Prepare for Thanksgiving week by listening to Public Radio! WHYY has an episode this week on families that includes me, which at least in the recorded bit was me arguing that human families are best looked at as social constructs, rather than predestined genetic assemblies. I’m not sure what parts the edited version retains, because I haven’t listened to it yet. I really can’t stand listening to myself. (Those YouTube videos I’ve been making are killing me, because I have to listen to me in order to edit them, which is one reason I’m late making another one. Editing my voice makes me cringe.)
Unfortunately, for Thanksgiving, two thirds of my children are too far away, and too busy with babies, to share a table with their feeble old parents. But on Wednesday I’m fetching my oldest boy and forcing him to comfort us in our dotage for a day. I’ll make a big ol’ Thanksgiving dinner, but he’s the kid who doesn’t eat. Skin and bones he is, I’ll have to nag him to put on a few ounces.
PZ’s portion is ~18:00 – 22:00
Four minutes? It was a half-hour interview. I wonder which bits they kept.
Definitely social constructs. For most of human history you often lost a father to a war or other accident or plague, and a mother in childbirth – along with half the children. A “family” was a cluster of survivors.
The American nuclear family is a classist imagining of an idealized wealthy victorian family, and it’s about as realistic as Narnia: the housemom who vacuums in high heels and pearls and the pater familias who works for a defense/industrial business and is a 9-5er. “Mad Men” (the show) was more like it, but the American nuclear family looked more like coal miners in “Matewan”
Aren’t there societies where the men live in one building and the women live in another? No nuclear families there.
I’ve been arguing for ages now that family is built on love, not DNA.
As another person who hates my recorded voice (I think I sound dopey and talk too fast), I just wanted to say that your speaking voice, to those of us who are not you, is calming and pleasant.
You can all watch Tokyo Story together.
I’ve got to work that day–the pitfalls of being employed by a 24/7 call center. I’ll be home for dinner, but I’ll be spending that with my Right Wing, Catholic father, his equally assume friends. Then this weekend I have to put in 10 hours of mandatory overtime to help with the flood of potential debit card fraud that Black Friday will generate. At least I have off on Sunday, which is my Birthday.
Your voice sounds great to me. Is there filtering that would assist. Ideally filter to subtitles so you’d not have to listen at all!
jack16