Nobody in England had heard of St Jude's Day until a few days ago when the forecasters delightedly told us that today, the Storm Day is also the day of Lost Causes. I'm paying more attention to saints and holy days, particularly as this was the first time I remember weather warnings resulting in preemptive action. The storm that blew in on schedule struck down the morning rush hour.
I remained at home with my coffee van listening to the silence being broken by the wind. No trains ran. First they said 8am, then 9am and then 11am. The train lines were blocked by trees and so it became a 'working from home' day.
The storm eventually blew away, leaving a path of broken trees and broken power lines. "It could've been worse", said the Media, reporting the deaths of five people, the unlucky ones. The storm is continuing it's path of destruction, losing energy along the way, but still killing where it can.
It's been a strange day with people remaining indoors, few cars moving on the roads. I'd been looking at solar technology, but now I wonder now how I can harness wind power.
Today I've been reading about "Relational Aggression" after reading an article on sexist retro vintage advertising, which made me reflect on the responsibility of women in patriarchy. This is a hard subject to raise in Public. It's easier to blame men for sexism, but who has examined the role of women in this power structure? A Google search for articles on "relational" or "social" aggression, showed there is very little research on this subject. Strange, if you also look up workplace bullying, there is a lot of feedback online first hand and anecdotal about a pattern and style adopted by female managers who use emotional bullying techniques to maintain power.
Strangely, one or two articles claimed that the "Queen Bee" Mean Girl bullying behavior has evolved as a means to achieve power, but the implication is that those women who use at are higher up the evolution tree, an unpleasant conclusion. The Queen Bee targets victims who threaten their social standing by employing a combination of rumor, derogatory facial and body language along with freezing out and other bullying tactics. Who hasn't witnessed the Queen Bee drama? Why does the Media choose to perpetuate the Queen Bee in popular media? Madonna, Rihanna and the Spice Girls are all Queen Bees. Couldn't another type of woman help sell newspapers or bring hits to websites? Why are the Queen Bees described as feminist? The world today seems to be full of newspeak, full of opposite meanings. Women will one day gain social status from their minds, ideas and intuition. Surely the desperate housewife is boring.
I'm putting up a new Polite Notice this week, it's about time, and I've delayed this response as long as I could, two years of constant quizzing has been grinding me down as the questioning has reached a new peak. More on that next time.
