One of the scary things about getting older is watching other people, who used to be younger and groovier than yourself, age and settle into the sclerotic patterns of unexamined privilege and rightwing attitudes.
In the 90s, as a thirtysomething, I used to listen admiringly to Helen vocalising volubly on 3-RRR Triple J with Mikey Robins. I have a weakness for people who write hilarious, OTT rants full of subordinate clauses, tangents, abstruse words and the occasional runon sentence – Twisty and Tiger Beatdown, Elizabeth Farrelly sometimes. That’s a clumsy attempt to describe what I liked about Helen on the radio. As a thirtysomething in the 90s, I heard her as the voice of younger and hipper people.
So who took away that Helen and replaced her with Christina Hoff Sommers?
I respect Helen’s childfree status – but she doesn’t, it seems, respect others. And all that boilerplate anti-Greens shit? “Hippies”/naive/”ancient-grains”/”patchouli” – it’s a wonder there’s no reference to hemp or Volvos there, but you get the incredibly original and edgy jokey references that have never been made before, don’t you?
And the idea that she once voted Green because she was perimenopausal, and therefore unable to make a rational decision, is really special. Of course, that could be taken to mean that childfree women are equally unfit for Parliament because they’re all stark raving bonkers once they reach the median age for the MPs there. That just explains why no-one should employ a woman over forty to do anything, anywhere. Good one Helen! Seems there’s really no life stage in which we can expect to share in the democratic process!
Seems the spirit of backlash antifeminism has claimed another writing soul. And it seems in the MSM as it is today, that kind of writing is well rewarded. The punters love it – so maybe Razer has just made a rational decision, despite the dreaded perimenopause. It’s sad for us fans, though.
Crossposted
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{ 9 comments }
You taught me a new word! Abstruse, I had to look it up. Am totally using in next uni essay.
Nooooooooooooo!
Used to love her. Now I must settle for loving your post title.
Also, the ranty thing you describe is why I still miss Backberner.
Oops, confused JJJ with RRR – now fixed (H/T to commenter Gee on my blog.)
Rebekka, I hope I used it correctly! (Must revisit and check!)And isn’t there some kind of word for using an adjective that describes itself?
Orlando, that is a family thing when someone is behaving a little too much like their parent, for instance, or some other family member – “Spirit of [whoever] Leave Your Body!”
Funny you should mention Farrelly, I’ve always thought she’s a fellow settler-down in PP McGuinness’s self-congratulatory valley of folk wisdom and stereotypy. Here’s the conversation commenter fuckpoliteness and I had last year about her schtick.
Elizabeth Farrelly is like Germs – half the time I’m saying “Right on, Liz!” and the other half I’m scratching my head and saying “What??!?” Maybe not exactly half and half, but you get the idea.
Some of the time, too, she can get into the incomprehensible range , but that may be my reading skills as opposed to her riting good or not.
Helen, was definitely correct on my reading – I looked it up in the dictionary because I hadn’t seen it before!
Rockin’ title for this post, Helen. And I concur with you on the Razer bizzo.
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