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From: chabot@miles.DEC
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Heroes
Message-ID: <1061@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 17:03:15 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1061
Posted: Fri Oct 25 17:03:15 1985
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> It makes you wonder what the definition of a "successful" and admirable
> woman is.  I can't agree that traditionally women "had" to attract a man
> to be "successful"; Kate Hepburn certainly didn't, and I'm sure that a
> goodly number of "traditional" women and men answered the poll.  That is,
> not only "feminists" voted for her; many holders of "traditional views"
> had to have as well....
 
Uuuhhhhh: two points.

First, traditionally women had not only to attract a man, but to keep him.
(Yep, I know that having your wife run off wasn't considered very complimentary
to a man, either; I can't weigh the relative importance of one side's woes over
another.)

Second, there is the wide-spread dirt about Hepburn and Tracy.  It's probably
the result of fans trying to carry the magic of those two on screen on and on,
and imagining that they acted that way in real life.  And combine that with
envy and a lack of imagination about a professional relationship between
Hepburn and Tracy and a lack of imagination about Hepburn being happy with
a single life.  What woman would!  Poor dear, a tragic love affair--that we
can understand.  (The reason they couldn't marry was because he couldn't get
a divorce for religious reasons.)

Maybe many of us were unaware of this gossip, but I have reason to believe it
was more widely whispered among people of my mother's generation, and I do
know that in an interview of a year or so ago, the interviewer actually had
the gall to ask Hepburn if the love affair gossip was true. Who cares!
Hepburn had the class to talk vaguely about Tracy's acting style.

I don't like besmirching people's reputations by spreading this nonsense, but
I brought it up to point out that many people do think that Hepburn did
attract a man, and so they may think she did conform to the traditional role
closer.  Or maybe they just had to think that.