Sorry, my friends, to sound so mean.
The "girl-within" is supp- osed to be sweet, kind, gentle, dreamy. But even if it happens only once, every twelve months, somebody has to pour out a bucketful of c.old, merciless realism, just to remind ourselves that the world is not entirely made of pretty clouds and blue skies.. there's also mud and hard pavements under our feet. What I cannot understand is that we all know what we should try to achieve. We know how vital proper posture, gestures, walk, voice inflection are. Many TV's at least try to improve. It is not easy, we all know that. So much so, that society has even established "Finishing schools" for Gee-Gees ("G.G." is an expression which I like better than the RG tag. "GG" Genetic Gal. This is more scientific sounding, more impressive perhaps, than RG. "Real Girl doesnot convey what it should inasmuch as many of us, Susanna among them, consider ourselves quite "real"-imperfect, true, but still real. Moreover, "GG" sounds cuter.) These Finishing Schools" prove that even "G. G's" can stand a few lessons in posture, gestures, walk and voice production. So if they need them, imagine how much more WE need lessons and practice and rehearsing and crit- icism!!!! The problem is that anytime I feel like assuming the role of a teacher (which I am not, for the simple reason that I'm still going to school and have a lot to go before I can even hope to gradu- ate) the target of my friendly, constructive criticism will, in many cases, stab me with a condescending smile which says: Susanna you are a jealous, mean, catty, intolerant conceited, vain, insufferably egotistical female-animal-that- barks...
So, all I can do is shut my somewhat-big mouth and peck out on the typewriter all these incredible, unrealistic fantasies of criticism that could not possibly fit the perfect status achieved by some of my TV friends.
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Any more bones to pick as we start the New Year? Yes indeed! Some TV's seem to be a bit confused when they talk about Full Person- ality Expression. The way they see it is that when "the girl-within' is expressing herself there should be no attempt to curb the man- with- in" from expressing himself at the same time! After all--they say-- why can't she smoke a cigar if he feels like it? Why shouldn't she get involved in a heated argument about the superiority of Joe Louis vs. Sonny Liston? That, to me, is making an unholy mess of every- thing. I feel we must keep the two facets apart, wide apart, as far away as possible. If we allow "him" to express himself through "her" then we are going to create a horrible caricature which is neither fish nor fowl. Or should she" sneak in some of her traits when "he" is around. I'm afraid his reputation won't be worth a plug nickel around the office. That is why, whether it is scientifically correct
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