Grocery Store as Gauntlet (file under I Told You So) May 28, 2007
Posted by P.J. in ADHD.add a comment
Isn’t this interesting… it seems as though grocery retailers are finally recognizing that grocery stores aren’t exactly a cake walk for all their customers.
Unsurprisingly (and a little sadly), the focus is exclusively gender-based, the implications being, men get lost, women don’t. Which, of course, makes AD/HD-grrl feel a little bit more like a freak.
Still, in response to the guy mentioned in this article as on his way to “a nervous breakdown in the cereal aisle,” I’ve got this: You think the cereal aisle is mind-boggling! Try the feminine hygeine products aisle. Setting aside the plethora of tampon choices… there’s short pads, long pads, overnighters, wings, no wings, fragrance, no fragrance, baking soda, special liners, brief-friendly, thong-friendly. (And various permutations therof.)
The folks who make Always pads tried some kind of bizarre, arbitrary iconic identification system a few years back that I am personally grateful failed. Do I get the stars, the flowers, the sailboats, or the duckies? WTF? Imagine a woman in the throes of PMS, before a wall of plastic-covered product, shuddering short of tears. Those were moments I wondered whether the act of shopping for the rag wasn’t actually causing the PMS.
I suppose I should be grateful. If the grocery store marketing mavens improve shopping for men, I suppose it should help me too. But in a world where the marketing campaign is so quickly confounded with the societal norm, it’s a bittersweet victory.
Especially if, after all the other man-friendly changes, they don’t do anything to streamline the feminine products aisle.
As the World Worlds May 27, 2007
Posted by P.J. in UCLA.add a comment
This week in our Comp Lit class on the German philosophers, we’re covering Heidegger’s “Origin of the Work of Art.”
There are moments when I feel guilty about all the studying I do, and I’m certain this contributes to my procrastination (yeah, I get housewife hangover after all these years). The only way I seem to be able to allay this anxiety is by showing Matt (el esposo) just what I have to deal with.
Reading random passages from Heidegger usually does the trick.
“Matt! Listen to this… Heidegger’s talking about… here… the `thingly character of the thing, the equipmental character of equipment, and the workly character of the work.’ But there’s more. A little further on – this is even better – ‘the world worlds.’ You see what I have to put up with??”
Matt’s eyes widen incredulously and he slowly shakes his head.
Am I grossly oversimplifying? Sure. Am I being dramatic? Of course.
Am I gloating? Hee-hee. Vindication!
I can now go back to my homework. A little less guilty about not doing the dishes at the moment. And eventually, a little less guilty about being behind on all the stuff I’m setting aside to attend to Heidegger’s prose.
