The latest car listen is Gloria Steinem's Revolution from Within. So far,
ick. Her book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions meant a lot to me
when I was college-aged or thereabouts, but I find myself disagreeing with this
one at every turn. I think part of the problem is that most of the research in it
is ten years old, and maybe all that stuff about "reparenting your inner child"
sounded less silly then. Or maybe not.
One problem I have with it is
that he really seems to be pressing all her readers to decide their childhood was
somehow horrid and scarring. Well, mine wasn't. It was far from idyllic, but like
most of life, it had good parts and bad parts. I tend to think my parents were not
especially good at being parents and certainly Mom's temper was on a looser rein
than it should have been, but both of them loved me and tried to do their best for
me. And if they didn't give me everything I needed, at least they helped me
develop the tools to eventually get it for myself. Really, what more can you ask
from fallible humans?
Same in school; my teachers liked me fairly
well, and if I got picked on occasionally, it wasn't the sort of concentrated
scapecoating SWooP's (wonderful and amazing) daughter is currently undergoing from
her (obviously braindead) classmates. And fortunately none of my teachers was ever
*that* oblivious. (Luckily, Herslf does have parents who are more keyed in than
mine were. She's an incredible kid and I only hope she still knows that about
herself after all this is done. Thank goodness fifth grade is
finite.)
I'm sure there are lots of ways in which I still need to
grow, but I don't think my inner child really needs reparenting, or anything more,
really, than to be let out to play on a frequent basis. Fortunately, she and my
outer adult agree firmly on that. 'Scuse me while I go blow some of the bubbles I
keep on my desk.