Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies - Hadley Freeman

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for this self-obsessed stammerer, and he valiantly battles them away, except for the implausibly predatory teenage office intern who he is pretty much forced to sleep with; the women who are his age who want to sleep with him, on the other hand, are uniformly depicted as crazy, embarrassing and damaged (but not in a sexy way); at the office Christmas party the over-emotional woman turns up with her husband but after a conversation with the stammering man during which he repeatedly puts her down and mocks her ignorance of boring subjects like jazz and films about the Holocaust, she realises that he is the one for her; there is a showdown between the husband and the stammering man in the office, in which they run around the banks of desks and throw pencils at one another; everybody ends up exactly as they began and the stammerer continues to sleep with the teenage intern, raising the question what the point of this whole movie was anyway; the end.

      6 Rhetorical.

      7 Rhetorical.

      8 It is, in fact, a little like being a kept man or woman. If you want to make office life really exciting, pretend you’re Vivian in Pretty Woman and someone is paying you to spend time with them all day, albeit without the sex, the ‘big mistake’ shopping excursions or the rich partner who looks exactly like Richard Gere, which is the only kind of man who picks up hookers in LA. That’s a useful career tip, girls!

      9 Rhetorical.

      A day in your life in Daily Mail headlines

      ‘Not so glam now! Hadley dares to leave the house at 9 a.m. without any make-up.’ ‘Hadley enjoys the sun in a denim miniskirt – but how old is TOO OLD to flaunt one’s legs? Our top writers discuss.’ ‘Shadow or cellulite? Hadley flashes some unfortunate mottling as she gets on the bus.’ ‘Hadley wolfs down a croissant on the bus. Doesn’t she know all that sugar and fat cause cancer?’ ‘Tea for two? No, just one, actually: sad Hadley cuts a lonely figure as she buys just one cup of tea in the office canteen.’ ‘Hadley flaunts her bombshell curves as she walks to her desk.’ ‘As Hadley’s clothes struggle to contain her expanding figure we ask, why ARE rates of obesity for women rising?’ ‘Fashion faux pas! Hadley wears her favourite blue shoes for the THIRD day in a row. Doesn’t she know she should be supporting young British designers?’ ‘Lady in red! As Hadley dons a new red top studies show that women are TWICE as likely to go into debt from compulsive shopping than men.’ ‘As Hadley spends another morning in the office, a top vicar writes: “Feminism has forced women to deny their natural maternal desires and pushed them into the workplace with disastrous consequences for our society.”’

      ‘Hadley and mysterious friend eat their sandwiches outside – but is there more to this friendship than meets the eye?’ ‘Maybe choose a salad next time! This unflattering photo shows that Hadley would do better cutting down on the carbohydrates for a while.’ ‘Lunch or baby bump? That is quite a tummy bulge – will there be a little Hadley soon?’ ‘Hadley and male colleague talk about “work” at Hadley’s desk. Our resident body language expert analyses what their looks REALLY say.’ ‘Brain drain: Hadley has spent a total of seven hours in front of her laptop which, one doctor says, will “definitely” give her a brain tumour.’

      ‘Eating the pain away: Hadley turns to her favourite chocolate bar to help her get through another lonely afternoon.’ ‘What a difference two decades make! The summer sun shows how much Hadley’s skin has changed since this photo was taken twenty years ago.’ ‘Oh dear! Hadley changes into a pair of unflattering flat shoes for the commute home. Our style expert says a pair of four-inch nude heels would suit her heavy legs better.’ ‘Wash your hands! As Hadley gets the bus home, our tests prove that she will encounter over 10,000 germs on public transport, all of which can cause cancer.’ ‘House price horror: a top estate agent claims, “Single women like Hadley hogging flats that families need has had a crippling effect on the value of properties in neighbourhoods across Britain.”’ ‘As Hadley tries to drink her cares away with friends after work we ask, why ARE women reaching for the bottle so much these days?’ ‘Worse for wear, Hadley stumbles home after ANOTHER night out. But, warns a former self-described feminist, these not-so-young women will regret their selfish, irresponsible behaviour.’ ‘As unlucky in love Hadley goes to bed alone again, a top scientist estimates how many fertile years she has left – and you’ll be SHOCKED by the answer.’ ‘Lullabye baby? Hadley sleeps soundly which, one nurse says, is a common sign of the early stages of pregnancy.’

      Sex tips for smart ladies

      Woo, sex!

      Living, as we do, in such a sexually open and unrepressed society, pretty much every fetish is catered for in at least one medium or, more likely, all media. Heavily pregnant women, men dressed as babies, heavily pregnant women suckling men dressed as babies – images of whatever turns you on can be found in your newsagent, on your TV and on your computer at any time of the day, and you can enjoy them all in triple vision and, yes, I did only just resist writing ‘as a threesome’.

      Now, some might query whether we really do live in such a sexually unrepressed society. After all, they might say, one need only glance at the local multiplex to disprove this claim: when a movie featuring sex is seen as potentially more damaging to children’s minds than one that shows non-stop, consequence-free violence and is rated accordingly, then that country still needs to readjust its value system out of the Savonarola setting in which it appears to be stuck.

      Moreover, these perverted devil’s advocates could continue, when the ideal female body according to the celebrity world and the glossy magazine trade has about the same amount of body fat as an underfed child and the firm breasts of a Barbie doll, whose primary function is to have babies (‘IS JENNIFER ANISTON PREGNANT????’) but then to obliterate any physical sign on their body that they were ever pregnant as soon as they give birth (‘Nicole Kidman back in her jeans just three weeks after giving birth!’) in a manner not that dissimilar to societies that banish women to a special hut during menstruation (ew, women showing physical signs of being grown-up women that don’t involve men having sex with them – gross), that country cannot really then sneer at other cultures for their screwy attitudes to women and sex.

      And finally, the sexual deviants could conclude, the fact that sex is still such an object of obsession, used to advertise all manner of unsexy products from chewing gum to movies starring someone called Ryan Reynolds, when the cover of a recent Vanity Fair magazine10 celebrating how brilliant TV is these days depicted four talented actresses lying apparently naked in bed (because that’s how people watch brilliant TV, you know: mid-Sapphic orgy), this suggests that modern society isn’t quite so unrepressed as it likes to think. Taking away the taboo of sex might have taken away the stigma but did not lessen the fascination. Ubiquity of sexual imagery and references is not quite the same as sexual sophistication. In fact, some could say it is the diametric opposite.

      To these people I say, yeah, but have you seen the cover of GQ this week? Some chick from a TV show is wearing an unbuttoned men’s shirt – like she just had sex! And now can’t find her clothes! – and is pointing her finger at her mouth! I said, POINTING HER FINGER AT HER MOUTH! I wonder what else she’d like to put in her mouth, eh eh eh! Simone de Beauvoir WISHES she lived in such a sexually sophisticated time!

      Yet, amazingly, despite all the talk about sex, images of sex and songs about sex that form the backdrop to most people’s daily lives (it is literally impossible to get from your front door to your office in the mornings without bumping up against at least seventeen references to sex. FACT), some people are not having their sexual needs slaked. This is not a proper state of affairs. After all, if there’s one thing we all learned from John Updike it’s that an author can get a surprising number of critical accolades if he writes with his penis. And if there’s one other thing we learned from Updike it’s that everyone should feel free to express their sexual needs and fantasies (especially if those fantasies are about how your neighbour’s wife clearly wants to bang you, even though you look more imp than human).

      So it is time to attend to the needs of these poor,

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