Mean Girl-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower warned the nation about the military-industrial complex, or the phenomenon of a country's military establishment having tight relationships with industries that produce arms and other military equipment. Those relationships encourage a rise in weapon production and wars. In Dwight's words; "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
Mean girls have been on my mind a lot lately. We are told as kids that once we grow up we won't have to deal with cliques and bullies. But many of us learn as adults that the mean kids in junior high often are the gatekeepers to the best jobs and opportunities in adulthood. Our culture has created a mean girl-industrial complex.
I've grappled with how to approach more than a few mean girl gatekeepers but the gate usually slams shut. (I swear I can hear the mean girls giggling on the other side of the portal. A lifetime of nerdery begets a bit of paranoia. And how much much do my timidity and presumptions factor into those closed gates? Maybe my inner dork is still cowering in the corner hoping the popular clique doesn't notice me. Attracting their attention never ends well. Or maybe my inner dweeb is rising up from the corner ready to flourish, sick of status quo and the politics of popularity.)
Collectively we admire the wealthy and beautiful, regardless of their abilities or personalities. Show me a narcissist, and I'll show you a hit television series. In fact, trainwrecks like Taylor from Bravo's Beverly Hills Housewives garner more attention and pity than the kids across America who go to bed hungry every night. Do we look to the self-appointed princesses to escape our own realities? Watching Snooki or a Kardashian doesn't heal my wounds. It just makes me feel dirty, like a nerd suddenly gaining access to the popularity code, befriending the prom queen, then laughing as I trip her. What we nerds forget is that the prom queen still has her tiara.
St. Lucia was an anti-mean girl and because of that I am happy to celebrate her every December 13. Rather than adorning herself with a status-claiming tiara, she wore a crown of candles that brought the world light as she distributed food to the starving. Lucia is featured in this week's Called to the Table column. There are varied legends about Lucia: some saintly, some not. She'd make a great television show.
Mean girls have been on my mind a lot lately. We are told as kids that once we grow up we won't have to deal with cliques and bullies. But many of us learn as adults that the mean kids in junior high often are the gatekeepers to the best jobs and opportunities in adulthood. Our culture has created a mean girl-industrial complex.
I've grappled with how to approach more than a few mean girl gatekeepers but the gate usually slams shut. (I swear I can hear the mean girls giggling on the other side of the portal. A lifetime of nerdery begets a bit of paranoia. And how much much do my timidity and presumptions factor into those closed gates? Maybe my inner dork is still cowering in the corner hoping the popular clique doesn't notice me. Attracting their attention never ends well. Or maybe my inner dweeb is rising up from the corner ready to flourish, sick of status quo and the politics of popularity.)
Collectively we admire the wealthy and beautiful, regardless of their abilities or personalities. Show me a narcissist, and I'll show you a hit television series. In fact, trainwrecks like Taylor from Bravo's Beverly Hills Housewives garner more attention and pity than the kids across America who go to bed hungry every night. Do we look to the self-appointed princesses to escape our own realities? Watching Snooki or a Kardashian doesn't heal my wounds. It just makes me feel dirty, like a nerd suddenly gaining access to the popularity code, befriending the prom queen, then laughing as I trip her. What we nerds forget is that the prom queen still has her tiara.
St. Lucia was an anti-mean girl and because of that I am happy to celebrate her every December 13. Rather than adorning herself with a status-claiming tiara, she wore a crown of candles that brought the world light as she distributed food to the starving. Lucia is featured in this week's Called to the Table column. There are varied legends about Lucia: some saintly, some not. She'd make a great television show.
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