Whom she will become …

… depends on whom she meets.

Dusk in Autumn asked:

“…if you’re a socially conservative guy who hates bars and nightclubs, would you rather date the Audrey Rouget character from Metropolitan or who she will tend to become at age 30?”

As I wrote here, it looks to me, from her cameo appearance in The Last Days of Disco, as if Audrey Rouget was still dating and dancing in her thirties. If she had married Tom, her life would have been very different, obviously, and so would she.

I am sure my wife is a vastly different woman than she would have been if she had married somebody else, or not married at all. I rather suspect men underestimate the profound effect they have on the life and ultimate character of women. Here is a post by Silas Reinagel which touches on this point, and mentions a post by the female blogger Alte, which is unfortunately no longer available, on women as “empty vessels”.

As Silas wrote:

“Not only do women generally absorb opinions, interests and mannerisms from their boyfriends/husbands, but their knowledgeability and competence regarding such hobbies, interests and stances are directly correlated with the knowledgeability and competence of their men. This lends even more support to the idea that men are naturally hard-wired to be dominant leaders and that women are hard-wired to follow, learn from, and support their men.”

ADDENDUM:

Will S found the original post by Alte using the Wayback Machine, which includes many comments by her readers. There is an interesting discussion about WHY women tend to change to accomodate their “main man”.

It is terribly important who is a woman’s first. There is a deep truth to the recent, otherwise creepy, pro-Obama advertisement targetting young women, which is parodied here.

To return to the film Metropolitan, a lot of the dramatic point of the movie is whether Audrey’s “first time” will be with the evil Rick or maybe the more decent and enduring Tom. The thoughtful Charlie character actually frets that Audrey will be “ruined” by Rick, in the same way as he has “ruined” other girls.

FURTHER ADDENDUM

I thought this comment from a woman was worth adding:

“This was the danger of giving women the vote … the voting bloc of single women … who lack the guidance of a man in the form of a husband or intellectual mentor.”

I don’t think Australian women have made too much of a hash of voting. But the hysterical reaction from our local feminists as our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, continues to perform poorly has made me reconsider.