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Friday, June 18, 2004
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**!! NEW !!**
UD’s REDNECK WOMAN DIARIES David Brooks has an opinion piece in a recent New York Times - “Bitter At the Top” - about a skirmish in the larger culture wars, a “civil war within the educated class” between “two rival elites” that he calls the professionals and the managers. These are all people with plenty of money, influence, and education, but the first group looks sort of like me - and probably you. “Professionals [are] knowledge workers, [and] tend to vote for Democrats,” while “managers…tend to work for corporations, brokerage houses, real estate firms and banks, [and] tend to vote Republican.” “Knowledge-class types,” Brooks continues, “are more likely to value leaders who possess what may be called university skills: the ability to read and digest large amounts of information and discuss their way through to a nuanced solution.” Managers, on the other hand, “are more likely to value leaders whom they see as simple, straight-talking men and women of faith. They prize leaders who are good at managing people, not just ideas. They are more likely to distrust those who seem overly intellectual or narcissistically self-reflective. “ Yeah, well, who gives a shit. Today UD introduces a brand new feature which she calls REDNECK WOMAN DIARIES. A little class diversity is long overdue on this website, and, inspired by her thirteen year old daughter’s current favorite songs (sample lyrics in a sec), UD intends to do something about it. The song “Redneck Woman” is burning up the charts (indeed, the NYT just did an article about its singer/songwriter, Gretchen Wilson) out there in Actual America: Hey I'm a redneck woman And I ain't no high class broad I'm just a product of my raisin' And I say "hey y'all" and "Yee Haw" And I keep my Christmas lights on, on my front porch all year long And I know all the words to every Tanya Tucker song So here's to all my sisters out there keeping it country Let me get a big "Hell Yeah" from the redneck girls like me Hell Yeah Hell Yeah UD’s daughter’s second favorite song - another huge hit - includes these lyrics: Well, I was raised in a sophisticated kind of style. Yeah, my taste in music and women drove my folks half wild. Mom and Dad had a plan for me, It was debutantes and er-symphonies, But I like my music; I like my women wild. Yeah, an' I like my women just a little on the trashy side, When they wear their clothes too tight and their hair is dyed. Too much lipstick an' er too much rouge, Gets me excited, leaves me feeling confused. An' I like my women just a little on the trashy side. And her third favorite - a mad roaring hit - memorializes a “red dirt road” where every significant turning point in the singer’s life occurred: It's where I drank my first beer. It's where I found Jesus. Where I wrecked my first car: I tore it all to pieces. I learned the path to Heaven, Is full of sinners an' believers. Learned that happiness on earth, Ain't just for high achievers. I've learned; I come to know, There's life at both ends, Of that red dirt road. “High-class,” “sophisticated,” “high-achievers.” While UD’s world - at the university, on the blog - worships these words, they are words of derision out there. Let us see what else we can learn of the real world as we occasionally drop in to REDNECK WOMAN DIARIES. |