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 SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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 Digging for gold... 
#4363917 - 07/02/05 05:36 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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I just recently arrived from a two-day trip to southern-central Montana, coming from the lovely Pacific Northwestern region.
It was a very, very beautiful ride. I drove through Idaho and Montana which were both magnificently scenic, and I particularly liked Montana the most. This state is easily one of the most scenic states I've ever had the pleasure of visiting, with mountains everywhere, valleys upon valleys, curiously colorful rocky formations and massively-looming sky. Yes, they really mean it when they call it the "Big Sky" country.
In one of the rest areas, which was nearby a historical landmark - a goldmine - had a wooden sign with a brief description of the history of that goldmine. It spoke of the founding gold-digger and how he found the help of the locals to open it up, which eventually became such a sucess that the disappointed "pike-peakers" and others from the expired western gold-rush came to that site as well.
Two or so days later, I'm having a conversation with my mother about one of her acquaintances from her work, whom she referred to as a "gold-digger".
Evidently, this Korean lady at about 30 years of age married another man, supposedly because he is very financially stable, has a well-paying career and so on.
Immediately thereafter, I asked, "Well, couldn't it be that perhaps she's simply a slightly more exaggerated version of the old-fashioned type of lady such as ones in the early/mid-century [or earlier if you know your history] who would be encouraged to marry such a man of stability?"
The answer was "No, no.. she's just a gold digger."
I thought about it, and kept to myself. The specific aspect of such labeling-processes that I thought about most, was the emphasis on negativity.
When I compared the "negative" label placed on a woman called "Gold digger", to that of what seems to be painted as a more positive, and perhaps even more respectable label of "Gold digger" on a man who spent much of his life in a cave deep in the mountains, inspecting rocks after rocks, filtering water with screens for golden flakes... It seemed strikingly unfair and irrational.
Let's be honest, is the man who digged the mountains for gold really any more "respectable" than the woman who shared the same goal, only she used the filter of her own concepts to filter out her possible marriage candidates to screen out the ones who wouldn't be able to offer her a stable and secure life, and possibly her future child[ren]?
Isn't it fair to say that BOTH are doing what is ALL a part of Human Nature?
Don't we ALL do some form of "gold-digging"?
But of course.
Now... excuse me, while I dig.
-picks nose-
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Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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 exclusive58
illegal alien
Registered: 04/16/04 
Posts: 2,146
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
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"gold digger"
is that like an expression for women who try to find a wealthy man and marry him?
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OldWoodSpecter
waiting
Registered: 02/01/05
Posts: 4,033
Loc: mountains and lakes
Last seen: 17 years, 6 months
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Re: Digging for gold... [Re: exclusive58]
#4364075 - 07/02/05 06:23 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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yea that's the expression
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I descend upon your earth from the skies
I command your very souls you unbelievers
Bring before me what is mine
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly
Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,689
Loc: On the Border
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You said the woman was Korean. Having been to Korea, I know that Koreans put some emphasis on material success as a whole. Many people criticise Koreans for this. Your mother could be expressing a wee bit of racial prejudice.
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"A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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exclusive58
illegal alien
Registered: 04/16/04
Posts: 2,146
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
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in that case i'd be kind of ashamed to be one of those gold diggers, it would be hard to live with the fact that you married someone because of the money.
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OldWoodSpecter
waiting
Registered: 02/01/05
Posts: 4,033
Loc: mountains and lakes
Last seen: 17 years, 6 months
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Re: Digging for gold... [Re: exclusive58]
#4364114 - 07/02/05 06:32 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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marrying for money is not so much worse than merrying for sexual attraction, but reasons are for satisfying some lower primal impulses (power, fear, lust) yet many do that, and think they love each other, but actually that "love" will pass when they get old and ugly.
What I really think is noble is marriage out of love, like two inseparable friends that really care for each other... and have sex too.
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I descend upon your earth from the skies
I command your very souls you unbelievers
Bring before me what is mine
Edited by OldWoodSpecter (07/02/05 06:33 PM)
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Many people criticise Koreans for this. Your mother could be expressing a wee bit of racial prejudice.
Well, Hue, considering my mother's culturally eclectic mixture of friends, I sincerely doubt racism is the case here. If only I could show the absurdity of thinking such a thing.. but that's okay. You had limited input.
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Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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Diploid
Cuban
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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I think the negative connotation comes from the idea that a Gold Digger woman is marrying for money and not for love; in the case of the man, it's just a job and love doesn't figure into it. Would your mother's friend have married this guy if he was poor?
Turn it around. How would you regard a male acquaintance if you came into a large amount of money and found him to suddenly become very chummy with you? He could also be called a Gold Digger, but in the negative sense.
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Republican Values:
1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you.
2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child.
3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer.
4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Re: Digging for gold... [Re: Diploid]
#4365533 - 07/03/05 04:27 AM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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I think the negative connotation comes from the idea that a Gold Digger woman is marrying for money and not for love;
Understood.
But what of women who won't pull an extreme, Anna-Nicole-Smith shenanigan.. but also won't ever marry someone who makes less than 100k a year?
They simply have a different filter for their candidates, than others... and I think it is common knowledge that everybody has some sort of filtering process in their romantic pursuits.
My aim was towards the pathological dichotomization of the filtering processes that everybody has, one way or another...
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Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly
Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,689
Loc: On the Border
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"Well, Hue, considering my mother's culturally eclectic mixture of friends"
Everyone harbors racist thoughts....there are those who admit it and then move beyond it...and those who suppress it. The racial mixes of your mother's friends is irrelevant. The us and them attitude is universal. In any case, your mother harbors some problem because why does she even give a shit who someone who. There are resentments being expressed here. Marrying someone for financial security is considered a wise move in my book as long as the person also is a good person who would make a good spouse. Ask your mother if she would have married a man who was in line at the hope center or at a soup kitchen. Many homeless people are good people with no money and poor financial sense. Did she jump at the chance to marry one?
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"A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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