Taking heart in being part of a decadent majority

It’s odd to feel pleased in reading that we are not, after all, moving in a direction of strong “family values” and good “clean” fun. We are, according to Frank Rich of the NYTimes (Arts&Leisure Section), as decadent and coarse as always, whether we live under a Blue or Red sky. Rich writes:

There’s only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004. Like so many narratives that immediately calcify into our 24/7 media’s conventional wisdom, it is fiction. Everything about the election results – and about American culture itself – confirms an inescapable reality: John Kerry’s defeat notwithstanding, it’s blue America, not red, that is inexorably winning the culture war, and by a landslide. Kerry voters who have been flagellating themselves since Election Day with a vengeance worthy of “The Passion of Christ” should wake up and smell the Chardonnay.

I cannot emphasize how relieved I feel. The idea of Democrats pandering to the Fox-news watching anti-same-sex marriage and stem-cell research banning moral absolutists turned my stomach. It is so heartening to read that, at least according to this commentator, there has been no real shift: nothing has pushed these people into a statistically prominent forefront. They remain a small (albeit vocal) minority.

I’m on a new campaign: let’s lobby for the “old biddies,” shall we?

Is there a person on this planet who hasn’t yet heard that I am 51 years old? I am on a campaign to infuse with pride the adding of deliciously complicated and brimming-with-experience years to one’s log book.

So I was somewhat disheartened to read in the NYTimes today that the Academy is, more than ever, dishing out Oscars to the dishes and I don’t mean of the type you put in your Whirlpool at the end of the day.

It has not always been thus. Even though lovely young things have always gotten their share of Academy accolades, we’ve also had the occasional “mature” stars recognized (Shirley Booth and Jessica Tandy come to mind). But as the article points out, since 1990, only one woman over 50 has won an Oscar and that was for her role as supporting actress (Judi Dench).

Why raise this now? Because the last two movies that I saw featured absolutely sublime performances: Annette Bening (a mere 46) in “Being Julia” and Imelda Staunton (48), absolutely brilliant in “Vera Drake.”

I will not be a happy movie-goer if these two get pushed out by the little ones (Rossum, Moreno, Swank or the cute and loveable little Winslet). Step aside, young things, and give the luminous "older" actresses a chance.