The article to which the Sage is responding may be found here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2240073/
The Sage will dispense with commenting on the items mentioned in passing. However, the "pollster" who wrote Prudie had no more a scientific poll than did Prudie. Researchers are well aware of respondents' tendency to give the answer they believe the pollster wants to hear. Even more likely is this to happen when the pollster is personally known to the respondent. Additionally. the phrasing of the question makes a major difference. For instance, the question could have been phrased from "You wash your bra every day, don't you?" to "Do you think it's a big deal if a woman doesn't wash her bra every day?" Both suggest answers, and neither Prudie nor her reader gave us the sampling along with the phrasing of the question.
The Sage is less patient with those who insist that anyone over the age of perhaps 6 needs to "grow up", by which they mean to give up any and all things which children might enjoy, regardless of whether adults might enjoy them or whether they even serve a useful purpose. The Sage wonders how many of these "mature" individuals have given up eating desserts or drinking soft drinks.
Neither does the Sage wish to revisit the polyamory or the prom. The Sage agrees that things things are a matter of personal preference, but agrees that children approaching adulthood certain have the right to express their own personal preferences in lifestyle changes which affect them. It is difficult enough to be a teenager, without adding fuel to the fire from which other youths will ridicule them.
The Sage appreciates Prudie's acknowledgement of her less than stellar answer to the dorm resident. The Sage agrees that a more responsible adult presence is in order in that place, but the resident is unlikely to be able to cause that to happen, short of having a parent who donated a wing to the school library. Intervention by a school advisor of some sort is certainly in order in this situation, both to calm the narc and to control the more flagrant violators.
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Oh Great Sage, thanks for permission to never ever grow up. We need to keep dreaming in this nasty world...
ReplyDeleteAs for bras, perhaps we can think of them from another viewpoint. Did you know that when coming across a semi-neglected apple tree you can discreetely slip off your bra and use it as a handy basket for semi-stolen apples? (did something like that get Eve and Adam kicked out of paradise? Can the Oracle enlighten us?)
The Sage needs to contemplate this new use for that particular article. The Sage had always folded up half of the front of the T-shirt of the day, but the fruit does tend to leave rather nasty stains in plain view of the public. Peaches seem especially prone to that problem.
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