l***@yahoo.com
2014-09-20 20:05:58 UTC
I was thinking of the classic storyline of Linus' horror at finding
that Miss Othmar....gets PAID for teaching! (For those who don't
remember, he convinces himself she's giving the money back. :) )
It appears in The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962. Does anyone know if
Schulz invented that story or was it based on a real child's experience?
Anyway, I suddenly remembered the parallel between that story and
a Miss Manners Dec. 1987 column on women who work for pay. Enjoy!
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19871218&id=XP1NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2776,3661487
Dear Miss Manners-I would like your opinion on how to show appreciation
for services rendered by the very helpful staff-two secretaries, a
head maintenance man and two or three maintenance men under him-at
the fairly large complex in which I rent an apartment.
The custom of the few people I know is to give something at holiday
time. They give $10 each to the men and cookies to the women. I wonder
how many cookies the women can eat. And why the sex difference? One
person said he gave money to the men and gift certificates to the women.
Gentle Reader-Money for men and cookies for women? And where are the
smelling salts for poor Miss Manners, who has just fallen over in a heap?
She would have thought that the practice of treating workers according
to their gender would have been stamped out by now. But your horrifying
example illustrates how deeply ingrained is the misunderstanding on
which this is based.
It may even be that the ``gift certificates`` one person gave the
women were equal in value to the cash he gave the men. That still
wouldn`t make it right.
The distinction is based on the idea that it is not quite nice to
give women money. And why is that? Because people have long held the
myth, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that women
properly belong only in the social realm (where there is plenty of
work, but without wages), while men divide their lives between that
and the workaday world (where money is the chief measure of achievement).
The fact that poor women worked for whatever money they could get
since the world began did not interfere with this idea, but Miss
Manners thought that the influx into the market of women from all
levels might have.
In the social world, money is a crass present. It means you have no
idea what your friend would enjoy. In the business world, it is
inappropriate to try to guess how an employee would enjoy having
the money spent.
Miss Manners urges you to give cash bonuses to all of these valued
workers. If you can't bear to hand money to a woman, by all means
put it in an envelope.
(end)
Lenona.
that Miss Othmar....gets PAID for teaching! (For those who don't
remember, he convinces himself she's giving the money back. :) )
It appears in The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962. Does anyone know if
Schulz invented that story or was it based on a real child's experience?
Anyway, I suddenly remembered the parallel between that story and
a Miss Manners Dec. 1987 column on women who work for pay. Enjoy!
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19871218&id=XP1NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2776,3661487
Dear Miss Manners-I would like your opinion on how to show appreciation
for services rendered by the very helpful staff-two secretaries, a
head maintenance man and two or three maintenance men under him-at
the fairly large complex in which I rent an apartment.
The custom of the few people I know is to give something at holiday
time. They give $10 each to the men and cookies to the women. I wonder
how many cookies the women can eat. And why the sex difference? One
person said he gave money to the men and gift certificates to the women.
Gentle Reader-Money for men and cookies for women? And where are the
smelling salts for poor Miss Manners, who has just fallen over in a heap?
She would have thought that the practice of treating workers according
to their gender would have been stamped out by now. But your horrifying
example illustrates how deeply ingrained is the misunderstanding on
which this is based.
It may even be that the ``gift certificates`` one person gave the
women were equal in value to the cash he gave the men. That still
wouldn`t make it right.
The distinction is based on the idea that it is not quite nice to
give women money. And why is that? Because people have long held the
myth, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that women
properly belong only in the social realm (where there is plenty of
work, but without wages), while men divide their lives between that
and the workaday world (where money is the chief measure of achievement).
The fact that poor women worked for whatever money they could get
since the world began did not interfere with this idea, but Miss
Manners thought that the influx into the market of women from all
levels might have.
In the social world, money is a crass present. It means you have no
idea what your friend would enjoy. In the business world, it is
inappropriate to try to guess how an employee would enjoy having
the money spent.
Miss Manners urges you to give cash bonuses to all of these valued
workers. If you can't bear to hand money to a woman, by all means
put it in an envelope.
(end)
Lenona.