Saturday, November 08, 2003

I don't like The Prairie Home Companion. Never did. Yet I never could understand why the show irritates me so much. I'm not a Republican, after all.

Today the revelation came to me. (Yes, even we goddesses are sometimes slow). The show is not for women. 'People' in the show are always men. Women are present only when the story requires a woman. When the story doesn't specify either sex, a man is always selected. So it's 'Earl's School of Accents', not "Earlene's School of Accents'. If it was the latter, the story would somehow depend on Earlene being a woman. If it's the former, the story could go in almost any direction. So now I know why I don't like The Prairie Home Companion.

That women are only inserted when absolutely necessary isn't that uncommon in the so-called liberal media. That women are people is still not a universally accepted proposition, the difference between the left and the right is that the left pretends to believe it whereas the right is quite proud of declaring such beliefs politically correct propaganda.

Not really my problem, given that I am a goddess. But since someone added all those esses at the end of my title, I do have some sisterly feelings towards women. I'm not sure how they manage to move in the narrow definitions they are given in so many cultures.

I was treated the same way, of course. The ancient Greeks were no better than today's people. Hera got all the wifely stuff, Aphrodite the sex and Athena the brains. Artemis is the virgin hunter and so on. Not a single whole goddess among them, though the boys got a little diced up, too. I am but a very minor goddess, and that's what probably saved me from these extreme simplifications.

On the other hand, I was given the snakes to rule over. Not people, just snakes. But snakes are not that bad in the long run, and I managed to have my bit of fun. Google me up sometime.

I have thought of taking up Siberian throat-singing. It requires decades of practise, and decades is what I have. Siberian throat-singing sounds absolutely horrible. It must be the next fad in music.

Laurie Anderson is a genius in making new kinds of noises. Her performances are signs of genius, too. I am really very fond of Laurie. She is the goddess of her own realm, and not bad at it all. Not bad at all.

But most music sounds absolutely horrible. Noise of various types. I do admit that I have blind spots, and this is one of them. Or perhaps a deaf spot. But my dislike of The Prairie Home Companion is properly founded in fact and logic.