I do not have television right now. Last night I got together with my friend (and old roommate – wrote an essay about her here<\/a>) – and we caught up. It has been a while. Also, I lived with her for almost 9 years – We are used to being “caught up” with each other on a daily and intimate level along the lines of “Oooh, you got your eyebrows waxed!” Or “I had this crazy dream last night…” Or “Let me read you the email I just got from that guy we met a couple nights ago…”<\/p>\n So seeing each other once every couple of weeks is quite disconcerting. Now we have to do big catch-ups. How’s your life, are you dating anyone, how’s your show going, how is your family?<\/p>\n We are still not used to it.<\/p>\n We hung out in her candlelit apartment, we talked, we rolled about roaring with laughter. Nobody makes me laugh like Jen. And her laugh! I know you haven’t met her and all, and maybe you have someone in your life who you THINK has the best laugh – but you haven’t heard Jen’s laugh!<\/p>\n And then – we watched television.<\/p>\n Jen admitted to me in a shamefaced way that she is addicted to “The Apprentice”, the new reality show, starring Donald Trump. Jen is a discerning person, Jen has good taste, but Jen has succumbed. And after watching “The Apprentice” with her, I can see why. Now I’M addicted.<\/p>\n It was odd – I was absolutely entranced by the television. By the commercials. It was hypnotic. Jen surfed around, channel to channel, and I watched, agog. So weird. In a way, I’m glad I don’t have TV because my time would be taken up at night, surfing around for hours. But I am sorry that I missed Howard Dean’s “AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH” speech. (I loved Jane Galt’s description of comments overheard the next day about the speech<\/a>. I loved the one guy who said, “What does this say? He’s angry and he’s got an atlas.”)<\/p>\n I couldn’t take my eyes off the television. I drank in the images.<\/p>\n And within 2 seconds, I got COMPLETELY sucked into “The Apprentice”.<\/p>\n The thrust of this episode was that they would all be challenged on negotiating techniques. They all had assignments: get golf clubs for THIS price, get your legs waxed for THIS price … The two teams (split up between men and women) raced around the city, trying to get these vendors to come down in their prices.<\/p>\n Although the women did win the challenge, (they crushed the guys) I was completely disgusted by what they resorted to. These are business women, these are professional women, and they resorted to little-girl pleading techniques – One assignment was they had to get squid at a certain price, and one of the women showed the fish vendor her concave belly, ostensibly to say “I’m so hungry, look how hungry I am!” But what it really was was a flirtatious gesture. She was showing some SKIN to get what she wanted.<\/p>\n And the guys, meanwhile, were using more recognizably corporate negotiating techniques – and not having as much luck.<\/p>\n I found it gross. Demeaning. And it was even worse (or more telling) that the girls WON with that shit. Only one of them did not use her sexuality to get what she wanted. She basically talked the golf-club seller down, telling him what HE would get out of it, making it seem like HE was winning.<\/p>\n I was proud of her. I was proud of my SEX at that moment. I was embarrassed to be a woman watching that other shit. But ah, what an irony: they won the challenge. They crushed the guys. So I suppose flashing your skin during a negotiation is acceptable. I wonder how that would work if you were trying to negotiate a deal with a corporation.<\/p>\n “Oh, come on, PLEASE give us what we want! Look at my underwear!! Aren’t my panties so cute???”<\/p>\n Listen to how much I am talking about this. I am a goofball. I do not have television. I found the entire thing completely captivating.<\/p>\n Afterwards, Jen and I discussed the show, as seriously as if it were Tolstoy.<\/p>\n It was a blast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I do not have television right now. Last night I got together with my friend (and old roommate – wrote an essay about her here) – and we caught up. It has been a while. Also, I lived with her … Continue reading