Sunday, April 19, 2020

Politics

Bald eagles have brown heads when young; so when they fly in the wrong territory, adult eagles give them a pass. Although I started working at 16, it wasn't until I started working in earnest during my twenties that I became acquainted with workplace politics. During a brief time when I worked for a non-profit after I retired from teaching; I discovered another area of politics and that is the female power structure.

Suddenly, I learned why all my co-worker friends were usually male. I had a few female friends. I thought it was because I grew up with brothers and lived in a largely male neighborhood. Add to that, my mother was a tomboy and her mother was also a tomboy. Well we are three generations of feminine tomboys.

I was never good at "brown nosing" so I gave up on that quite early more due to ineptitude than from a nobler motive. I went to a fortune teller who told me that I was not a follower or a leader. And you know that is true.

I always followed my father's advice. Do a good job at work. They have to keep so many that can do the job. My big thing as a teacher was I was not picky about who they placed in my classroom. A principal may not care for you but they do appreciate that you will not complain about or expect them to discipline an unruly student. I always considered a difficult child job insurance.

What makes me think of politics would have made a good post for I which is Intrigue. I watched the movie about Queen Anne called "The Favorite". The movie was not good, nor did I enjoy the liberties it took with it's description of any of the people in that historical period. It was supposed to be a comedy. So you guessed it, it had a lot of references to lesbian sex involving the three characters.

I didn't laugh at anything. This is where I know I am a different generation. There was a movie that I have forgotten the name of that was a comedy that I did not find funny at all.

Historically Lady Marlborough fell out of favor with Queen Anne in that she brought to court a bawdy poem that implied Queen Anne was having a lesbian relationship with Lady Marlborough's rival, Abigail Hill. Lady Marlborough, Sarah Jennings Churchill, was a childhood friend of Queen Ann. Lady Marlborough was five years older than the Queen. Abigail Hill Marsham was five years younger than the Queen. The jealousy was based on Power. Lady Marlborough had a lot of influence on Queen Anne which she was losing. Lady Marlborough was a Whig and Queen Anne had Tory sympathies.

The irony is Lady Marlborough's bawdy poem which was meant to intimidate the Queen led to her dismissal. And in a movie, she is portrayed as a lesbian as well as the Queen and Abigail Hill Masham.

When I watched the movie, I looked on the Internet about the three women. Lady Marlborough lived the longest and became the wealthiest. She was very aggressive.

Besides just not thinking the screenplay was that good; what bothered me was the portrayal of all three women as either, witchy, petty, cunning and other stereotypes of women in leadership.


Juvenile Bald Eagle (head)
Juvenile Bald Eagle =Michael Gäbler / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Bald eagle at the Hawk Conservancy Trust 2-2
Adult Bald Eagle - Lewis Hulbert / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

8 comments:

  1. I was glad I worked from home all the years I did. I didn't have to deal with office politics. That movie seemed a bit interesting; not sure I would have pursued watching it though.

    betty

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    1. I watched it using my satellite service. What a disappointment. My dad always said if a movie was promoted too much that it was sure to be a loser. And this movie was lame.

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  2. I have always referred to the brown nose brigade as possessing 'suck skills for success'. Not one of my talents.
    Sadly the media portrayal of powerful women infuriates me. We are shrill, we are strident, we are too many things...

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    1. I seen some of the brown nose brigade fall out of favor and actually felt compassion for them. When they fall, it is never pretty. I'm waiting on Trump's crew to turn on him. It will happen. The big question is when.

      Hillary Clinton lost the last election by who did not bother to vote which was men. We got a long way to go. Ironic in that female led countries are doing the best with Covid.

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  3. Your Dad sounds like mine did, if you are going to do a job, do it properly or not all. As for comedy I find most of it stupid and not in the slightest bit funny. I did used to enjoy good old English comedy but that seems to have faded out as well.
    I always worked for small companies mostly with vets and office politics was never really noticeable

    Keep well and stay safe, Diane

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    1. My favorite comedy are the madcap British comedies. I think it is just cheaper to go for scatological humor or that R rating.

      I wish I knew less about politics.

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  4. "A difficult child job insurance," I love that! Not that you should have to deal with it, but your acceptance of the challenge ;-)

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  5. Neither work in an office nor work as a teacher were for me great joys. There's office politics and childrens' lack of discipline that make the two jobs quite difficult.

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