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.