Monday, October 08, 2007

Is Kate Mulvey Sophisticated?

An article in the London Times yesterday by Kate Mulvey set me off. After going nonlinear for about ten paragraphs, I kept thinking about her assertions throughout the day. I went back and read some more of her writings and found those assertions are a theme with her. To give you the short version, they are these.

1. Men make dating decisions almost exclusively based on looks. She, as an intelligent woman, can't get a break when it comes to romance.

2. As a single, professional woman of about 40 years of age, she is well-travelled, knows lots of languages and is professionally accomplished. In short, she is sophisticated.

The first one is easy to deal with. I'm her contemporary. She's wrong. See my previous ravings for the details.

It took me a while, but it's the second assertion that really got to me. What does it mean to be sophisticated and why does that fit her better than, say, any of the moms at my kids' school? Here's a good definition of the term from Merriam-Webster.
Sophisticated - having a refined knowledge of the ways of the world cultivated especially through wide experience
Let's do a quick comparison of Kate with a generic mom at my daughter's school. First, we go to Kate's strengths.

Kate: Has had martinis in a Paris nightclub.
Mom: Is similarly capable of consuming mildly toxic liquids in dim light.
Advantage: Even

Sophisticated?

Kate: Can speak 5 languages.
Mom: Can speak two at most.
Advantage: Kate

Kate: Has a college degree.
Mom: Has a college degree or an equal amount of real world learning.
Advantage: Even

Kate: Has experienced lots and lots of men.
Mom: Knows how to keep one man for a long time.
Advantage: Mom

Kate: Is at the top of her profession, writing for the London Times.
Mom: Is at the top of her profession, raising a decent human being.
Advantage: Even

Now let's go to the mom's strengths.

Kate: Has managed to go into work with a hangover.
Mom: Has managed to function with no sleep after caring for a sick child all night.
Advantage: Mom

Kate: Can get pate de foie gras stains out of a silk dress.
Mom: Can get mustard stains off a shag carpet.
Advantage: Even

Not sophisticated?

Kate: Sneers at her date when he can't keep up with her shift from one language to another.
Mom: Can negotiate a truce between 11-year-old girls having a cat fight at a birthday party.
Advantage: Mom

Kate: Earns lots of money for herself which she can spend on travel, clothes and partying with various men.
Mom: Knows how to stretch a budget to cover the needs of a family.
Advantage: Mom

The final score is...
Mom: 4
Kate: 1

Seriously, though, when did we decide that the single, 40-year-old playgirl was sophisticated and the mom was not? If you go back and read through Kate's writings and those of her peers on the London Times' lifestyle pages, their prose is suffused with that concept. One author even suggested that an affair was a good way to regain her youth. Such suggestions go on forever. They're so sophisticated, you see.

Hardly.

6 comments:

madamspud169 said...

I think I'd rather be an "unsophisticated" mum with all that goes with it than a shallow, obviously self obsessed woman who is quite frankly old enough to know better. Yes, her life may be fun at the moment but when she looks back on her life I hope she will be able to think her life had a point & was worth while. As a mother I can honestly say that.

Kelly the little black dog said...

A neurotic self-absorbed woman looking for rich boy toys - can't image why she can't find a relationship. ;)

Strangely I've run into this sort of mind set a lot in the NYT. Something about the big city does this to women.

ligneus said...

This kind of sophistication is simply being a make believe adult.

Wollf Howlsatmoon said...

Argh, right back at ya. Kate Mulvey can kiss my furry behind.

Me, I've always been the "boring", non-sophisticate, (see my last post), and it seems my soon to be ex wanted more the playboy.

I repeat.
Argh.

Anonymous said...

If you spend a few moments looking up Kate Mulvey's articles, you will quickly realize that they are all about the same subject...herself!!! I have never come across such a boring, self-obsessed fool as her. "My year in a village"' "I'll never have a baby", "My view on dating", "How come my friends are married and I'm not?", "My facelift", "Me, me, and yet more me", etc etc blah blah blah. Christ almighty, she's even more into herself than Madonna! what an egomaniac. Note to self... avoid Kate Mulvey articles like the plague, total waste of time.

Anonymous said...

I know her, she is not sophis.. she is plain rude and expects privileges everywhere she goes only because she writes some rubbish in a newspaper...