Marriage and Femminism

so recently some of the people I live with went to this conference about getting married younger, and I mean I'm sure there are plenty of benefits to this, and I'm sure there are reasons and what-not, but honestly this whole thing just struck me as kinda really crazy sexist. I mean woman already have to do the vast majority of work around the house, and in raising children, and I can only imagine this will just accentuate this. Marrying young, before woman (or men) are established in their careers, makes it very easy to leave, or if not very easy, makes its easier than a job in the future. I was reading this fascinating book about feminism and the workplace, 'Lean In' and it was talking about how woman can do this thing where they 'leave before they leave' or when they are married, or in a serious relationship, they start thinking about having children, and they become more disconnected at work, do not take up new projects, because they think that they will be leaving to have a child, and once they do decide to have a child, they are at a lesser stage of the career, and so am the obvious, or somewhat obvious choice of partner to leave the workplace. With marrying earlier, I can only imagine this stagnation in the careers will take a much higher rate.

The other problem that this might present, is that it might make it very difficult to return to work, for the woman, after maternity leave, if they marry earlier, have children earlier, the woman may not have even started their career, or still be at a very low-level job, and will thus have no job to return to, seriously possibly depleting the amount of woman in higher levels positions, and destroying all the hard work many trailblazers have put in before us.

I also have a problem with the fact that honestly I don't know whether some people may be mature enough to get married young. If they have studied, for several years, they may not have even lived by themselves, or even away from things such as parents, or residential advisors, where people are cooking and cleaning and what not for them. Marriage doesn't so much mean love and what-not (although like I'm sure it's important) but to me at least it's about building your life with someone, and how can you build your life with someone when you barely know yourselves? There are so much more practical measures to a marriage, it's essentially finding someone who has both similar and different qualities to help you make smart and practical decisions, about buying a house, managing money, raising a child, and how to plan for the future and the rest of your life. These things require not just maturity in these matters, but also a deep knowledge of self, so that you know what you want to do with your life, you know the direction, and you know enough to choose a partner to guide you. Sure there may be some people in their young-mid 20's that might be capable of this, I'm specifically thinking of people who studied a trade, or did only none-limited higher education, so they have had some experience working, living away from home, and deciding what direction they want their life to take, other people can also do this, and I'm in no way saying that you can only get married after you finish your formal education, but I honestly think you need to have experienced independence (usually achieved by living away from home or by yourself) before you decide to commit your life to living with another person, if you have any chance of being happy in your marriage.

and then their is the whole human beings really need connection to other, but that connection I believe can be forged as young as 3 or as old as 80, the connection in marriage is so very important, but is in no way unique to marriage

Essentially I think that while marriage between young people can occasionally work out, I generally think it's not a very good idea, and especially should never be advocated

so many things to blog about so little time

so I've decided to start blogging again, as expected I gave up fairly quickly last time, but then I was blogging fairly hardcore last time, ehh lets see how this goes, what I really want to talk about is the upcoming election, going on exchange(!) and trying and failing to get through uni, not sure how successful that last one will be, but as per usual this will just be my rumbling ranting off-topic thoughts, and we'll see how it goes! (not sure what the point of this post was, but ehh)

I am an awful uniersity student

Yes well as the name implies I am an awful university student. I mean really I am, I want a high distinction average, but I'm taking no steps to achieve it, I have a exams in one week, yet I have literally not studied, and at current have no inclination to, and I have spent the entirety of last week, when I should have been studying, laying in bed and watching crap.

I have no idea where all my motivation has gone, but I'd rather like it back, why because I still have all the same dreams, and continue to make big dreams, but I'm not putting in any of the work, I never do my homework, and instead of figuring out the physics problems, I google the questions to see if I can copy off someone else. Essentially I am what I've always loathed-lazy. Now I am a lot of bad things, but one thing that I always used to pride myself is that I worked hard. And I did, but for some reason in Uni, I don't anymore.

Part of it might be the whole independence thing, ie now that there are no teachers chasing me up on assignments, I don't do the work, and while I do admit a lot of the work I put into subjects in high school was not to disappoint the teachers, especially after they had put in some much effort into teaching us, which I don't feel anymore, but in high school I had goals, real tangible goals that I worked towards-that another thing, since graduation is so far away, and that employment thing and blah, they don't seem as real, as say the HSC, because I was going to get the results soon, and they were going to directly affect me soon.

But I think the main thing is that I just hate uni, like really really hate it. I find it so easy, and not challenging, although its not like I find the questions easy, I just find the concepts so mundane, I want to THINK about things, and all I'm doing is learning formula, and because its takes little brain power I don't engage in the material,

And sometimes it is just so incredibly hard to get motivated, and even when I am motivated its just hard to work, like it's not like I have any real pressing concerned with my time, I just can't bring myself to do the work, anyway rant kinda over

brief Tv recap

ack so much to blog about, so little time. So I've kept on been wanting to blig, but just haven't gotten around to it, and then when I would I would try and do a whole retrospective thing, and it just wouldn't work, so I'm just going to try and blog again, like from now, and if I get motivation later, then I'll talk about what I've been doing and whatnot (hint:it was awesome)

anyway big excitement in the US political field, Paul Ryan, interesting pick, and makes me actually pretty optimistic for Obama's chance of winning, conventions are currently going on, but I'll talk more about them later, right now I'm going to talk about my one true love-TV

Very exciting season for TV, it spetember!!! which not only as a Fringe reference is awesome, but it is also the month where new TV returns! despite the fact that I have no idea where I'm going to find all this time, I am extremely excited, well as excited as I could possibly be, I'm not quite calling it extremly, but excited. Unfortunately a lot of the shows I'm really really excited for are midseason, which is unfortunate for a couple of reasons, firstly because midseason shows have a much harder time becoming hits, let alone getting renewed, and have much lower numbers, and secondly because I have to wait longer to get them.

I'm also very upset that this will be the final season for Fringe, but at the same time am excited for how they are going to wrap up the series, more on that later.

I was going to talk more specifically about shows in this post, but I'll think I'll just give a breif thing of what new shows I'm looking forward too
Elementary- saw the pilot and it was +good+ love love love both the sherlock movies and the bbc version, plus my general love for cop shows in general (disappointing number of new cop shows this year :(  ) I think this looks like the best show of the fall crop-although I'm not uber pumped for it (yet), I'm thinking like I may watch the entire season

last resort- I saw the teasers and it looked lame, but people who actually saw the pilot said it was fantastic, and high concept, and good action, which are right down my street, so I'll definitly check out the first few episodes

the mob doctor-okay lame lame tittle, and I'm not usually into medical shows, but I'm intrugied by the mob bit, and it does look very dark and delicious, I'll think I'll check out the first 3-4 episdoes, and see how medical it is

While I'll watch the pilot of every single show, shows that I might add to 'the list' could be revolution (JJ abbrams, but I have reservations, although a lot of people are excited), 666 park avenue, has some promise, but could easily mess it up, and vegas- although period drama's can easily mess up, anyway will post more detailed thoughts later

The Golden Age of teleivision

Right so there ahas been quite a bit of talk as of late, about this being the 'golden age of television' which I have to say, is rather ridiclous. Firstly how can we say that now is the golden age, TV barely 60 years old, and colour TV 40, so all we are really saying that TV today is better than it was 40 years ago, and that isn't saying anything huge.

Firstly there is a heck of a lot more TV around today, than there was 40 years ago, in the US alone there are hundreds of channels, and probably about 100 new shows released each year. The television business is booming, with huge amounts of pilots being developed, so yes television is better, but that is partly a numbers game.

Secondly with the huge amount of TV out there, standards certainly have gotten better, just due to increased competition. People may tend to say that shows in the 70's and 80's, where a rating of 30 or 40 was common, were better, as clearly everyone was watching them, but firstly there was no cable, only 3 broadcast channels and thus no competition. Audiences have become more fickle, with so much content, so much internet, our attention span has gotten shorter, and we demand better, if not, there's plenty else to entertain us. So television is getting better, but that doesn't nessiraly mean that we are in a golden age of TV.

One argument people make is that some channels such as HBO and showtime have a model that is designed around producing absolutely stunning content, with long production schedules, big budgets ect,   but I mean this is again like a game of numbers, there are some absolutly crap shows out there, so saying that just because there is quality (that sounds demeaning, there are definitely some great shows out there), doesn't mean we're in the golden age of television.

Also another thing people look at is the dominacne, 98% of americans own a TV, almost all of them have more than one, and cable, and large percentages have more advanced cable. Theres also about 35-40% of americans watching TV each night. While these are all great figures, I don't think this really justifies being called the golden age of television, its more to do with the meadium.

So while I definitly think this is a great time to be making TV and there is definitely some great TV being made, because of this new level of competitiveness surrounding TV, that doesn't necessarily make it the 'golden age of TV' and really I think you can only assign that tittle retrospectively, so this is a good age of TV, maybe even great, but not golden.

The importance of TV

I was talking yesterday about the important of TV, and why I think we do watch TV, and so I decided why not continue on my blogging binge, and write more about TV

I think another huge part of why we watch TV is the aspect of community asciated with it. Ever since TV was first invented, it was always a family thing, it was an hour or whatever a week were the whole family would gather together to watch TV. Of course there has been some subjestion that watching TV as a family is actually not good, because it connects you to the TV, and not to each other, to which I reply, that is misusing the purpose of TV. 

As I was talking yesterday we watch TV to get that burst of emotion, that lets them know they are human, and can feel and experience emotion. And so when we get this emotion, which is such a rare thing in our lives, we want it to last, and the best way we know how to do that is to share it. To talk about it with our friends.

Before the internet these friends would live close to you, and you would probably see them the next day at school/work or whatever, in which you could talk to them, but today, the world is so connected, we have friends from all around the world. We don't have to wait till the next day to talk to people, we can log onto a chat room and talk about the show right then and there, we can capitalise on our feelings, and explore them, while they are still fresh, and that is why we pirate, because we want to be caught up in the show to experience the emotions fresh, to fully explore and revile in them.

I streamed last nights episode of Fringe and was completely blown away by the ending, that I just had to talk about. Fringe does what I was saying, it manipulates my emotions so much, that by the end I was just bursting with emotion, and I was completely sucked in, and felt so many different things it was amazing. For at least another hour after the episode, I couldn't talk coherently about it, because I still had all that emotion inside of me, and for another 6 hours, I could still feel that emotion, that excitement, that heartbreak. Because I talked about it on the internet I explored it, and I explored it with people who same way as I did, they experienced the same emotions, understood what I was feeling, I understood what I was feeling, if only for an hour, and to be understood that way is a very rare thing.

So while yes, these emotions are false, and maybe we should spend more time seeking out physical communication instead, TV is certainly is not some form of flitting unreal communication, the best of it at least, really is art, and incredibly impressive art as well, given the limitations placed on TV (really it one of the far more limiting art forms, tight budgets, set time limits and a very small amount of time to create such things-what other medium has that many requirements) so I really believe that TV can and is, important, and definitely not to be disregarded.

TV in repeats

Well I was going to do a whole bunch of different intualetual posts on the quadruple bond, and the Republican politics, but then I realsied that what I really wanted to do was talk about fringe and other TV I watched, and damnit this is my blog so I can talk about what I feel like, and often I feel like talking about TV. I've also  unfortunatly as its non-ratings in the US and Aus TV just sucks, it was more of a catch up week for me, so here are some of the shows I'm currently catching up on

right well many of my US shows were in repeats which was highly annoying, so I started watching revenge, and I actually can't believe I liked it. I've been hearing about it all season, how its soapy goodness guilty pleasere, and usally I hate those shows, but I actually really liked revenge for some reason, and it got nominated for a golden globe, so its totally not all that bad right? It's a very interesting type of show, and a lot more episodic than one would expect, where as opposed to the case of the week type show, it has a revenge take down mission of the week, which I actually kinda liked, I also liked just how deranged and heartless Emily is, not to mention the seeming number of gun-wielding psycopaths that reisde in the Hamptons, speaking of, where exactly are the Hamptons? like I know its were really rich new york people go over the summer, but is it actually in new york? because its all beachy, and new york has sucky weather, anywho, suprisingly good show, that I think i'll be checking out for a while, esepcially if we go into repeats again

I've also been watching more of the X-files, and again trying to plow my way through SVU. I really like SVU, though sometimes its just too much. Ie SVU is about as episodic as it comes, I don't think they've ever done a 'previously on' or carried storylines across episodes, as opposed to most of the other very stand alone shows out there, that usally have a few moments in every episode that builds throgout the season to the finale, the finale in SVU is just a more dramatic episode, which is kinda good, because you know exactly what your up for, character driven drama, a case of the week, and some very good acting and filmaking, which is why this is the only offshot of the Law and Order Franchise that is still standing, but it does lack the OMG I have to come back next time factor, I mean you come back because its a great show, but it will always be a great show, there isn't a burning desire to find out what happens next, so I find that I watch SVU off an on when I'm in the mood, because 13 seasons, it seems like such a daunting task

I've also continued watching the X-files. Now I'm going to be frank, the only reason I'm watching this is Fringe, but it is actually very enjoyable. I'm only up to the first season, so at the moment its very episodic, very much like first season fringe, actually really like -1 season fringe, if you back tracked the tragjecotry of epsidodic to mythalone, but still very enjoyable, I'm going to post more on this later, but its actually very refreshing to watch a series in which everything is not ok, unlike most TV on the air today, where the good guys always catch the bad guys, and the end scene is usally a celbration that the world is a slightly better place, the end scene of the X-files is usally whatever got 'solved' unsolving itself, showing that there efforts were in vain, and really creepying you out a bit. I've heard that it gets more seralised and less predictable a bit later on, which I look forward to, but for now, although it hasnt hit the Must.Consume. Level yet, I'm really enjoying the X-files

I've been watching a bunch of other stuff which I'll no doubt talk about later, but for now, thats all I'm catching up on.