ladies of the red hat society
dear friends,
terrific piece in the new york times today about the ladies of the red hat society. i first encountered them at a parade in port rowan, ontario canada. they were in full regalia shouting "we are women over fifty, all we do is really nifty". now, at the time i was with three of my best girls, and the fourth had just gotten married. i could see each of us as members of the red hat society. mandy would have to have the largest hat. hez would make her own hat. self's kids would make her a hat at school. l-dot would have a fancy-pants lawyer's salary hat. i am not sure what kind of hat i would have, but you can't study social capital without really believing it. at the time i suggested we start our own club, with the slogan "we are women under thirty, all we do is really dirty". but we're nice girls and it didn't fit.
a sociologist friend of mine always says that he thinks sociology and particualarly ethnography is like really in depth journalism. i think that is partially true, and i would certainly love to study these women. but the difference between journalism and sociology is that in journalism you try to appeal to normal people. in sociology you have to appeal to the mixed nuts that are po-mos, quantoid-nerdzos, thick descriptionists, thin discriptionists, rational-choosers etc. not to mention, these people are often socially awkward and have no idea what happens outside of leacock (er, i mean the social sciences building of their university).
it is not that terrible of course, but it is of course a question of framing the problem. something i have been thinking a lot about since my conversation about with the homeschooling scholar, who spoke candidly about people thinking it was cute, but not academically interesting and his subsequent difficulty publishing. the whole thing was very reminiscent of my cwl project. not something i am keen to repeat.
anyway, red hats= awesome even if it is all a little too oprah book club,
cam
terrific piece in the new york times today about the ladies of the red hat society. i first encountered them at a parade in port rowan, ontario canada. they were in full regalia shouting "we are women over fifty, all we do is really nifty". now, at the time i was with three of my best girls, and the fourth had just gotten married. i could see each of us as members of the red hat society. mandy would have to have the largest hat. hez would make her own hat. self's kids would make her a hat at school. l-dot would have a fancy-pants lawyer's salary hat. i am not sure what kind of hat i would have, but you can't study social capital without really believing it. at the time i suggested we start our own club, with the slogan "we are women under thirty, all we do is really dirty". but we're nice girls and it didn't fit.
a sociologist friend of mine always says that he thinks sociology and particualarly ethnography is like really in depth journalism. i think that is partially true, and i would certainly love to study these women. but the difference between journalism and sociology is that in journalism you try to appeal to normal people. in sociology you have to appeal to the mixed nuts that are po-mos, quantoid-nerdzos, thick descriptionists, thin discriptionists, rational-choosers etc. not to mention, these people are often socially awkward and have no idea what happens outside of leacock (er, i mean the social sciences building of their university).
it is not that terrible of course, but it is of course a question of framing the problem. something i have been thinking a lot about since my conversation about with the homeschooling scholar, who spoke candidly about people thinking it was cute, but not academically interesting and his subsequent difficulty publishing. the whole thing was very reminiscent of my cwl project. not something i am keen to repeat.
anyway, red hats= awesome even if it is all a little too oprah book club,
cam
posted by Ms. Cam at 09:34
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