The same message for women in the media - be pretty!

I just watched a Chevrolet commercial on television. The message of the spot (besides selling Chevrolets) was that parents are role models. However, most of the adults in the ad were men who were going about town, meeting other men, presumably doing business and enjoying the day, while the sole woman in the ad is shown putting on lipstick in the mirror while her small daughter helps her. Underlying message, women-your job is to look pretty and that message is being passed on to the young girl in the ad. How far women have come! Look at the women's magazines from the 1960's and 1970's. They were overrun with articles about looks, taking care of your skin, aging well, keeping the weight off and pleasing your man. Fast forward to today's magazines and a quick perusal of the magazine rack shows articles for woman about aging well, beauty tips, losing weight and pleasing your man. Yep, we've come a long way, baby. While watching the Queen Latifah show, I listened to a young female performer talk about how important the inside was and then followed that by talking about how long it took to get made up in the morning. "I don't look like this when I get up." I am tired of the message that the media sends out to the universe that the most important thing a woman can do is look pretty, that her value is directly related to having a man, that single women who are independent and are not in a relationship are not complete and must be unhappy and unfulfilled. Not every woman is meant to be a mother. Freud was wrong, biology is NOT destiny. So why hasn't the media changed their message? Or have we come so far and changed so little? Why are so many women reluctant to identify themselves as "feminist" and reject the message of job equality and equal pay? It worries me that women still are reluctant to see themselves as complete individuals. And the media still reinforces the generations old image of women as decoration pieces in a world run by men.

Battling Comcast!

Why do I feel like I am preparing for battle when I have to call one of my service providers like Comcast? I know I will be put on hold way too often. I know that I will probably have a hard time understanding at least one or more of them because of an accent and bad connection. I know that I will have to repeat my information a million times before I get anyone who can help. I have also learned that I must save everything I purchase from them online, either save the page or save a picture of the information to your clipboard and paste it into Word. I don't blame the customer representatives. They have to do a job like anyone else but I do blame the culture of screw the consumer unless or until he/she can provide proof of something. I had my bill amount changed by Comcast. When I called, I was told my promo was only for six months. I had spoken to four different people and felt I was going nowhere so I hung up. Lucky for me, I had saved the promo from November on my computer that I purchased. It said 12 months. So I called back and again, had to go through three people, giving my information to each one. Finally some person in loyalty said I had been signed up for the wrong package and would take care of it. He then said he would email me confirmation of our conversation. (By the way, I tried a recording app on my phone to record the conversation but their end is blocked out - REMINDER TO SELF: get an old fashioned mp3 recorder device for future) I am waiting for that confirmation. He asked for my email so I hope to get it. We shall see. In total, I spent 45 minutes on the phone and lost an hour of my time fighting for what I had originally agreed to. I know my bill is lower now but, I am almost tempted at then end of the year to go back to DirecTV, which was a pain to try and cancel. DirecTV didn't want to let me go. It was like a divorce, "NO! Don't leave us!" And all the deals they offered would have been great before I had decided to cancel. So why can't these cable, Internet, phone, etc. companies give us the best prices BEFORE we threaten to leave? And why can't they continue to give us the best deals just for being their customers? It feels like services don't care about us once they have us on the hook. "You know those people; they will put up with anything!" so says the service company. Only stepping in to save our account when we are at a breaking point. Service companies! Wake up. Why all the complaints online and elsewhere??? Because you treat your BEST customers, your regular customers, long-time customers like crap! Comcast has one of the lowest customer satisfaction rating. But do they care? Not that I can see it. I would love it if, for once, one of these companies said, "Hey, you have been a good, long-time customer. Here's a discount." I am not holding my breath on that one. But a customer can dream... UPDATE: Yes, I got a confirmation email which is confusing but looks like I got the right price and package this time. Of course, the email was sent to the wrong address. The service person had asked what email address to send the confirmation to and I gave him the one I use. Wouldn't you know, he sent it to the old address anyway. Why ask what address I want to use when you aren't going to listen anyway? Oh well, I hope the price will be the right one on my next bill. We will see...