Why Can't a Woman be More Like a Man?
Lyrics, A Hymn to Him Lyrics >>
For some reason (I sincerely don't know why) this song just popped into my head. I googled and found the lyrics linked above, and it hit me that if My Fair Lady were written to day, Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering would have ended the play as gay lovers. Look at some of these lyrics:
Men are so pleasant, so easy to please;Whenever you are with them, you're always at ease.
...
Well, why can't a woman be like you?
...
But by and large we are a marvelous sex!
Why can't a woman take after like a man?
Cause men are so friendly, good natured and kind.
A better companion you never will find.
...
Men are so decent, such regular chaps.
Now, the real point of the song is probably summed up in the last line, as Higgins reveals who his true love really is:
Why can't a woman be like me?
I have a hunch (and I'm not going to bother to Google to prove or disprove it) that there are any number of "scholarly" articles examining this song, and the play as a whole for homosexual undertones.
However, those undertones most likely spring from George Bernard Shaw's misogynism which was a significant part of the plot of his play
Pygmalion, on which My Fair Lady was based. I wrote a paper on high school on Shaw's hatred of women as made evident in both Pygmalion and Man and Superman. (Contrary to what they once said on Cheers, that's not the one where Superman battles the Mole People.) While apparently heterosexual, Shaw, like most socialists and progressives, had a negative opinion of people, especially women. (He did, however, advocate equal political rights for women. Also like most socialists and progressives, he had a high opinion of himself.) In a foreword or afterword (I can't remember which) to an edition of Pygmalion I read as a kid, he argued against changing the ending of Pygmalion, where Eliza chooses to marry Freddy, rather than Higgins, because, Shaw argued, women were mercenary about marriage and therefore Eliza would choose the more financially secure and socially prominent Freddy over Higgins. Many, if not most, adaptations and performances, most prominently My Fair Lady, have indeed changed the ending to have Eliza choose Higgins.
I guess if there's a point to this post, and it's certainly not where I started writing, it's to emphasize that, for all their claims to the contrary, socialists, progressives and others of the Left, really do hate people and that's likely why they're so eager to have government (of course led by the Left, who somehow escape their otherwise global condemnation of humanity) control them.
Unfortunately, The Office was a major disappointment. One of the mistakes the show makes on occasion is allowing Michael Scott to go too far over the edge and last night was no exception. Also, the descent of Jan from level-headed career woman in a complete psycho loony (let me know if the terms are too technical) has been unconvincing and to the detriment of the show. She was a better match/foil for Michael when she was his superior in intellect and maturity whereas now you have to wonder why he's settling for her. (Taking her back because of the implants was amusing and could have lasted a few episodes, but it's gone on too long, and too implausibly.
Scrubs was the other big return I was awaiting last night, and this one did not disappoint me. The characters were back to their old selves. Turk deciding not to tell Carla about his understanding Spanish was hilarious, as was Cox revealing it to get them to leave him alone. Cox was petty, childish, selfish and just the way we love him. It seems like they're setting up JD and Elliott to get back together (yet again) by the end of the series. It still seems to me that if Turk hadn't married and had a child with Carla, the perfect ending of the show would be for JD and Turk to realize they were meant for each other. While that does violate my religious sympathies and decent morality, it's a work of fiction. (As we used to repeatedly a former coworker: "TV. Not real." Yeah, it would be bad, but it would complete the characters' arcs in a completely appropriate in-series way.) The other subplots were also entertaining, and it was one of their best episodes in a while.