Bolick, Kate. "All The Single Ladies." The Atlantic Magazine. The Atlantic Monthly Group, November 2011. Web. 11 November 2011.
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Throughout the article called "All The Single Ladies", by Kate Bolick, she explains how in recent years and recent studies, the number of marriages in our country have decreased due to many women's idea of getting married being disrupted, the increasing rate of unsuccessful men in the United States, and the non-traditional romantic ways that have been inclining a great deal. Bolick has a post-modern view on relationships due to her experience with men in her lifetime, and her family views that were forced upon her when she was younger. She continues writing about Stephanie Coontz,a social historian at Evergreen State College in Washington, who noticed an uptick in questions from reporters and audiences asking if the institution of marriage was falling apart. She wrote a book and did plenty of studies showing from the beginning of our time, the 'hunting and gathering' stage in history, all the way up into our current decade. She states, “The transformation is momentous—immensely liberating and immensely scary. When it comes to what people actually want and expect from marriage and relationships, and how they organize their sexual and romantic lives, all the old ways have broken down.” Bolick continues her piece with certain aspects on why marriage has been affected in recent years. Firstly, we put marriage off. "In 1960, the median age of first marriage in the U.S. was 23 for men and 20 for women; today it is 28 and 26. Today, a smaller proportion of American women in their early 30's are married than at any other point since the 1950s, if not earlier." Marrying less is also a factor, along with the fact that women no longer need husbands in order to conceive children. The last factor is the current generation of men who are increasingly not successful which changes women's view of even settling down with a man.
Kate Bolick's article is strictly a female view on the change in relationships in recent years and how marriage rates have decreased as well. This article is significant because it exemplifies how our generations are changing significantly when it comes to romantics and love. Although her article is a woman's point of view and may come off to some as offensive to men, it does show the statistics of marriage and why many woman have decided to not marry or to wait to get married. She states, "We took for granted that we’d spend our 20s finding ourselves, whatever that meant, and save marriage for after we’d finished graduate school and launched our careers, which of course would happen at the magical age of 30. That we would marry, and that there would always be men we wanted to marry, we took on faith. How could we not?" Her views had been poured upon her because that was what she was told when she was younger. The certain aspects that Bolick discusses are fairly intriguing when it comes to how the times have changed and why. The first one was that many put marriage off. It is very interesting to see that just about fifty years ago, people were getting married at the young age of 20-23. Now, people get married in their early 30's and try to make sure that they are sure they want to be with that partner for the rest of their life. Even then, divorce rates have increased because of the inclining rates of struggles that married couples have to deal with. The second factor is that it is a fairly new creation that women do not need men in order to conceive a child which may be a main motivation for women to get married. Lastly, the rate of unsuccessful men has increased since 1960 which causes women to not marry someone who does not have their life together. This article shows the significant changes that our generation is facing when it comes to marriage, love and romantics and the female view of why women choose not to marry. Kate Bolick puts a different view on the major generation gap that has been proven throughout her statistics.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
A New Thought: How to Land Your Kid in Therapy
Gottlieb, Lori. "How to Land Your Kid in Therapy." The Atlantic Magazine. The Atlantic Monthly Group, July/August 2011. Web. 6 October 2011.
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Gottlieb's article talks about the way many parents have an obsession with trying to control their children's happiness which leads them to a devastating future. Lori Gottlieb decides to do an experiment as a psychotherapist and meets with people who were willing to talk about their upbringing and history having being parented. One patient she specifically points out is a woman named Lizzie. Gottlieb states, "She had come in, she told me, because she was 'just not happy.' And what was so upsetting, she continued, was that she felt she had nothing to be unhappy about." As Lori tried to put it together as to why this beautiful young woman just was not happy with her life, she started getting more patients exactly like her. After a lot of the same people, saying the exact same thing basically worshipping their parents and how happy they were as a child, etc, Lori thought, "Until, one day, another question occurred to me: Was it possible these parents had done too much?" The article continues to go back and forth on whether or not it is wrong to smother children with trying to make them happy, or let them pick themselves up and help themselves.
Lori Gottlieb discovers that many people coming from "magnificent parents who just wanted to make them happy and see them succeed" are struggling with the emptiness of feeling like they have been controlled their whole life and do not know what to do now. While reading this article, I realized that many people who I know may be dealing with the same specific "emptiness" feeling. Lori Gottlieb puts it into perspective that although the parents were very supportive and made an effort to make everything perfectly happy in their children's lives, they are living with a feeling that cannot be fixed at all. The article is significant because it can help parents try to improve on not being so in tune with their kids' life. Many children can be affected by their parents down-falls and feel as if nothing they ever do is good enough. Another issue is that many parents try to live through their children by forcing no choice upon their kids and making them do what the parent wants them to do because they did not do that in their childhood. The parents want to complete certain things that they did not accomplish in their own life. Gottleib's article demonstrates the different parenting methods and how they can affect children.
Read this article
Gottlieb's article talks about the way many parents have an obsession with trying to control their children's happiness which leads them to a devastating future. Lori Gottlieb decides to do an experiment as a psychotherapist and meets with people who were willing to talk about their upbringing and history having being parented. One patient she specifically points out is a woman named Lizzie. Gottlieb states, "She had come in, she told me, because she was 'just not happy.' And what was so upsetting, she continued, was that she felt she had nothing to be unhappy about." As Lori tried to put it together as to why this beautiful young woman just was not happy with her life, she started getting more patients exactly like her. After a lot of the same people, saying the exact same thing basically worshipping their parents and how happy they were as a child, etc, Lori thought, "Until, one day, another question occurred to me: Was it possible these parents had done too much?" The article continues to go back and forth on whether or not it is wrong to smother children with trying to make them happy, or let them pick themselves up and help themselves.
Lori Gottlieb discovers that many people coming from "magnificent parents who just wanted to make them happy and see them succeed" are struggling with the emptiness of feeling like they have been controlled their whole life and do not know what to do now. While reading this article, I realized that many people who I know may be dealing with the same specific "emptiness" feeling. Lori Gottlieb puts it into perspective that although the parents were very supportive and made an effort to make everything perfectly happy in their children's lives, they are living with a feeling that cannot be fixed at all. The article is significant because it can help parents try to improve on not being so in tune with their kids' life. Many children can be affected by their parents down-falls and feel as if nothing they ever do is good enough. Another issue is that many parents try to live through their children by forcing no choice upon their kids and making them do what the parent wants them to do because they did not do that in their childhood. The parents want to complete certain things that they did not accomplish in their own life. Gottleib's article demonstrates the different parenting methods and how they can affect children.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Now Streaming: Secret Fears of the Super-Rich
Wood, Graeme. "Secret Fears of the Super-Rich." The Atlantic Magazine. The Atlantic Monthly Group, April 2011. Web. 2 September 2011.
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Throughout this article by Graeme Wood, he summarizes that the rich "have unique sets of worries, and face the added difficulty of knowing that many despise or envy them." He states that the rich are a "psychologically vulnerable group" giving examples throughout the article about certain respondents from a study stating how they worry about what lies ahead for people around them, causing them difficulty to live life with self-worth. He states, "Most of us, for instance, occasionally spoil ourselves with outburst of deliberate and perhaps excessive consumption: a fancy spa treatment, dinner at an expensive restaurant, a shopping spree. In the case of the very wealthy, such forms of consumption can be come so commonplace as to lose all psychological benefit: constant luxury is, in a sense, no luxury at all." Wood also talks about the rich fearing for their children as "wealth can be a barrier to connecting with other people." Another fear of the rich is that relationships can be effected by thinking, "Does he love me or my money?"
Many people are very unaware of the fears that the rich have to encounter every day by specifically putting them in a stereo-type of "lucky", or "their life is perfect". They are simply unaware of the constant thoughts going through the super-rich minds. Wood also says how people judge this specific group of people by saying, "The super-rich have lost the right to complain about anything, for fear of sounding-or being-ungrateful." Although the rich may have financial security, they do not always feel that way due to the relationships they develop with certain people. One respondent states, "I start to wonder how many people we know would cut us off if they didn't think they could get something from us." This article is important because it shows that although the rich may seem like they "have it all", they, in fact do have their own category of worries and problems that come with being wealthy.
Read this article
Throughout this article by Graeme Wood, he summarizes that the rich "have unique sets of worries, and face the added difficulty of knowing that many despise or envy them." He states that the rich are a "psychologically vulnerable group" giving examples throughout the article about certain respondents from a study stating how they worry about what lies ahead for people around them, causing them difficulty to live life with self-worth. He states, "Most of us, for instance, occasionally spoil ourselves with outburst of deliberate and perhaps excessive consumption: a fancy spa treatment, dinner at an expensive restaurant, a shopping spree. In the case of the very wealthy, such forms of consumption can be come so commonplace as to lose all psychological benefit: constant luxury is, in a sense, no luxury at all." Wood also talks about the rich fearing for their children as "wealth can be a barrier to connecting with other people." Another fear of the rich is that relationships can be effected by thinking, "Does he love me or my money?"
Many people are very unaware of the fears that the rich have to encounter every day by specifically putting them in a stereo-type of "lucky", or "their life is perfect". They are simply unaware of the constant thoughts going through the super-rich minds. Wood also says how people judge this specific group of people by saying, "The super-rich have lost the right to complain about anything, for fear of sounding-or being-ungrateful." Although the rich may have financial security, they do not always feel that way due to the relationships they develop with certain people. One respondent states, "I start to wonder how many people we know would cut us off if they didn't think they could get something from us." This article is important because it shows that although the rich may seem like they "have it all", they, in fact do have their own category of worries and problems that come with being wealthy.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Response To Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits.
Berry, Wendell. "Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits." Harper's Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation, May 2008. Web. 18 August 2011.
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Wendell Berry expresses his views toward the issue of destroying our resources and our blind idea of being limitless. Berry states, "In keeping with our unrestrained consumptiveness, the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt." He also states that the human race considers themselves "higher animals", which then, somehow, gives us the right to be limitless in the idea of using every resource we can receive and wasting it. Also, the 'law of return' that Berry refers to is him saying that there is no returning after consuming so much of what the earth has to offer. Berry also writes of the ideas of an artist and how work of theirs always has a limit and we should think of the world in terms of the way they think of their canvas to paint on. The idea of being limitless has become assumed due to the embarrassment of a solution that does not involve higher technology or a big machine. Wendell Berry expresses his belief of having limits, because without them we may not exist.
Throughout the article that Wendell Berry writes, he states that our world is becoming a tragic place due to the copious amounts of "freedom" in the human race. This article is significant because of the modern day use of higher technology and how it effects the world because of the amount of resources that are being wasted. Berry also states that in order to cure this disease of the idea of being higher animals and limitless, we must start over and recover by accepting the fact that we are not "higher animals", we still are creatures of limited intelligence. According to Berry, it is important to recognize the amount of harm we are doing to the future of earth and step back and realize we are not limitless.
Read this article
Wendell Berry expresses his views toward the issue of destroying our resources and our blind idea of being limitless. Berry states, "In keeping with our unrestrained consumptiveness, the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt." He also states that the human race considers themselves "higher animals", which then, somehow, gives us the right to be limitless in the idea of using every resource we can receive and wasting it. Also, the 'law of return' that Berry refers to is him saying that there is no returning after consuming so much of what the earth has to offer. Berry also writes of the ideas of an artist and how work of theirs always has a limit and we should think of the world in terms of the way they think of their canvas to paint on. The idea of being limitless has become assumed due to the embarrassment of a solution that does not involve higher technology or a big machine. Wendell Berry expresses his belief of having limits, because without them we may not exist.
Throughout the article that Wendell Berry writes, he states that our world is becoming a tragic place due to the copious amounts of "freedom" in the human race. This article is significant because of the modern day use of higher technology and how it effects the world because of the amount of resources that are being wasted. Berry also states that in order to cure this disease of the idea of being higher animals and limitless, we must start over and recover by accepting the fact that we are not "higher animals", we still are creatures of limited intelligence. According to Berry, it is important to recognize the amount of harm we are doing to the future of earth and step back and realize we are not limitless.
Practice Post
I have already had a blog for about a year now. I enjoy using Blogger and I feel that this will help with responses to articles.
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