![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreadedcandiru2As you might or might not know, Lynn's need to depict token normal people Gordon and Tracey as being immigrants from Hobbiton or something bothers me for a very specific reason. This reason is not just that we're encouraged to think of acting like mature adults instead of overgrown children like the Patterswine as going the extra mile. The fact that Lynn doesn't quite get that Gordon envies Mike for getting a degree attached to his name or that Tracey finds it difficult to relate to the Alyson Creemores and Rhetta Blums because she's the one talking about putting kids through middle school while they're still debating having kids in the first place is also not what bugs me but it comes close. What bothers me is that they have something in common with John and Elly but sort of in reverse. This is because while they're the youngest of the Class of 1994 to have to worry about buying school uniforms so that Elly and Vice Principal Air Conditioner can indulge their prurient need to tyrannize teenagers, John and Elly were the oldest couple in their Lamaze class.
The reason that this irritates me is that being a forty year old in a class full of men much younger than he is is not what freaked John out. It's that he was with all of these pregnant women being encouraged to think of male involvement in the process of childbirth as being somehow normal when everybody knew a man's place was wearing a groove in the carpet waiting to be told what color of novelty cigars to buy. Doing this scary modern thing would be like understanding a woman's discomfort, having the child at home or naming it something trendy and cost him status in the eyes of his peer group. Given that his peer group consisted of drooling jackass Doctor Ted, philandering moron Steve and Greg "Why did Lawrence run off when I called him a disgusting pervert?"" Thomas. it's sort of obvious that we're being asked to have Elly inconvenienced so that a dolt can impress swine.
The reason that this irritates me is that being a forty year old in a class full of men much younger than he is is not what freaked John out. It's that he was with all of these pregnant women being encouraged to think of male involvement in the process of childbirth as being somehow normal when everybody knew a man's place was wearing a groove in the carpet waiting to be told what color of novelty cigars to buy. Doing this scary modern thing would be like understanding a woman's discomfort, having the child at home or naming it something trendy and cost him status in the eyes of his peer group. Given that his peer group consisted of drooling jackass Doctor Ted, philandering moron Steve and Greg "Why did Lawrence run off when I called him a disgusting pervert?"" Thomas. it's sort of obvious that we're being asked to have Elly inconvenienced so that a dolt can impress swine.
