Strength is Lame
Male friends and family, men whom I think of as enlightened, liberated, what have you, with the best of intentions, have told me, through my mom’s dying, and now, after, again and again,to “be strong.” (Not all men have told me this, but only men have.) Women, conversely, wonderfully, have told me to take care of myself, be gentle with myself, even indulge myself, find ways to enjoy anything I can find right now. Men, how did we get ourselves into this self-abnegating pickle? I'm trying my best to be weak and self-indulgent, but, even for me, crying in front of friends, say, feels – I know this sounds ridiculouis given my circumstances – it feels excessive, melodramatic. It makes me feel guilty, ashamed. I'm doing my damnedest to fight that macho crap, so, fellas, stop telling me to be strong, okay?
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Sheila Berger was a fan of and I think had a little crush on Jon Stewart. She liked Colbert too, but not in that way (as much as I tried to convince her of his hotness). She also really liked the Men's Warehouse ("You're gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it.") guy, George Zimmer (above), and I always think of him as her boyfriend when I see him on TV. But I'm getting way OT here. So let's cycle back slowly to Comedy Central. In the last couple of years, unbidden by me, she started watching and really appreciated, the way I think of only the youth appreciating (and by youth, yes, I mean me) South Park. She really got it. My dad, he's down with Family Guy (or "Family Man" as he keeps calling it no matter how many times I correct him – sorry, Pop, couldn't resist), but I thinkhe just can't wrap his head around "South Park." It just doesn't speak to him. I was very surprised and impressed and charmed by my mom for this, that she could appreciate the bite of the oft-racist, oft-sexist, always-offend-everyone-possible humor and satire, and that the intentional gratuitousness of the show didn't deter her or even bug her. Now, to what I really planned to write about in this post. Last week, Jon Stewart interviewed Mike Huckabee. I saw the rerun the other night. In an extended grilling that I'm guessing went way over time, Stewart took Huckabee to task – hell he took him out to the g.d. woodshed! – for a long long time on the subject of gay marriage, exposing the anti-gay-marriage movement as the specious, hypocritical, hateful beast that it is. Take a look below. Sheila would've loved it.
