On Lipstick and Poor Communication.

[dreadedcandiru2]

As we've seen, the Pattersons don't seem to be able to communicate well amongst themselves; either they avoid discussing a potential problem entirely because they insist on not understanding the stakes or they talk around it in the hopes that it will revolve itself. The Housening is the clearest example of this tend; while it's true that April would still have had to give up her stuff and move a couple of blocks away, the whole thing would have been a lot less painful to watch if John didn't go into things convinced that she was going to pitch a fit and be a problem. An honest dialog about a brother with PTSD, a sister-in-law with a need to deny herself the good things in life to give a middle finger to her mother and a grieving martyr older sister would have done wonders to make life better for everyone but it did not happen because John was and is still convinced that April would pout, howl and moan.

It turns out that one of the Lynnsights afforded us an insight as to why this might be. Lynn had gone into great detail about how her mother told her that not only was she too young to wear cosmetics, Ursula's own limited and rarely-used collection was not to be rifled though; her response was to take all of the used-up samples her mother's Avon Lady friend gave her and create a sort of cross between lip-stick and lip-gloss. Upon discovering this little experiment, Mrs Ridgway lectured her about sneaking around and still being a bit young; her buying Lynn a tube of lip gloss to avoid a repeat performance seemed to have the curious side effect of getting Lynn to not wear it because the thrill of the hunt had been spoiled.

This leaves us with two things to have to remind ourselves of. The first thing, of course, is that Lynn is something of an immature twit who loves to see what she can get away with; that means that she can't simply ask for something because she'd be denied the pleasure of being sneaky. The next is that her pet assumption would be proven wrong; after all, she went in assuming that "too young" meant "never" when, as we saw, it meant "if you prove that you want it enough." Rather than admit that she deliberately misread the situation out of a pride so sullen as to be somewhat self-destructive, she turned things around so that it was all on her mother for not telling her something she could have found out if she'd asked.

We can apply this logic to the Housening to see why it is that John feared April's grudging compliance almost as much he did her screaming refusal to turn her life around so he could play with TRAAAAAIIINNNSSSS!!! FOREVER; the douche's refusal to admit that he was being unfair, unfeeling and unkind would have went "CHEE!!!" and defamed her for making him worry over nothing.

Comments

[josephusrex.livejournal.com]

John truly is loathsome. You'd feel sorry for Elly except that he's actually a better deal than she deserved. Still, HE's what Liz wants to marry someone just like? Dear Lord, WHY? Maybe to her "creepy" is sexy; I can't think of any other explanation. Anyway, she got just what she wanted.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

The worst of it, of course, is that the man has no idea what a repulsive churl he is; as you've said before, he's convinced that he's fair-minded, sensitive to the needs of others and an all-around great guy. The truth of the matter, of course, is that he's something that most fathers would have greeted with a semi-automatic rifle and an exhortation to never darken his door again.