* This blog is dedicated to the bich (oh yes, I KNOW I spelled it wrong!), moderators at TWOP. Without Strenga et AL, I'd be happily posting-away along with the best of them. Unfortunately, TWOP is a little too heavy-handed, high-falootin' and downright unfriendly.
*(added 2011)-Amended to mean Strega's Real Housewives forum(s) and of course those Bravo Blogs that eat your comments w/o posting them. I still visit TWOP for the best snark.


*(Added April 30th, it has come to my attention that some of the rumors posted on this blog are definitely FALSE. Most rumors are clearly labeled as such, but in case I missed any, please keep that in mind)

Friday, July 22, 2011

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...and then You Have-A Gay-Old time?



Is Bravo trying to tell us something?
The reason I ask, is because the idea of Ramona seriously believing that she is pregnant at her age, well that's one thing. First of all-its Ramona, and second of all, any one person could be a little deluded about her health.
(Ask my own doctor. He treated me for rabbit-fever just because I insisted that I had been exposed).
This is why God invented reality-checks, and friends to give them to us! (NOT phony pregnancy-tests!)
But what happens in the world-of Reality television?
Sonja plays-along! Why do I have the strange feeling that this is not the first time that Sonja has administered an impossible pregnancy test?
Maybe this is why she was elected to be the Grand Marshal of the Gay Parade????
So maybe Ramona was really having a flight-of-fantasy, and maybe she just happened to pick the one person who would get completely sucked-into it right along with her?
But I don't think so.
And I apologize in-advance for imagining that this is some kind-of homosexual party-game. I know that I don't play games like this with my friends who also happen to be gay,  so I'm really stereo-typing Sonja here, and trying to guess in what culture would this make sense.
The only culture that I could even remotely see myself acting-like Sonja in this situation really, is the, (again-sorry for ignorantly applying a stereo-type to try and make it fit a cultural group, I'm trying to figure-out, "Who does this?", "Where would this fly?"),-locked-ward in a hospital. Why Sonja's and Ramona's behavior here makes me think of something that mental-patients would do to entertain themselves-I don't know either. Acting really goofy and out-of-touch with reality is just what I imagine could go-on between heavily-medicated people who supposedly define the word "crazy", but maybe that's not as much fun as I would like to imagine.
I think that someone wanted The Real Housewives of New York City to act-out a scene from The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and All in the Family to name a few.
Is Reality-television seeded-with people who are acting like actors? Was this scenario a joke played-on us AND Bravo by Ramona, Sonja, and Mario? Just like what StoopidHousewife.com suggested could be the case with the entire Gorga-Giudice- feud? A little conspiracy-of-drama?


Ultimately, the joke is on women. And I really didn't find it to be funny or cute.
Women in Ramona's age-group have been lied-to about these things for years and it never was really that funny-was it?
Did you hear the one about how using The Pill to prevent unplanned pregnancy enables a woman to "save her eggs" for when she is ready?
(umm, except it is not true, and an entire generation is not here thanks to lies like that!)
I have a question for Ramona Singer. She said that she was able to have other children besides Avery and that she regrets that she didn't, does that mean that she used prevention/protection?
The reason I ask is because I have to assume by those statements that she made that she did, and seeing her general ignorance about how these things work, I want to know if she knows that women using hormonal birth-control, don't get their periods.
Because that would be TWO health and medical dis-informations that Bravo has insulted people with in one episode.
(One--that it is even possible for someone Ramona's age to have an "ooopsie", and Two--that people using hormonal birth-control or, "the pill", have periods.)
Ramona is even going to tell Andy that she is "having her period" during the reunion. Sorry Ramona---it doesn't work both ways. If you prevented pregnancy with hormonal birth-control as you allude-to, you just don't get periods. You bleed because the pills tell your body to bleed but it is not a menstrual cycle.
I'm going to ask myself WWJS? (What Would Jill Say), here, and say, that if I were Jill, my diagnoses would be that IF Ramona is really this confused/ignorant, the only way that that could reasonably happen is IF Ramona was/ is on "The Pill", or hormonal birth-control, which mimics a woman's natural menstrual-cycle. THAT is the only way that I know-of to explain someone "missing"-menopause.
I would also use the word "malpractice" applied-to any physician or pharmacist who would allow such ignorance about a patient's health to persist.
What message is Bravo sending here? Is it all a joke? Folly? I have to hope that by "jumping the shark" in such a ridiculous manner, that Bravo is trying to tell us without telling us-exactly that.
The sad reality is that there are too many people suffering the consequences of medical and fertility misinformation right now. If Bravo is trying to tell people to "lighten-up", that's fine and there's always room for silly, but what it looks-like to me is more-like Bravo is helping to take the "informed" out-of "informed decisions".
Ramona may very well have a young-for-her-age uterus, but her eggs are way-past their expiration date, unless she has had them removed from her body and stored in a freezer. (and I don't care what science says, time marches-on frozen, or NOT!, so I would only recommend that option if someone had to have them removed  for some reason and don't wait too long to use them).
How long is "too long", realistically?
Maybe you should ask Jill Zarin if you really don't know? (If you notice Jill refused to go-along with this. Her credibility with me just keeps increasing now that the "I-Hate-Jill"-spell has been broken).
You know what? I'm going to be guilty of weaseling like I've accused Bravo-of here, but women really do have a lot of different circumstances among ourselves, so I agree that it is a personal decision and choice.
I will let you all in on a conversation that I eavesdropped-on a couple-of decades-ago. I was shocked at what I heard being said at that time, but now in hindsight, I think they were speaking with wisdom.
30.
(*This post is becoming pretty long for only having one picture to look-at, but I think that its worth adding here that I was a fly-on-the-wall for that nugget in a pharmacy, and the discussion was being whispered behind-the-back of Jerry Lewis's current wife at-the-time, who had just exited the store with a home-pregnancy-test, which later proved to be negative.)
If you are over-thirty and reading this, DON'T PANIC! You still have a little bit of time. (very little)
Do you know that there is a Latin medical term for pregnant women over Thirty?
Its something horrible-sounding like "Senile Elderly Gravida".
They will write that in YOUR medical chart momma, if you are thirty-ish and preggo.
OH-and if you are Bethenny's age, (over 40), and you somehow find yourself "in-the-family-way", that is considered remarkable/unusual to say the least, but if you are Bethenny's age and trying to get pregnant, if it doesn't just happen, please do not refer to that as "infertility".
"Infertility" is a condition that some women, (and men), struggle-with when they are at an age when one would normally be considered "fertile".
People of Bethenny's age are not considered to be fertile, so there is no "infertility" to be had.
They have simply aged-out of their fertile years, and frankly whatever the Latin-term is for "miracle", and very, very fortunate and lucky to give birth to a perfectly healthy child is what you would find or at least read-between-the-lines on Bethenny's chart. (along-with that scary Latin diagnoses).
Is it fair to women to perpetrate the disinformation? Ask a 45-year old woman who "forgot" to have children.
So I'm sticking-with 30. That's my answer and it may be shocking and scary to some, but it could be a wake-up call to a few late 20-somethings and 30-somethings.
Over-50? Ask your doctor, ask your mother, or ask Jill if you don't believe me. But don't ask Ramona or Sonja, or Bravo.
I'm pretty sure that they have had all-of the children that they plan on having and they obviously don't care about anyone else.
I have one other question for Ramona, if her daughter Avery waits 'till she is fifty-four, (Ramona's current age),  to have children, (and even-then I think it would be scientifically/medically discouraged at that age), how old would Ramona be when she welcomes her first grand-baby?
I'm going to do-the-math, just in case Ramona is also challenged in mathematics and because I want to know.
Congratulations Ramona!
92.
If Ramona  and Sonja want to (wait), to be a grandmother 'till 92, well then God Bless them I guess is all I can say.
I'm sure they'll be the best-looking 92-year-old grandmas around...(ok-now I'm getting my facetious on but I think I've proved my point here?)
It is waaaay too late for Ramona to seriously consider giving-birth again. (I'm sure that there are exceptions, but I'm talking-about mostly/all 54-year-old women in general).
It is so ridicoulous, that maybe Bravo assumed that we would ALL be in-on the joke?
I don't know who said it first, but I'm pretty sure that someone has already said, "never underestimate the ignorance of your audience"-(unknown)
Like that old Larry Bud Melman skit on David Letterman, sometimes you just have to come-out and say what you mean. "Don't eat paste!"-(Larry Bud Melman), and while I'm at-it with the quotes, "There's a sucker born every minute."-(P.T. Barnum)
And that is why Bravo is so far past the due-date with a clear and understandable disclaimer.
I get it Bravo-I want to laugh with you, not at you. But like Jill, I cannot play-along when the future is at stake.
If Ramona and Sonja are comfortable with waiting 'till they are in the ninth decade of life before they see their own grand-babies, that's their choice.
But please don't take that (informed)-choice away from myself, or others, due to what I perceive as propaganda disguised as humor, for those of us who know-better, and tragic-disinformation for those who do not.
To end this rant on a happier-note, I'll use another quote that I heard on the (FM) radio this morning. Its a little piece of advice, from my future grand-children to yours if you're so-inclined to wish for them, "Lets dance, Lets dance, We may not get another chance..."(-classic rock).