Holly Golightly again

Okay, it's Friday again and back to the subject of whether or not Holly Golightly played a part in founding modern womanhood.

I think the easiest way to establish this is true is simply to outline her life and values:

• Holly flees marriage made early to seek greater freedom in the city.
• She clearly believes that she is entitled to a certain amount of fun and party going before she settles down.
• Her face and body are her fortune.
• She is attracted to fashion and expensive living.
• Ultimately, she hopes to meet a man of some means who will marry her and support her.

Sound familiar? It ought to because that is Carrie Bradshaw and those are the values of hundreds of thousands of young women who live in major cities across North America.

And it's worth noting that Holly Golightly is not a hooker. She accepts gifts from gentleman but there is no quid pro quo in the deal. The possibility of sex is clearly on offer but she accepts the gifts from gentleman unconditionally.

Again, that is what you see in major cities everywhere. You see attractive young women who believe that their face and their body entitles them to status and position in society. They have much better employment options than Holly but they still expect the men who take them ought to pick up the tab and to give them gifts. And they ultimately expect to marry a man who makes considerably more money than they do.

They share another characteristic with Holly: they are very poor money managers. No matter how much they make, they spend money foolishly and irresponsibly.

One could argue that it is unfortunate that so much of modern woman hood is this way but that is not what David Thomson does. He argues that something that anyone who lives in a city can see every day does not exist and that is nonsense.

One more on this subject this afternoon.