Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-miles!chabot 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 Date-Received: Sun, 27-Oct-85 06:27:56 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 36 > 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.