or marching in parades or attending events to “fluff up” the crowd. it meant a lot to me, on a personal level, that my friends would be willing to give their time and energy towards something they wouldn’t normally care about, simply on my behalf. but then something even cooler happened– my friends started to actually *care* about the city council race. once they got involved and learned about some of the issues (and also got to know the superjerk we were running against), they *wanted* to participate in the process, cos they realized that, hey, this makes a difference!

and sure, we’re all a little jaded in our own ways, but you have to admit that whatever is happening right now seems preeeetty exciting.

so tell me, how do YOU feel about the presidential campaigns? are you inspired? do you care? do you think this race is a different animal than all of the others we’ve experienced? pull on yr best pair of commenting pants and lemme know!

LINKS

woman’s world” is the coolest looking book i have ever seen. also, the author has waaaay more patience than i do.

edward gorey + board games = gloom. AWESOME.

if you want to real scoop on the philosophy of sxsw (and the new wristband policy), check out louis black’s column. pretty informative, actually!

this sex exhibit in paris sounds really fun and educational. also, fyi, NEVER HAPPENING in the united states. sigh.

john stewart is getting ready for the oscars, and, as usual, he’s being the coolest guy in the world.

the american apparel trial is starting! ooh i wonder if the courtroom audience will be hipper than usual.

The currancy of social

All you need for the best combination of easy and awesome (in sauce form) is cream and gorgonzola cheese. Mix it. Heat it. Awesome. It also can provide you with a tasty excuse for say… not updating Posh’s blog yesterday like you were supposed to. Yeah, that’s right. I ditched you guys for this:

If you had been here you totally would have been like, “Good choice, Matt. Your sauce is so awesome. Let’s make out.” But more likely you would say, tell me how you made it, and I would say, “okay:

There is the steak: marinated in balsamic vinegar, then pan seared with rosemary.

The potatoes chopped and backed with mature cheddar cheese between the slices and some grilled onions.

The pasta cooked, like normal, but then the sauce was awesome. I made a scratch cream sauce then added in a little bit of another sauce I was secretly making at the same time. It was a red pesto. I should have photo documented the steps, but I forgot.

Oh, also there was a salad with French dressing and tomatoes and strawberries. I got home from the grocery store with all this at 1 in the afternoon. Dinner wasn’t till 7, but I was excited so I made the salads and stuck them in the freezer, the lettuce froze and broke like an ice sheet. ”

But that was yesterday. I want to talk about something else, cities. Henri and I have been having an ongoing conversation about the idea of social currencies and the variability that exist from city to city. Let me begin with some examples.

Austin:

In Austin the social currency seems to revolve around what is unique and different (dare I say weird). Local business that do things in a bit of a cooky way seem to do surprisingly well.

New York City:

New York is dependant on location. Everything from where things are located and the connotations with being in that area, to people you trust because they know their way around the city.

London:

I’ve only lived in London for four months so I don’t know how accurate this will be. The currency here so far seems to be money.

Since I’ve never been to San Francisco I have no idea what to think of it, but I do remember what South Park said it was pretentious (sorry the youtube has been deleted).

Links

This is what I’m doing this weekend:

party

art x2

amber

working to get ready for

generation Q? or O?

ian brown: illegal attacks

about two weeks ago, thomas friedman wrote an op/ed piece in the NY times about my generation, which he calls “generation q.” for me, generation talk has always been confusing– am i an X? Y? millennial? reality bites? regardless, i consider myself one of the “young people” he’s talking about. if you have a minute, you should read it.

in the editorial, friedman states that he is impressed by both our optimism and intelligence, especially given the fact that we have refused to allow the post 9/11 world to deter us from reaching out to the world:

***

Whether it was at Ole Miss or Williams or my alma mater, Brandeis, college students today are not only going abroad to study in record numbers, but they are also going abroad to build homes for the poor in El Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDS clinics in record numbers. Not only has terrorism not deterred them from traveling, they are rolling up their sleeves and diving in deeper than ever.

The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Old Miss more than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C. uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled their national service impulses into increasingly popular programs at home like ”Teach for America,” which has become to this generation what the Peace Corps was to mine.

It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them ”Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.”

***

with the rise of community service centers on college campuses, as well as programs like teach for america, i definitely feel like our generation is truly trying to care for our community, locally and globally. we’re young, so we’re supposed to be idealists, right?

mr. friedman then goes on to express his bafflement with our lack of political engagement:

***

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.

(and)

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

***

honestly, i felt pretty deflated after reading his words. i’ve signed online petitions and sent emails to my congressmen, but i can’t shed the nagging feeling that none of it really matters. then again, street marches and boycotts seem like relics from the past… would they make any sort of impact in our high-tech, internetted, 700 channel, globalized society?

then i read a response to the editorial, written by courtney martin. i think she’s close to my age, and she’s extremely articulate and smart and thoughtful. in short, i’ve deemed her to be my spokeswoman. read her retort, and join me in my crusade to nominate her for the (new) president’s cabinet.

instead of generation Q, courtney labels herself a member of generation Overwhelmed and says:

***

We are not apathetic. What we are, and perhaps this is what Friedman was picking up on, is totally and completely overwhelmed. One of the most critical questions of our time is one of attention. In a 24-7 news climate, it is all but impossible to emotionally engage all of the stories and issues you are taking in, and then act on them in some pragmatic way. So instead, young people become paralyzed. (It seems that all of us are a bit paralyzed. After all, what are Friedman’s peers really doing? And aren’t his peers the ones with the most straightforward kind of power?)

My generation tries to create lives that seem to match our values, but beyond that it’s hard to locate a place to put our outrage. We aren’t satisfied with point-and-click activism, as Friedman suggests, but we don’t see other options. Many of us have protested, but we — by and large — felt like we were imitating an earlier generation, playing dress-up in our parents’ old hippie clothes. I marched against the war and my president called it a focus group. The worst part was that I did feel inert while doing it. In the 21st century, a bunch of people marching down the street, complimenting one another on their original slogans and pretty protest signs, feels like self-flagellation, not real and true social change.

When Friedman was young and people were taking to the streets, there were a handful of issues to focus on and a few solid sources of news to pay attention to. Now there is a staggering amount of both. If I read the news today with my heart wide open and my mind engaged, I will be crushed. Do I address the injustices in Sudan, Iraq, Burma, Pakistan, the Bronx? Do I call an official, write a letter, respond to a MoveOn.org request? None of it promises to be effective, and it certainly won’t pacify my outrage.

***

exactly! how do we choose? and if we are able to focus our attention on one issue, what do we do about it? is there any way to make a change, or will the previous generation have to die before we can begin to shovel ourselves out of the debt, the pollution, the injustice?

courtney writes:

***

We do our best. We pursue careers and seek answers to questions that we believe are important. So many of the young New Yorkers standing around my living room that night were professional activists — social workers and teachers and nonprofit workers. We discuss the latest current events, send one another links to our favorite blogs or videos on the subjects, grab drinks after work and hash it all out. We study like hell. My generation knows so much about so much. We read everything and anything that we think might point us in the direction of some kind of political enlightenment and psychic relief.

***

i hope we’re doing our best. i really do. i try to read as much as i can, talk about things that are important to me, seek out other people’s opinions and perspectives. i *do* believe that we are the most “aware” generation that has ever existed, but now we have to figure out how to translate that awareness into change. the problem is that we don’t really have a model to follow. we’re crammed full of information, but we’re clueless. as courtney points out:

***

We can’t be you, because we don’t live in your time. We don’t have the benefit of focus, the cushion of cheap rent, the luxury of not knowing just how complicated the world really is. Instead we have corporate conglomerates, private military contracts, the WTO and the IMF, school debt, and no health insurance. We are savvy and we are saturated and we are scared.

We are painstakingly composing our Facebook profiles because we did our daily round of news sites, and it left us feeling powerless and unsafe, like the only place to put our energies was inward. We are studying abroad because it feels like the only obvious way to interact with the world we care so deeply about. We are dancing at house parties on Friday nights because we talked about your op-ed, the war in Iraq, rape in Congo, but in the end, we just felt overeducated and underutilized.

You call that quiet. I call that coping.

***

a-men, courtney.

so, guys, what do we do? i (honestly) have visions of hipsters pulling youtube pranks to send a message to washington, or pants world going hacker-style and messing with the bank accounts of congressmen while rollerblading through the streets.

any other ideas?

ok, i gotta go add some photos to facebook.

LINKS

my favorite current affairs series is back with a piece which compares china and the u.s. to pamela anderson and kid rock. i think china might have a little less silicon, though.

soccer moms just got a whole lot more badass.

lobsters escape imenent death! sounds like a new pixar movie…

the california fires ate up a large elvis memorabilia collection, but the *owner* of the collection is actually the most interesting part of the story.

BREAKING NEWS. ace of base and aqua are BOTH reuniting!!! thank goodness, cos i’ve been really hoping to get a song stuck in my head for 17 consecutive days.
meredith sent me this site which challenges yr vocab while donating rice to starving countries [insert rice university joke here].

untouched

how will this end?

it feels wrong to be so untouched by it.

We all looked back at the morgue. Most of the cars had simple, narrow
wooden coffins on top of them, in anticipation of the son or daughter
or brother. One frenzied woman in a black abaya was struggling to make
her way inside, two relatives holding her back. A third man was
reaching up to untie the coffin tied to the top of their car.

i’ll post about fun things later… but sometimes, reality just creeps in. or crashes in. as it should.

the end (for now)

how to catch and hold a man

i read this highly thought-provoking article in the times yesterday, “what’s a modern girl to do?” from maureen dowd’s upcoming book, are men necessary: when sexes collide. it is WELL WORTH yr time to read this… but if you are just super busy pants, here are a few excerpts…

[p.s. let me know what you think... i lurve talking about
feminism/sexuality/gender issues. and boys, i especially want to hear
yr responses]

**************

I thought [my mother] was just being Old World, like my favorite jade, Dorothy Parker, when she wrote:

By the time you swear you’re his,

Shivering and sighing,

And he vows his passion is

Infinite, undying -

Lady, make a note of this:

One of you is lying.

**************

My mom gave me three essential books on the subject of men. The first,
when I was 13, was “On Becoming a Woman.” The second, when I was 21,
was “365 Ways to Cook Hamburger.” The third, when I was 25, was “How to
Catch and Hold a Man,” by Yvonne Antelle. (”Keep thinking of yourself
as a soft, mysterious cat.. . .Men are fascinated by bright, shiny
objects, by lots of curls, lots of hair on the head . . . by bows,
ribbons, ruffles and bright colors.. . .Sarcasm is dangerous. Avoid it
altogether.”)

***************

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the author of “Creating a Life:
Professional Women and the Quest for Children,” a book published in
2002, conducted a survey and found that 55 percent of 35-year-old
career women were childless. And among corporate executives who earn
$100,000 or more, she said, 49 percent of the women did not have
children, compared with only 19 percent of the men.

***************

Female sexuality has been a confusing corkscrew path, not a serene
progressive arc. We had decades of Victorian prudery, when women were
not supposed to like sex. Then we had the pill and zipless encounters,
when women were supposed to have the same animalistic drive as men.
Then it was discovered - shock, horror! - that men and women are not
alike in their desires. But zipless morphed into hookups, and the more
one-night stands the girls on “Sex and the City” had, the grumpier they
got.

***************

It was naïve and misguided for the early feminists to tendentiously
demonize Barbie and Cosmo girl, to disdain such female proclivities as
shopping, applying makeup and hunting for sexy shoes and cute
boyfriends and to prognosticate a world where men and women dressed
alike and worked alike in navy suits and were equal in every way.

But
it is equally naïve and misguided for young women now to fritter away
all their time shopping for boudoirish clothes and text-messaging about
guys while they disdainfully ignore gender politics and the seismic
shifts on the Supreme Court that will affect women’s rights for a
generation.